We recently connected with Sarah More and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?
I’ve had so many kind people help guide and mentor me on my path, but my sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Mitchell was one of the first people, besides my parents to push me toward becoming who I am today. I started my sixth-grade year at a new school, and as an introverted kid with social anxiety, I was terrified of this new environment. Mrs. Mitchell quickly recognized my obsession with making art (and my anxiety and shyness) and took it upon herself to nurture my interests. It wasn’t something she had to do, she had 24 other kids to worry about, but she was kind enough to let me hang out inside during recess, where she taught me calligraphy and let me draw. She took me to visit Will Vinton Studios (now Laika Studios) to meet all the animators and see behind the scenes of the projects they were working on. She was the first to tell me to try working with gouache, a material I use almost exclusively today. Her impact has carried me 34+ years later, and I am forever grateful to her for all the kindness she showed me.
Sarah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Sarah More and I’m an abstract painter based in Seattle, Washington. My work is inspired by textiles, the decorative arts, the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s and 80s, nature, and the built environment. As an undergraduate, I studied textile design where I learned surface pattern design, weaving, and silkscreening. I often grab shapes and colors from my family history and my daily walks, patchworking them together to create color-filled, kaleidoscopic paintings.
I knew I wanted to be an artist from a young age and grew up in a very creative family. My parents always nurtured my interests, and my sisters and I were raised in an environment where our creative pursuits were always encouraged and respected. I studied textile design in college and went on to study drawing in the fiber department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. During the summers while in school I worked at various factory jobs in the small town where my parents lived at the time. When I finished my education, I went on to teach art history in rural Pennsylvania and then moved to NYC in 2007 to work as a studio assistant for Takashi Murakami. All of these experiences, from my formal education and my childhood to my time in manufacturing and production management play into the work I make today and the way I run my studio.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In April of 2022, my husband and I decided to pack up our house in central Oregon and move to Seattle. We knew that as creative people, we would have more opportunities in a bigger city and we were stoked on the idea of working together as a single, creative force. Our plan was to go after larger projects as a team since we had worked on a mural for Meta together earlier that year and fell in love with the process. We are both very creative people (his background is in furniture and architectural design) and we were excited about our future. In October of that same year we were on track to make these big dreams become our reality when I got the call that he was in the ICU with a severe traumatic brain injury from an accident. We had so many plans to join forces in our creative endeavors but at that point, everything stopped. My focus shifted from my business to doing all the things needed in order to help him through his long and uncertain recovery. I was overwhelmed with grief, anger and more paperwork than I could fathom. I wasn’t sure how to do any of the financial stuff required to run our household and my studio, because he had always taken care of these things for us. At the time of the accident, I had been working a part time job that I had to quit in order to care for him full time. Everything felt upside down, and even almost two years later, he is still recovering. We aren’t sure what the future looks like for us but to say we had to pivot was an understatement. The whole ordeal has made me realize that asking for help is ok, and that not many things are more important than your health. I have a more solid understanding of my own business and work simply because I had to learn to do many of the more difficult tasks myself.
Despite all of this pain, my work became my salvation in many ways during this time. I’d go to my studio and lay on the floor and just cry my eyes out and then open my sketchbook and start drawing. I threw myself into painting when I wasn’t visiting him at the hospital. I’d doodle and make notes for future paintings during long hours spent on the phone on hold trying to get answers from insurance companies about his care. We had so many friends and family members show up for us, whether it was to cook or clean or take the dog out, and all of this enabled me to finish the paintings I’d already started for my first solo show in the spring of 2023 with Zinc contemporary. The work I created for that exhibition evolved from the feelings I felt before his accident and the feelings I felt during the aftermath. From the joy and hope that comes with new beginnings to the anger and confusion and sadness I felt after his accident, the work itself became my story of joy and sorrow and hope and grief. I paint as my job, but it also helps me calm my mind and sort out my emotions. I’m not sure how I would have survived the emotional rollercoaster of the last two years without it.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
There are so many rewarding aspects of being an artist, but I think the freedom it’s allowed me, has been priceless. Being an artist is not a career path for those who require constant stability and calm. If you want to be an artist, you have to be willing to take lots of risks (professionally, personally, and financially) and if you aren’t willing to do that, you better get out of the way because there will always be somebody waiting in the wings to grab what you didn’t. It’s taken me 20+ years and thousands of disappointments to get to where I am now, and even then I still have major imposter syndrome. There is nothing better than the freedom of waking up every day knowing that I get to make the rules for myself. It also means that I have a lot on my shoulders, but I have the ability to work when I want, where I want, and it’s really hard to put a price on that. It’s awesome to not have to answer to anyone but my clients and collectors.
I’m also really proud that I have nieces and nephews who want to work in the arts when they grow up; being able to show them that it’s possible (with a lot of dedication and discipline) really makes it all worthwhile.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sarahhelenmore.com/
- Instagram: @sarahhelenmore
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-more-4093132a9/
Image Credits
The Color Group
Bill More