Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? How do you keep things going – any advice for entrepreneurs who feel like they can’t step away from their business for a short vacation?

I do take vacations, it is so important for my art work! Both the business and art world want us to work work work but I need to play and explore, and relax. Most if not all of my vacations are planned with art and inspiration seeking in mind.

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?

I started as an illustrator, receiving my BFA in Illustration from SCAD. I worked in the field for a while, illustrating greeting cards, magazine articles, whatever I could find, really without much success. Through my love of figure painting I always held onto my fine art practice. Eventually that interest brought me back to painting, I started taking workshops, working with oil paint. At the same time my parents had moved to Crested Butte and my mom had opened an art gallery, and was selling her photography along with other local art. So eventually I came to check out Crested Butte, and it has been great! It has been such a creative environment and supportive community, I teach art classes, I’ve had two solo gallery shows art the Center for The Arts, I’ve started doing art shows and festivals, and I have a couple pieces of public art around town.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I think art is about learning all the lessons and then unlearning them, you need to know the rules so you can test them and break them in the right way.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The fine art world is tough, you have to be resilient! Art should not please everyone so it can take a while for your work to find its place in the world and there is a lot of rejection on the way. I have found it’s good to just keep the ball rolling, keep applying for shows and programs so that but the time you get a rejection letter you are more excited about something else.

Contact Info:

• Website: Sarahkschmidt.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: @sarah_kat_art
• Other: Bluesky: @sarah-kat-art

Image Credits
Nolan Blunck, portrait photo