We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sarah Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My work is a response to my personal experiences of my home region in the Midwest. I see life as preparation for the way I paint and the work I am currently making. Even though my connection to the small town farm culture that shaped me as I grew up played a major role in how I approach these works, I believe it can speak to people from a variety of places and experiences. I use my paintings as a way to honor my own regional history which I will always tie to my upbringing in north Missouri.

I’m realizing that while this body of work started as a way to deal with the homesickness I felt after leaving my childhood hometown to pursue an MFA degree in an urban setting, it has become a way of creating some strange kind of souvenir of the places I left and the structures and things I knew most intimately. Even though I eventually took a job back in my home region, I’ve come to understand that in many ways, I’ll never be home again.

This distance does, however, allow me to really see my home and be aware of my new role as a visitor in a way I wouldn’t be able to otherwise. My pride and passion for the rural Midwest remains as strong as it ever was, but now that comes through in my paintings like a witness’ perspective. Each time I return home to visit family, I notice more and more store fronts are empty along our Main Street. The rate of entropy on places that seemed so grand and central to my town is surprising.

I’m aware of how, over time, ways of life shape and define people and the places in which they live. Making these paintings helps me consider whether disappearance can be meaningful. And if so, in what way it’s meaningful for my home community and for myself. I’m considering where I’ll find “home” again and where I can “go back” to.

All places acquire layers of history. I’m hopeful that the shift I’m observing in my hometown is a cycle that has occurred before in one way or another. Maybe it looks different to a current resident than a visitor.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I grew up in a tiny town in north Missouri. The population was just over 4,000. In fact, it had the only large grocery store in a 30-mile (as in 30 miles of pasture and cropland) radius. Even though no one in my family or community was an artist, I have had a strong interest in it since I was a kid and knew I wanted to focus my life in that direction. Eventually, I moved to The DFW area to pursue my MFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of North Texas. That was my first time living in a city. After a very difficult year or so of trying to adjust and making somewhat hollow work, I made this serendipitous decision to just paint what I knew best since I felt like I didn’t know anything in my new surroundings. It was comforting to not only address imagery of my home but also to let my mind wander to those places and memories while I painted.

Years later, I ended up moving back to Missouri for a job at Missouri State University as a Professor of Painting and Drawing. I never thought I would live in my home state again. True, Springfield is quite large and on the other end of the state than where I grew up, but the geography, the structures, the atmosphere and pace of life is much more natural to me than what I came to know in Texas. It was only after living here again for a little while that I realized the real purpose of the work I had been making in Texas. It was to deal with my homesickness. I guess I could feel it but I couldn’t articulate it at that time. That realization gave me an entirely different perspective and understanding of how I use and address imagery.

It’s been over 20 years since I moved away from my home town. Through all the years and experiences I’ve had of living in bigger places, traveling to different countries and interacting with different people with other home experiences, I have gained a perspective that has changed the way I see and relate to my home town. I wouldn’t be able to make the work I’m making if I hadn’t left. I wouldn’t be able to see it and understand it without the perspectives I now have.

I find my studio practice is the backbone of my role on campus and as a mentor to young artists. I’m constantly fighting to find the balance between my responsibilities to my university and my studio. I share this with my students as I’ve become increasingly invested in discussing with them career possibilities in the arts and the skill sets needed to be successful in their professional lives. This is something I incorporate into my upper-level courses, individual studies courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level and for which I wrote specific curriculum for a graduate level “Professional Practice for Studio Artist” course. The course emphasizes the theoretical and practical aspects of succeeding as a practicing artist in the studio, academic setting and larger art world by incorporating guest lecturers, field trips and discussion. Speakers range from practicing artists, professionals working at artist residencies, galleries/museums and in academia to attorneys and financial advisors.

I’m proud of my personal research accomplishments that include having my work exhibited in galleries and museums in locations including New York, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and San Francisco and being accepted to participated in artist residency programs such as Willapa Bay AiR, Millay Colony for the Arts, The Studios of Key West Residency Program, Ucross Foundation Residency Program and Vermont Studio Center. I’m equally proud of my ability to serve as a mentor and see past and present students succeed in various capacities that range from having work accepted to juried exhibitions, getting into graduate programs, having major international exhibitions and landing jobs that they find fulfilling. I know how important my mentors were to me in my career and I’m focused on being able to provide guidance for those starting out in this field now.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I believe all artists and creatives have some level of inherent grit. I always knew on some level I would create a life for myself that revolved around the arts. But having grown up in a rural area where I had little access to fine art, I wasn’t sure what that would look like. I actually put myself through school on an athletic scholarship and credit that with my work ethic which continues to be crucial to my practice today.

As a graduate student and TA, this work ethic I had been refining over the years helped me through tough spots when there seemed to be too few hours in a week to accomplish all that needed to be done. But it served me the best when I graduated with my MFA and had to piece together multiple jobs on top of my young studio practice to make financial ends meet. The last few years before I was hired into a tenure track position, I taught as an adjunct at 3 different universities and colleges in the Dallas area during the week and worked at a golf course on the weekends. I painted in any open time and/or nights I had available.

Work ethic combined with the idea of delayed gratification are important skills to learn. As my experiences grew, my vision of what kind of life and career I wanted continued to develop. I identified the steps I thought it would take to achieve them and slowly started to put the pieces in place. I knew hard work, dedication and periods of difficult times when money and time were tight would be part of it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist making the particular work I do is my ability to highlight the region of the country that I call home. I’m aware that many consider the Midwest a “flyover” territory. I’ve alway had an incredible regional pride and feel the need to not only “speak” about its unique and interesting aspects but also pay homage to the place that I feel shaped me as a person. My hometown has and continues to be incredibly supportive of my endeavors. I pretend that by making these paintings, which often are moderate in scale and require a viewer to walk in close to them, I’m trying to create some sort of sympathetic magic that will bring more people to my home town to support the commerce that is waning there and ultimately will cause the deterioration of this area.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahwilliams-paintings.com
• Instagram: @__swilliams__