After graduating from a MA in Textile Design at Chelsea College of Art with a scholarship from Sheepdrove Trust. Sarah was awarded the DYCP grant from Arts Council England to continue developing her art practice and research.
Her work begins with cultural and historical research which explores little known women through history who have been physically engaged in warfare, rebellions or acts of aggression against oppressors. Using this information, she creates dynamic art quilts representing them.
Using techniques such as appliqué and quilting on repurposed material she creates textile work which raises awareness of forgotten women’s histories.
She enjoys working with textiles as they make her research easily accessible to a wide variety of people and have less formal artistic connotations. She is also interested in using the dichotomy of comforting quilts, made with traditional craft skills that are labelled as feminine, to represent women who were associated with violence.
She uses her skills to make contemporary textile art that can open up conversations about what these things can represent now and have represented in the past, especially for women.
Her research begins at the British Library and Museums across the UK to view artefacts that were part of these women’s lives and cultures. Sarah takes inspiration from this when designing using symbols and shapes to convey information in an uncomplicated way.
Now part way through her project she will be displaying how she has worked through the design and making process so far. Exhibiting preliminary drawings, paper design mock ups and in progress art quilts.
Sarah has exhibited at Copeland Gallery and Craft Central in London.