Alpha Interviews: Sara Woster
Sara Woster is a writer, painter, illustrator and animator who has exhibited her work around the world and has illustrated several children's books. She has received grants from the Jerome Foundation and the Brooklyn Arts Council and is the founder of The Painting School. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Artist working
When did you know you wanted to be an artist?
I come from a family of writers, journalists and English teachers so maybe turning to visual art was a lame act of rebellion. But ever since I was little I would ask for gift cards for the local bookstore because they had a shelf with drawing supplies and I would buy paper, pencils and paint. At first I did a lot of copying from magazines until I hit high school where I was lucky enough to have a very passionate art teacher and attend a public school in a school system that valued arts education enough to fund a well-stocked art room.
Discussion of educational background/training as an artist
I studied painting at the University of Minnesota, which, at the time, was very old school and we did traditional foundation classes, lots of life drawing and color theory classes, which, ironically, I flunked. The teachers were all abstract expressionists so I struggled a bit to find myself artistically. But my senior year I did a study abroad in Greece where I had my first studio and was able to study lot of Greek iconography and mythology and my work started to come together.
Girl in the woods
Who nurtured your journey in becoming an artist? Who resisted?
I come from a pretty incredible family as far as supporting weird career paths goes. My brother is a screenwriter and stand up comedian, my sister manages a small theater. We are kind of useless but our parents don't seem to expect us to be otherwise. My dad is from a very musical and bookish family and my mom was a librarian and is an amazing quilt maker. So music, books, and making art were a big deal in our house and yet also just part of everyday life. My dad would play his guitar while watching the Minnesota Vikings, my mom would be quilting and watching Hill Street Blues. They always had music going. Art was integrated into our lives in a seamless way. And even though I grew up in a small town in South Dakota my parents let me take arts classes at the small arts center and later they encouraged me to study fine art in college.
What is the source of your inspiration for work (source images, literature, daily life, politics, etc)?
Anything and everything. I read a ton and I am influenced by any number of books, right now some s stuff from Montaigne about being human. I kind of just digest everything and some of it winds up in my work. Dreams, images, art, history, memories. I keep a folder on my desktop called 'scrap' and it is always filled with debris from the internet. Currently, there are a lot of images of the man who had to announce that JFK died on TV, something about his face haunts me. Lots of images of Matisse's chapel in Vence. I'm currently obsessed with the image of the last lion in the Atlas mountains. Children's collages. I am currently looking at a lot of 18th century French tapestry and ceramic artists, especially Jean Lucrat. I am obsessed with his color palette. I also teach painting and I take a lot of inspiration from the artists in my painting classes.
Snakes in a storm
What is your preferred medium? Why?
Acrylic paint because of the speed that I can paint over things.
What about (painting/sculpture/photography/collage/mixed media) instills in you a desire to create?
I'm a painter so painting is what I do. Its not about desire, its who I am.
What determines the scale of your work (large or small)?
Reality is what determines the scale. If I can afford a studio and lots of paint, I paint larger. If I am painting on my dining room table I paint smaller.
Do you work on multiple pieces at one time or do you focus on one until completion?
Many, many, many canvases at once.
For painters, what informs your color palette?
My mood primarily. Or, I will fixate on one color like I am currently into Golden acrylic's fluorescent pink. Again, my current color choices go back to Jean Lucrat.
Which artists have inspired you?
Manet, Vuillard, Matisse, Kerry James Marshall, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Tala Madani, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Have there been key inflection points in your career (a burst of creativity, a traumatic experience that influenced your work, a meaningful artist in residence program)?
Any time I get a period of time where I can focus for multiple days without interruption is an inflection point. I have two kids and I have to work so those periods are incredibly rare, but completely priceless to me.