Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Curl-Larson.
Sarah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve loved making art for as long as I can remember. I think my family has a natural inclination for it; my grandma was an oil painter and ran a small candle shop out of her home, and I would spend hours getting lost in her studio and all of her boxes of knick knacks and materials. My dad is a talented woodworker as well, so my whole life everyone around me has always been making something with their hands. My parents enrolled me in art classes as a kid where I was basically given free reign with oil paints, which is kind of crazy to think about now.
I went to University of Michigan’s School of Art and Design, which really taught me to push the boundaries with a conceptualization of my work. However, I experienced a creative block in my sophomore year and ended up graduating with a degree in history and a minor in anthropology, which has been hugely influential to my work as well. It was after I graduated that I picked up a brush again and started transforming these ideas that were freshly packed into my head about the human experience, our relationships with nature and with our relationships with our pasts, into paintings, and my current body of work was born.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Creativity is a tricky thing. It’s definitely a muscle that needs to be exercised, and I’ve experienced some pretty significant creative blocks that have lasted for years. It’s usually been while I have had something else major going on in my life, like college or working multiple jobs, that painting gets put on the back burner and I stop asking myself, “ok, what am I going to paint next?”
Being an artist can also be very discouraging. It’s really hard to not get recognition for your work, to not get the attention from galleries you would like to show with or sell your work as much you want. The industry is very cut-throat so you have to have thick skin.
We’d love to hear more about your art.
I am a fine artist, so my work consists of thinking of something I want to paint, and then executing it onto canvas. It’s pretty straight-forward in that way, but there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that you may not realize. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in the art world around me, specifically with other artists and galleries that inspire me and continue to push myself to be better.
There is also a lot that goes into the business aspect of what I do. I run an Etsy shop, so I do a lot of packing and shipping, placing orders, taking inventory, etc. I have to market myself, so getting out there and talking to people and posting on social media are very important.
I’m proud of where I’ve come in the art world. I’d like to think I have a unique voice and style as an artist, though I know I still have so much further to go in developing my work.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
This is kind of funny because I think my proudest moment as an artist has been when I won my senior year art exhibition in high school. I put so much work into my portfolio that year and came up with this very eye-catching and colorful body of work that I called, “ Altered States of Mind.” Nothing has yet paled the elation I felt for being recognized by my peers for that.
Pricing:
- Prints $25
- Originals from $20-$1000
Contact Info:
- Website: Tinselrage.etsy.com
- Email: scurllars88@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/tinselrage
- Facebook: Facebook.com/sarahcurllarsonart
Image Credit:
D Magazine (personal photo)
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