Sarah – profile of an artist

Life is art. Reality seared into dreams. For Sarah Johnstone life began sweetly with a Forres upbringing that lead to art studies in Liverpool and a BA in Design Practice specialising in Fashion at Salford. However, life also has a much darker side that reveals its true nature. Sarah’s art tracks the course of a happy, if spirited, childhood through a shattered and reconstructed existence from which she has wrestled back control to discover and rediscover important truths. The deaths of a child and a fiancée, separation, family sickness, alienation and ill health have provided the counterpoint of ten traumatic years. Reassessing a whole way of thinking, being able to believe in survival and discussing the real meaning of friends and friendship have resulted in a restored sense of pride, vision about what exists without and within, determination and renewed ability to turn inner feelings into positive expressions. This is Sarah’s contemporary hallmark. “I’m lucky I’m creative,” she says. “I’m lucky I can use art to vent and turn my feelings into something that I think is visually beautiful, striking and powerful.” Her work is impressive, collectable, memorable and combines the art of seduction with the abstract and dramatic. Her goal is to empower people, lift their day, emphasise and give them something fine and positive to remember. Both masculine and feminine Sarah's work is dark & demanding but with the power of her somewhat childlike naivity at play, it shows her honesty & depth of character. The cryptic nature of her work entices you to decipher and discover your own interpretations while it may be obvious as a picture, her message is there to be found by your own feelings. For Sarah, art is her life – plus the love of her two daughters, without whom she says, she would no longer draw breath.

Velocity Associates Oct 2014.