Using art as means of understanding and sharing her life story, artist Sara Slee Brown combines digital photography and collage. Visit her website to see more of her work.
“Bohicket Creek Diner” Collage on Canvas, 36” x 27”
It has taken me a lifetime to gather my wits, time, and experience, put them together, and finally express myself through my artwork.
“Lace” Collage on Canvas, 27” x 36”
As a child, student, young wife and mother I focused on the needs of others and doing what was expected of me. I have no rebellious streak but I do have artistic talent and a deep need to express myself through it. Over the years this need had idled while others have been fulfilled.
“College Street Diner” Collage on Canvas, 36” x 27”
I have raised two children, mostly single-handedly, while my husband pursued his calling in medicine. Choices and promises that I made as a young woman proved to be extremely difficult to honor at times. The unexpected consequences of commitments and choices can be easy or difficult to handle.
“Back Porch” Collage on Canvas, 20” x 20”
The unknown elements are always the most challenging to understand and resolve. Just as the kids were on their own and I began to think about creating some art, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The treatment for this included surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for the next year. It was a difficult, scary time.
“Night Call” Collage on Canvas, 36” x 27”
Ten years ago, I retired as graphic designer for the public library and began to seriously pursue my dream of a career as an artist. As an undergraduate and graduate student in painting, I had been trained in the traditional methods and my early work had been oil on canvas.
“October Night” Collage on Canvas, 36” x 48”
After working as a digital graphic designer at the library, I developed methods for combining and layering digital images in my computer with the eye and sensitivity of an oil painter. I developed my own method for constructing my current work that I call:
LāDi: Layered Digital Imaging.
- Digital photographs are combined, layered and edited in the computer to produce a design
- The design is printed onto archival paper using an inkjet printer.
- The paper images are cut and glued onto the canvas or wood.
- The finished collage is coated by hand with four to five coats of archival acrylic varnish to create a lustrous finish which protects the paper from water, dirt and UV light.
“Moon Rise Diner” Collage on Canvas, 48” x 36”
My work explores choices and promises that we make in life. It is an exercise in exploring the known versus the unknown; patience, waiting; the fear and excitement of thresholds and transitions.
“Shem Creek” Collage on Canvas, 48” x 36”
The work begins with something familiar and real. This represents the known. Over, around and through this foundation I add other images or fragments of images that are not so easily identified.
“Tangerine” Collage on Canvas, 20” x 20”
When combined with the familiar, they create a new reality which may not be as easily understood but nevertheless exists—a new perspective.
“River Gothic” Collage on Canvas, 20” x 20”
The comfort of the familiar combined with the confusion of the unfamiliar creates a tension and energy that is an expression of my experience in the world. My focus is the fear and excitement of life’s thresholds and transitions.
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