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At age seven, I began my
professional art career in the Key West Art Gallery, selling handkerchiefs
I painted with animals. It was great fun imagining what it would be like
to be an animal... a lion on the African veldt or a wild horse galloping
around the plains.
I was enchanted by the
poems my mother read to me - William Blake's "The Tyger" - and intrigued
by the pictures of exotic places in National Geographic Magazine. Even toy
animals fascinated me. Large sculptures held me spellbound as I would
circle them to view every angle. All this was the stuff of which I make my
work. My passion for art has been constant throughout out my lifetime.
I am grateful to my
early mentor, the wonderful gentle soul and renowned ceramist Mary Grabil
of the Sign of the Sandpiper Pottery Studio. She taught me how to hand
roll tiles when I was a young Coconut Grove, Florida street urchin who
spent afternoons in her shop My passion for academia has been sporadic.
My father often bemoans
the fact that I didn't go to art school. Instead, I went to Michigan State
University and graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Science in Animal
Science. From there I moved to Oregon and found employment shoveling horse
manure. A discussion with my father regarding the career limitations of
manure shoveling led to a degree in Nursing in 1983.
I am now a full-time
artist and part-time nurse. It sometimes takes me a little longer to
complete a project due to interruptions of a paid employment, raising two
sons, and taking care of a variety of livestock.
In 1997, I built a
studio of straw bales and declared that I would devote more time to my
creative self. My art gives me a thrill when I feel a form come alive in
the clay. It gives me the same lively feeling I had as a child galloping
freely as a wild horse.
Awards:
People's Choice Award, Jefferson Country Fair, 1994
Best of Show, Jefferson County Fair, 1986
Certificate of Merit, Miami Arts Council, 1965
Contact Sarah:
rolraven@olympus.net
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