ARTIST STATEMENT

Raising my son Rainier humbles my art practice and drives my evolving consciousness. Motherhood and mindfulness are a doorway to unearth the deeper story of myself. During the pandemic I painted precious and quotidian moments of my days in a small format. I documented the strangeness of pandemic life, the struggles of parenting a toddler, and my communion with nature. Creating work became a meditative lifeline to process extreme duality of grief and joy, to validate my experiences, and to create connections to others. This prolonged solitude started a practice that led me to heal trauma and cultivate self-compassion.My new book “Mother(ing) as Meditation” will be released during this exhibit, this will be the first place to view and purchase the book. This show represents the culminating artwork produced in conjunction with the book.

My art centers engagement with social change through the sharing of stories in community spaces. I make work about subcultures, outsiders, and the informal configurations of community. I examine identity through illustrating stories that are intimate and comment on larger social issues. Primarily I work with paint, but I additionally construct animated films made from my artwork, using stop motion animation techniques.

ARTIST BIO

Raised in Kirkwood, Missouri, Sarah Paulsen is an artist, filmmaker and community organizer whose artwork has been exhibited widely in local and national exhibitions, and whose prize-winning films have been featured in the St. Louis International Film Festival, the True/False Film Festival, the Black Maria Film Festival, the Motivate Film Festival and the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, among many others. She was the recipient of the 2018 Great Rivers Biennial, which culminated in an exhibit at Contemporary Art Museum- St. Louis. A 2010 C.A.T. Institute fellow and 2015 Regional Arts Commission Artist Fellow, she has garnered numerous awards for her work and also completed several residencies – including the Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris. A dedicated advocate for social change, a key aspect of Paulsen’s practice has always involved the orchestration of large-scale community projects, such as participatory public murals, thematic round-table discussions and the now-annual People’s Joy Parade on Cherokee Street. Paulsen holds a B.F.A. in visual art from the University of Missouri, Columbia and an M.F.A. from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Art at Washington University. She lives and works in St. Louis, where she teaches art and animation at Marian Middle School and St. Louis Community College. Currently an Artist in Residence with the Kranzberg Arts Residency, she is illustrating a book about, mothering as meditation, as part of this opportunity. 

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