About Sara Slee Brown
It has taken me a lifetime to gather my wits, time, and experience, put them together and finally express myself through my artwork.
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 with it. Over the years this need had idled while others have been fulfilled. 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. 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.
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. 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 ontoarchivalpaper using an inkjet printer.
- The paper images are cut and glued onto the canvas or wood.
- The finished collage is coated by hand with 4-5 coats ofarchivalacrylic varnish to create a lustrous finish which protects the paper from water, dirt and UV light.
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. 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. When combined with the familiar they create a new reality which may not be as easily understood but nevertheless exists: a new perspective. 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.
Exhibitions
Solo
2018Featured Artist, Summer, Boulder Arts and Crafts Gallery, Boulder, CO
2017Midcoast Fine Arts Gallery, Bucktown Center for the Arts, Davenport, IA, October-November
2015Quad City Arts @ The Quad City International Airport Gallery, Moline, IL
Iowa State University Memorial Union Gallery, Ames, IA
Gifts of Art – Taubman Gallery, University of Michigan Hospitals & Clinics, Ann Arbor, MI
2014Brix Attic Gallery, Brix Cheese Shop & Wine Bar, Iowa City, IA
2013Chait Galleries, Iowa City, IA
Midcoast Fine Arts Gallery, Mississippi Valley Welcome Center, LeClaire, IA
2010University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics Project Art, Iowa City, IA
2009The Studio, Iowa City, IA
2003Charlene’s Gallery Ten, Gills Rock, Door County, WI
1999Art Under Glass, Midcoast Fine Arts, Rock Island, IL
1998Art in the Windows, Midcoast Fine Arts, Rock Island, IL
La Petite Galerie, Gallery Ten, Rockford, IL
1996Artifacts Gallery, Iowa City, IA
1985Iowa Gallery, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
Group
2018Iowa State Fair Fine Arts, Des Moines, IA
2017What’s Your GPS?, St. Louis Artists Guild, St. Louis, MO
Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, Community Arts Center, Danville, KY
Framework, Gilded Pear Gallery, Cedar Rapids, IA
Dubuque Museum of Art 2017 Biennial, DUMA, Dubuque, IA
Biennial Quad-State Exhibit, Quincy Art Center, Quincy, IL
Elevating Nature, Oak Park Art League’s Midwest Juried Exhibition, Oak Park Art League, Oak Park, IL
Art League of Hilton Head 2017 Biennale, Art League of Hilton Head, Hilton Head, SC
The Walker Open Exhibition, The Walker Art Collections, Garnett, KS2017
Small Works Exhibition, National Association of Women Artists Gallery, New York, NY
Wet, Gallery Seven, Maynard, MA
2016Concerning the Spiritual, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO
13th Regional Juried Exhibition, Freeport Art Museum, Freeport, IL
Horizon: Contemporary Landscape, Community Arts Center, Danville, KY
West of Center, Northville Art House, Northville, MI
In the Moonlight, Lanesboro Arts Center, Lanesboro, MN
Blink Artists, Art Design Consultants, Cincinnati, OH
Benjamin’s Banquet, Chait Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, IA
59th Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition, Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA
51st Founders Juried Awards Exhibition, The Naples Art Association at The Von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL
Boundaries, Borders, and Thresholds, Kreft Juried National Exhibition, Concordia University, Ann Arbor, MI
Small Works Juried Exhibition, Lemonade Stand Gallery, Key West, FL
2015Midwest Summer: Light & Warmth, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, IA
Open Road, Lanesboro Arts Center, Lanesboro, MN
Art Prize, St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids, MI
Benjamin’s Buttons – Faces of Intensity, Chait Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, IA
2014Art Comes Alive 2014, Art Design Consultants, Cincinnati, OH
2013 Portraits/42 display, Las Lagunas Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2009-2013 Small Works Show, Chait Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Commissions/Public Art
2012BookMarks Project, Book Art in Johnson County, Iowa City, IA
A Book is a Present, The World According to Dan Gable
2004Herky on Parade, Public Art Project, Iowa City, IA
Rock ‘n Roll Herky, Hayden Fry Herky, Ronald McHerky, Liberty Herky, Harry Carey Herky, Olympic Herky
2001 Overalls All Over, An American Gothic Happening, Public Art Project, Cedar Rapids, IA
MCI, Alliant Energy, Amstrong Race Realty
Awards/Honors
2018First Prize, Iowa State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, Mixed Media, Des Moines, IA2017
Second Place, What’s Your GPS?, St. Louis Artist’s Guild, St. Louis, MO
Honorable Mention, Quincey Biennial, Quincy, IL
Second Place, Small Works Exhibition, National Association of Women Artists, New York, NY
2011 Purchase Prize, Iowa City Public Library Purchase Prize Award, Iowa City, IA 2009
2009Iowa Artists 2009, Purchase Prize Award Winner, EMC Insurance Companies, Des Moines, IA
2006Honorable Mention, Museum of Computer Art, September, Digital Artists Virtual Gallery, moca.virtual.museum
2005 November, Featured Artist On-line, The Galleries Downtown, Iowa City, IA
2002 Merit Award, Aesthetics 2002, Lindsborg, KS
Featured Artist On-line February, Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project
1997 Honorable Mention, Art Guild of Burlington Annual Juried Show, Burlington, IA
1995 Marquis Who’s Who of American Women, 19th Edition
1990 Patron’s Award, McCook Community College Annual Phi-Theta-Kappa Six State Competitive, Wrightstone Fine Arts Gallery, McCook, NE
1984 Purchase Prize, A Celebration of the Arts at Brucemore, Cedar Rapids-Marion Arts Council, Cedar Rapids, IA
Art Festivals
2017Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Holiday Fair, Madison, WI
Greenwich Village Art Fair, Rockford, IL
Historic Shaw Art Fair, St. Louis, MO
St. Charles Fine Art Show, St. Charles, IL
Webster Arts Fair, Webster Groves, MO
2016University of Iowa Fine Arts Council Holiday Thieves’ Market, Iowa City, IA
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art Holiday Fair, Madison, WI
2009 University of Iowa Fine Arts Council Holiday Thieves’ Market, Iowa City, IA
2008 University of Iowa Fine Arts Council Holiday Thieves’ Market, Iowa City, IA
1985 12th Annual Crown Center Art Festival, Arts Fest, Kansas City, MOA
Celebration of the Arts at Brucemore, Cedar Rapids/Marion Arts Council, Cedar Rapids, IA
Personal Appearances & Media
2018Methods Demonstration, Iowa Artisan’s Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Featured Artist, Artsy Shark On-line Art Site, Spring, 2018
2017Cover Art, CRUX: A Quarterly Journal of Christian Thought and Opinion, Regents College, Vancouver, BC
2013Winter 2013 Issue Portfolio “Discoveries” Featured, Still Point Arts Quarterly
Professional Affiliations
Iowa Women Artists Oral History Project
Employment
Graphic Designer – Retired, Iowa City Public Library,
Iowa City, IA 1985 – 2007
Collections
Senator Amy Klobachar, Minnesota
Jennifer Fisher, Runnels, IA
Meredith Lucio, North Bergen, NJ
Steve & Judy Kaye, Wayland, MA
Patrick Muller, Iowa City, IA
Todd Pettys, Iowa City, IA
Sally Scott, Iowa City, IA
Mark & Betsy Roup, Crestwood, KY
Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jabar Al-Sabah, Kuwait
Dr. & Mrs. Joseph Dillon, Iowa City, IA
Dr. & Mrs. Matthew T. Spragg, Iowa City, IA
Dr. & Mrs. Rod Zeitler, Iowa City, IA
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Nowak, Carmel, IN
Hills Bank, North Liberty, Iowa
Mercy Hospital Hospice, Iowa City, IA
Galleries
Iowa Artisan’s Gallery, Iowa City, IA
Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, MN
Octagon Art Center, Ames, IA
St. Louis Artist’s Guild, St. Louis, MO
Education
1981MFA, Painting, University of Iowa, M.F.A.
1980MA, Painting, University of Iowa, M.A.
1968BFA, Painting, University of Michigan, B.F.A.
Email: sarasleebrown@gmail.com
Website: www.sarasleebrown.com