7x7x7 Series: Sarah Boyts Yoder
Published on June 20, 2016. Interview by 2016 Summer Intern, Nicki Sheffield: Sarah Boyts Yoder is a Charlottesville mixed media painter who exhibited at New City Arts Welcome Gallery in October 2015 and participated in the second annual New City Artist Exchange. Sarah is our first featured 2016 artist in our second annual 7x7x7 Series, which asks 7 questions to 7 Charlottesville artists and published once a week for 7 weeks.
Photo Credit: Nikki Sheffield
If you had a free afternoon in Charlottesville what would you do or where would you go?
I'd have a pizza and a Negroni at Lampo, then walk across the street to my studio and work for the rest of the day. Or I'd see the new Bourne movie at Violet Crown with my husband Matt.
Describe your artistic work in 7 words.
Reoccurring playful, floating forms in layered space.
Who or what inspires your current work?
Amy Sillman, train graffiti, Dr. Steve Brule, the color green, LaCroix (the sparkling water not the French designer).
Consider one painting you’re working on right now. Give us a snippet of your routine— from start to finish, what goes into making it?
I have a lot of fun at the beginning of a painting, spraying on the canvas, drawing wild lines and marks with ink and oil sticks in crazy colors. Then after a couple passes in this way, I buckle down and start wrestling. Usually this entails hiding all that fun stuff and then figuring out how to bring a little of it back while attempting to make a serious and sophisticated abstract painting.
Photo Credit: Nikki Sheffield
What have you learned about yourself as a person through the experience of making art?
That you can ONLY be yourself. And that's good enough.
What would you like to see happen in Charlottesville to better support artists in our community?
There is a GREAT artist community here in Charlottesville. Everyone could always use more affordable studio space downtown. First Fridays gallery AND studio walk anyone?
What is currently on your studio desk?
An electric bill, empty LaCroix cans, a giant desk calendar I had the best intentions of using, some random oil sticks, and semi clean brushes. Also, a Justin Beiber collage from my favorite local collage artist, Lisa Ryan.
Photo Credit: Nikki Sheffield
The opinions expressed in this interview are solely those of the artist and do not necessarily represent the policies or positions of NCAI.
Sarah Boyts Yoder is a mixed media painter based in Charlottesville, VA. She received an MFA in painting from James Madison University in 2006. Over the last decade she has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions in South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Washington DC and Virginia. Sarah has twice been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2013, 2014) and in 2014 she was awarded a professional fellowship in painting from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Her work is in numerous private collections across the country including Baltimore, Charleston, Denver, New York, and London, AK, FL, KS, NC, NM, TX, VA, as well as in Virginia and South Carolina corporate collections.