I am a visual artist from Belgium.
My art lives on the crossroads of photography, painting, and printmaking. For over five years now, I have been exploring the cyanotype (or 'blueprint') process: a historic, analog photo technique that produces impressions directly on paper (no camera involved).
I stumbled on the cyanotype process as a way to capture my love affair with nature in bluesy images that tell the story of my itinerant life.
I thrive on solitude in wild places where nature and simplicity reign and I delight in the freedom and depth that a slower and more spontaneous life close to nature brings.
All of my art is made outside, in direct collaboration with the elements: water, wind, earth, sun. Time and chance play a big role in the creation process.
Most of my projects start with a love affair with place. I usually move to a region that I am curious about, with plenty of nature, and I root there for a while. I then make a body of work with a unique aspect of the ecosystem of that place.
I have lived and worked in many different places in California, on the Big Island of Hawai’i, in Mallorca, in Marfa (Texas), and in the Four Corners region of Colorado.
I am currently in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur (Mexico).
CV
1998 – Graduates magna cum laude with a Masters of Arts Degree in Graphic Design. Saint Lucas art school, Antwerp, Belgium.
2002 – Exhibits her graduation project ‘Gender Fact Files’ in multiple places in Belgium.
2002 – Becomes active in the women’s movement and social justice movements in Belgium.
2010 – Starts traveling extensively, mostly throughout California.
2014 – Starts taking painting and drawing classes at ‘Wisper’ school in Ghent, Belgium.
2015 – Lives in Hakalau, Hawai’i for a year, focuses mostly on painting.
2018 – Studies cyanotype, salt printing, and other analog processes at Harvey Milk Photo Center in San Francisco, California.
2018 – Makes her first cyanotype series in Shelter Cove, California.
2018-2020 – Keeps making cyanotypes in California, Belgium, and Texas.
2020 – Filmmaker Laura Caldes makes a short film about Sara’s cyanotype art in Mallorca. Her first solo exhibit in Belgium is cancelled because of the pandemic. She is stranded in Mallorca, Spain, for about 4 months. Starts making art full time.
2020 – Moves to Marfa, the contemporary art mecca in Texas. Solo exhibit at ‘Marfa Open’ gallery.
2021 – Moves to Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Mexico and starts making very large cyanotypes with palms. Successful solo exhibit at ‘Oystera’.
2022 – Moves to Mesa Verde, Colorado. Participates in ‘Art & Architecture’ with an outdoor cyanotype installation in Telluride, Colorado. Solo exhibit at the ‘Smiley Building’ in Durango, Colorado. Obtains US citizenship.
2023 – Returns to Todos Santos, Mexico and participates in ‘Art Baja’, an outdoor art exhibit by Zonamaco, at Oystera.