Sarah E. Taylor

Repurposing the Broken Pieces: Finding Ways to Turn Turmoil into Light

Over the past three years I have used painting, drawing, collage, and sculpture to process through my own grief, the loss of our children as well as the recent loss of my mother, as well as processing the daily struggles I have faced as a wife, guardian of a teenager, and student. I have learned to listen to what my art is saying instead of setting it aside when it is “done.” These images have become outward living expressions of my own life.

Laura Seftel wrote in her book Grief Unseen, “When engaging the creative process for healing, we must sometimes delve into the darkness, honestly and deeply, before moving back into the light.” This concept defines my current approach to my own art. When I stopped shying away from darker imagery such as my painting Living with Death and began to give them the space in my creative processes I found that the images started to take parts of my grief, anxiety, and insecurities with them. This left room for more joy and playfulness. For this reason, my imagery will shuffle back and forth between images of death or loss followed by a child like freedom.

In my early twenties I was pursuing an undergraduate degree at the University of North Texas in sculpture until I realized that many of the career paths that would be available to me were not paths I was interested in. I also had the desire to work with people in a helping profession but did not want to leave my art behind. I struggled with finding a way to blend these two areas of myself into a lifelong career. In 2010, after the passing of my son due to stillbirth, I witnessed firsthand how healing the art process can be. My mother would provide me with art directives to pour my emotions into. Over the next five years I began to create dolls and tiny sculptures during my free time. These items would take on stories of their own that were then passed down to others. Through these stories I began to regain my sense of purpose and self-identity once again.

At the end of 2015, my godson moved in with us. He was facing the impending loss of his sole parent due to cancer. Over the next year I began to work with him on small art projects that helped him process what was happening with his family. Finally, we were able to find a counselor that would see him. During the first session this counselor told me she was an art therapist. A new world began to open for me. I watched as my godson found confidence, his own voice, and saw a significant decrease in his anxiety. This was what I had been looking for. Art therapy is the career that allows me to invest in people while still holding onto my own identity as an artist.

While sculpting, weather with metal or found objects, is my primary mode of creating I believe that different mediums speak to us in different ways. Therefore, I am constantly exploring different mediums and their uses. This includes finding ways to incorporate nature, drawing, oil painting, acrylics, watercolor, building materials, and even smoke and rain into my processes. The limitlessness of possibilities helps to ignite my creative spirit and connect to the world around me.