Sarah West is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Moab, Utah. She is a photographer, writer, dancer, sculptor, and painter. She primarily photographs in the Colorado Plateau— the desert region of the four-corners area of the southwestern United States— where she has lived and worked for the past two decades. Sarah spent several years working as an archaeologist in the desert southwest.
She learned the art of photography as an anthropology student in college when she was invited to be the photographer at the Utah Museum of Natural History. After photographing thousands of artifacts in the museum, she became enchanted with the camera.
Besides her work as an artist, she is also a therapist, naturalist, and wilderness guide. To see her healing arts website, please visit: www.sarahwesthealingarts.com
ARTIST STATEMENT
For most of my adult life, I have lived on the edge of wilderness, where I have fostered a deep and profound connection with the natural world. My art is a reflection of the intimacy and soulful resonance I have with nature. Trees, mountains, mesas, canyons, caves, waterways, stones, stars, and the moon are all my kin. I have spent years in communion with these living beings and sacred places, forging a deep and meaningful relationship with them.
The natural world is a place of immense sentience. It pulsates with its own vital energy and intelligence that surpasses our human comprehension. I am drawn to its depths, captivated by the spirit of the land.
My photography is an act of reverence for the earth's beauty and mystery.
I experience the world through heightened senses and synesthesia. My life is a symphony of sensation, a kaleidoscope of color and sound. As a synesthete, my senses are cross-wired in curious ways. I see shapes, patterns, and colors when I listen to sounds and music. I taste colors. Wind on my skin produces interesting tactile sensations such as shapes and colors.
Synesthesia enhances my creativity in many wondrous ways. My photography is shaped by moments of eco-sensory euphoria; creating wonder that pours into my imagery.
My artistic process often involves listening to the earth’s inherent music or songlines. For Australian Aboriginals, songlines are sacred musical pathways that spread across vast distances over the land and sky. They are dreaming tracks that trace over the ecology, creating the musical and symbolic language of the land. The melodic shape of the song is the nature of the land over which the dream passes. I follow these musical tracks to the place where my art will be created.
Early self-portrait, age 26 with my first digital camera and a beloved book of poetry, by Rilke