An Interview with Sarah York

I found Sarah through Instagram a few months back. As a girl in my 20’s, I find that purchasing art is both daunting and tricky. I looked toward Instagram to find inspiration (as many of us do) and came across her account. Instagram has truly paved the path toward discovering artists like Sarah who create work that not only look great in a home, but are made by someone we can attach a story to.

After speaking with Sarah I was interested in learning how a young architectural designer working at McAlpine, had come to pursue her dreams as an artist. But mostly, I was interested in what led her to create abstract pieces full of texture and muted color palettes.

Sarah has always been interested in art, when asked she claimed “I have loved art ever since I could hold a crayon.” From the young age of 12, Sarah had already begun submitting her art at local art fairs and auctions. However, it wasn’t until July of 2020 that she decided to move forward with her passion for art and create her account @by_sarahyork on Instagram to begin selling and sharing her work.

Sarah hopes to release her art in a manner similar to that of a fashion line. She aims to release a limited number of specialty pieces as a collection, while still allowing for a number of commission pieces in between the launch of each collection. She does this in order to give herself time to carefully curate thoughtful collections.

What inspires your work?

“I pull inspirations from my other passions. For instance, I love to keep up with high fashion trends and watch runway shows. Things like the movement, tones and textures of clothes are huge for me. In addition to fashion, architecture and nature have been important sources of inspiration for me. Shapes and patterns created by architecture, the ocean, or even found within the texture of leaves are all inspiring to me.”

Describe one of your paintings

“001" from my summer'20 collection - a minimalist's dream. This piece is completely White, yet completely full of texture. This piece embodies how chaos can form a symphony of beauty. I can best describe the piece with this statement: sometimes the greatest peace is in our calmest moments, but sometimes the greatest peace comes from our deepest trials. There is no beauty in simplicity without complexity. This is what I believe makes the trials of life beautiful.”

“001” - Summer 20 Collection — “001”

Collection: Summer’ 20 - A Minimalist’s Dream

Does you art derive meaning from anything or is there a specific art movement you relate or identify with?

“There is truly not one particular movement I identify my art with. While I have my favorite periods, I think all art should be appreciated as being iconic in its own right during that time and as a way to see how art has evolved through history. My art's meaning is typically pretty personal. I use deep personal aspects of my life to guide my art in hopes that it can touch somebody else in a similar way, even though my art is entirely abstract.”

Do you get inspiration from your work as an architectural designer for your paintings?

“Absolutely! It is hard to not pull inspiration from architecture. There are so many different avenues within architecture you can pull inspiration from, for example: texture, shape, structure, symmetry and color. I want my art to give you feeling like great architecture can.”

What plans do you have moving forward?

I plan to release more collections each season like fashion lines. I also want to continue forward and have art shows that align with my future releases as well. More importantly, I want to remain true to myself in art no matter what life brings my way.

Sarah York’s next collection will be titled “Aw’20 - Fly me to the Moon” aimed to launch mid October. follow her @by_sarahyork for more updates on the collection.