Studio Visit with Collage Artist Sarah Z. Short - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Studio Visit with Collage Artist Sarah Z. Short - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

All artists have life experiences that inform their work. For Rhode Island mixed media collage artist Sarah Z. Short, a previous career as an educator shapes a deep appreciation for use of text and repurposed books in her artworks, which blends printmaking, found-paper art, and abstraction. From her local studio, she is creating beautifully refined artworks that subtly embrace the aesthetic of letterpress within the realm of fine art collage.

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Short is relatively new to making art full-time, but she has already found important support for her endeavor in her community. Speaking about finding camaraderie as an artist locally, she says, “I'm only just finding my place in the Rhode Island artist community, but I've already made some wonderful friends, most of them through the South County Artist Association. They are such a welcoming organization and provide many opportunities for artists. I'm currently teaching a letterpress and abstract collage class in their printmaking studio.”

 

 

Short’s skills as an educator are well-honed. A former English teacher, she was raised in Charlestown and earned her BA and MA from University of Rhode Island before going on to complete her MFA in Creative Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Now a dedicated studio artist, Short creates work from her home studio in the heart of rural and woodsy southern Rhode Island. Although she only turned to making art three years ago, she has already exhibited her work regularly and earned accolades for her collages along the way. Recent shows have seen her pieces displayed at Atelier Gallery and Spring Bull Gallery in Newport as well at South County Art Association.

 

The artist’s longtime passion for books and language comes across in her work, which often utilizes hand-printed letterpress forms alongside repurposed texts. She has a collection of chunky antique letterpress blocks which bring a recognizable quality to her artworks. Printing from these blocks, she incorporates the shapes of the alphabet into intricate collages that also play with color and abstraction. Additionally, her studio is full of antique reclaimed papers ready to be recycled. All of these are neatly organized and sorted by topic. Everything from historic maps to vintage letters are of use as collage material for Short, who acquires pieces at antique shops or online.

 

 

Asked where she finds papers to reuse, Short says, “My primary sources for collage material are estate sales, Facebook Marketplace, library book sales, and vintage shops. I've been an admirer and collector of antiques and vintage since I was a child, and it's important to me to protect the fragile paper and ephemera that would otherwise be discarded by repurposing these materials in my artwork. There's incredible beauty in a crumbling old book, and it's a shame that it might end up in the trash. As I use these materials, I'm creating new stories for these books.”

 

Although she has switched from teaching English to making art full-time, Short also weaves educational work into her artistic practice. She is currently teaching at South County Art Association and has also taught for the Collage Makers Summit and the Women’s Artist Network. Through her work as an art instructor she has also become a developer of products for artists and collaborated to bring to life a collection of stencils for makers who do not have access to letterpress printmaking tools.

 

 

Of this project, Short says, “I'm a letterpress printer, but a press isn't something most people have access to. When I started teaching, I turned to stencils as a way to get the look of letterpress printing, but the options for fonts were limited. I reached out to the owner of StencilGirl Products about designing an abstracted letterpress collection and they were interested. I created compositions on my press using vintage wooden type and those designs became the stencils.”

 

Her stencil project and her teaching work are both indications of the ways in which this artist is making her mark outside of the studio. Short is a dynamic artmaker who combines a love for printmaking and collage with her background in education and literature. She has also cultivated a signature method of making mixed media artworks, which results in collages that are at once minimal while also being rich in history, texture, intention, and beauty.

 

 

Through her ongoing artistic practice as well as her active work instructing students in the art of collage, Sarah Z. Short is sharing her vision with her fellow Rhode Islanders as well as thousands of art enthusiasts online. She is a local artist with a distinct voice whose forthcoming career will be exciting to watch.

 

Learn more about Sarah Z. Short at her website www.driftwaystudio.com and follow her work on Instagram at @sara_z_short.