January 13, 2007
Rockwell Visiting Artist Sarah Amos
Printmaker Sarah Amos works with students in the art studio.
Master printer Sarah Amos spent several days at Taft in January as a Rockwell Visiting Artist. In addition to exhibiting her work in the Mark W. Potter '48 Gallery, Ms. Amos spoke about her work in Morning Meeting and offered workshops with several art classes. Ms. Amos lives in East Fairfield, Vermont, and maintains an active exhibition schedule of her own work despite her intense commitment to teaching other artists. For ten years, Amos was the master printer/ director at the Vermont Studio Center Press, and she is on the faculty at Dartmouth College, where she teaches lithography.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Sarah Amos came initially to the U.S. in the early 1990s, to attend the Tamarind Institute of Lithography in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she began working with monoprints. One can see this legacy continuing in the ground layers of each piece. Whether a painting or a work on paper, she creates a foundation for each with soft, repetitive shapes and quiet color. The successive layers of pattern in the works on paper are laid on often while the surface is still wet. Her visual vocabulary demonstrates a consistent allegiance to her history and her native culture. Ms. Amos employs a process of richly layered printmaking punctuated by over-painting vibrant and dynamic patterns that echo the indigenous culture of her homeland Australia. The fluid threading of lines, dots and swirls wind their way through these marvelously open and celebratory works.
The Potter Gallery is open daily when school is in session, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Her work is shown at Reeves Contemporary in New York.