It’s About the Challenge. My long, storied life and progression in art began as a child in the Deep South (Southeast Georgia), far removed from any knowledge of or exposure to art production. My father was totally illiterate due to family circumstances, and my mother went to the eighth grade. They were children of very poor, hard-working tenant farmers and laborers; and, thus, unlike the majority of Americans, were not negatively impacted by the Great Depression—they were already there. The mindset of my socio-economic status was that if you cannot afford it, you make it, fix it, or figure something out. That is how one becomes industrious by default and delights in challenges. Appertaining to my attempt at creating art, it was solely about the personal challenge to see if I could replicate an image. To this day, it is still about the challenge.

Location: Central Florida
sarah@sarahkersey.com

I embrace my identity as a self-taught visual artist! Over the years and continuing, great insight was absorbed by visually dissecting images and displays of paintings by master artists of the past and living artists of today. I was fortunate to have worked at a renowned resort where I did over one thousand pastel portraits from life of subjects from around the world. Another five hundred or so portraits were done before, during and after the resort experience. My survival mechanism as an adult, while doing art in quiet isolation, was working in numerous employment sectors unrelated to art, i.e., legal, financial, real estate, management, research, analytics, and radio. At this juncture in my life, I seek neither fame nor fortune—just continuing the challenge of producing a portfolio of work that exemplifies the gift that God so graciously bestowed upon me.