Sarah Martin

My work is a conversation between past and present, rooted in the landscapes of Canada, which shaped my earliest memories.  Growing up, my family’s little house was surrounded by forests, lakes and the ever changing rhythms of the seasons. Ultimately, it is these rhythms that I am drawn to; the rhythm of human life as it intersects with the rhythm of the earth. Places acting as memory keepers, holding the stories of those who pass through. 

Since my artwork is centered around vintage photography, it is the photographs of places that I strive to connect viewers to, evoking the strong pull that locations have to our memories. Places hold echoes of history both personally with our individual memories and as a collective. My art serves as a way to reconnect with those memories, translating the images from the past, into visual stories that explore memory, time and place.

I work primarily with painting and mixed media, using vintage photographs as a type of postcard for the base of my work.  The imagery grounds the work giving a distinct moment in time and place, while conjuring a sense of nostalgia, the same way a postcard will mark our moments in time. The paint I apply in layers, to add a playfulness and a contemporary pop while drawing the viewer into their own understanding of past and present. 

I see my art as an exploration of how we carry these memories within us and how they shape our understanding of the places we inhabit today. I hope to invite viewers to reflect on their own connections to the places that have shaped them and to consider how memory and landscape intertwine. 

Sarah’s work has been featured in publications such as Style At Home magazine, Canadian House and Home, and numerous HGTV’s design shows. Her work is held in national and international collections, including the Ontario Archives; Sunshine Resort, Banff; The Hythe Resort, Vail and the Hard Rock Hotel, Atlanta, to name a few.