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Sarah Swist received a BFA from Western Illinois University in 2011 and an MFA from Penn State University in 2014. She joined Hastings College as Assistant Professor of Visual Arts in 2017. Prior to moving to Nebraska, Swist taught drawing and painting courses at Penn State Altoona, created architectural models for the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, and assisted students in the digital fabrication lab at Penn State University Park. Her studio work has been shown in exhibitions across the country including in Illinois, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania. She is one half of an ongoing collaborative art project called Bubblegum & Whiskey.
Published on April 21st, 2020. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What projects are you working on right now?
I have long-term and short-term projects. Right now, I am working on painting piles of vintage fabric scraps that belonged to my grandma. They are heirlooms, and I want to do something special with them. It often feels like sentimentality is synonymous with vulnerability, and people don’t like to be susceptible to that kind of longing. I’m not in a hurry to finish these paintings. Nostalgic objects are powerful catalysts for reflection of how I live my life today and what my goals might be for the future. These pieces of cloth bring up questions about craft, gendered labor, familial relationships, and searching for a sense of home. Without fail, I am pulled away by other things that need my attention, too. I can’t always focus on making big, tender paintings. I come to the studio with different emotions. I might be frustrated, nervous, wishful, or amused- I’ll often indulge various moods and loop things together to craft a richer narrative. My studio is scattered with rejects, gems, and one-offs. I also make separate work as one-half of a collaborative project called Bubblegum & Whiskey.
How do you keep yourself accountable in your practice?
Artists work hard, and methods for achieving balance in the studio involve very personal preferences. I create experimental pieces that might involve silly jokes, questions, or notes right alongside my larger, more time-consuming pieces. I don’t want to take myself too seriously, but I also need to stay busy without making excuses. I trust myself enough to take risks, I’m happy to evaluate what is working and what needs to change, and I’ll use whatever materials I can at the time. Some things are recycled very quickly. Working on multiple paintings simultaneously helps me jump back into things if I’ve had too much time off. In the last few years, I’ve let myself loosen up quite a bit in the studio so things are more like a game to me.
How do you stay motivated to pursue your creative work?
To be honest, I lacked motivated for the first half of the year while I was distracted by other things. The studio was unusually cumbersome for a few months. I wanted to avoid a longer slump so I tried to diversify the way I spent my time outside the studio. It worked! Slowly, and with much care, I found motivation to get back to painting because I truly had things that needed to be explored. That has to be authentic. My paintings have been on the cusp of something this year, but it was an awkward growing stage. It doesn’t mean I didn’t work throughout that time, it just means that not everything I made was a keeper. I am frequently motivated by my partner, and I am so grateful. He is also an artist, he knows my work, and he encourages me. He gives me honest feedback and knows my bad habits, too. As a professor, I want to stay current in my field, and I want to make work so I can engage with students as an active member of our creative community.
Where do you hope to be 10 years from now and what would you like to say to yourself?
When I think about the future, I know I would like to feel a strong sense of connection to my home. I want to feel a connection to a place that develops slowly over time. I have lived in many states in the past few years, but I’d like to buy a house with my partner, and I’d love to be in a rural area with a big studio. We’ve already been together 10 years, and we’ll happily double it. Maybe we will finally get a dog! My work will always form around the people and places in my life. I hope my creative practice, through various galleries and projects, has a positive impact on my community in some way. I currently teach, and I would like to continue teaching. I haven’t seen my students graduate or go on to do other things yet, and I am really looking forward to watching and helping artists grow as time goes on. I want to remind myself to let go of things that don’t matter. I would tell future me to do something nice for myself and other people. And, I would tell myself that it was all worth it.
What projects are you working on right now?
I have long-term and short-term projects. Right now, I am working on painting piles of vintage fabric scraps that belonged to my grandma. They are heirlooms, and I want to do something special with them. It often feels like sentimentality is synonymous with vulnerability, and people don’t like to be susceptible to that kind of longing. I’m not in a hurry to finish these paintings. Nostalgic objects are powerful catalysts for reflection of how I live my life today and what my goals might be for the future. These pieces of cloth bring up questions about craft, gendered labor, familial relationships, and searching for a sense of home. Without fail, I am pulled away by other things that need my attention, too. I can’t always focus on making big, tender paintings. I come to the studio with different emotions. I might be frustrated, nervous, wishful, or amused- I’ll often indulge various moods and loop things together to craft a richer narrative. My studio is scattered with rejects, gems, and one-offs. I also make separate work as one-half of a collaborative project called Bubblegum & Whiskey.
How do you keep yourself accountable in your practice?
Artists work hard, and methods for achieving balance in the studio involve very personal preferences. I create experimental pieces that might involve silly jokes, questions, or notes right alongside my larger, more time-consuming pieces. I don’t want to take myself too seriously, but I also need to stay busy without making excuses. I trust myself enough to take risks, I’m happy to evaluate what is working and what needs to change, and I’ll use whatever materials I can at the time. Some things are recycled very quickly. Working on multiple paintings simultaneously helps me jump back into things if I’ve had too much time off. In the last few years, I’ve let myself loosen up quite a bit in the studio so things are more like a game to me.
How do you stay motivated to pursue your creative work?
To be honest, I lacked motivated for the first half of the year while I was distracted by other things. The studio was unusually cumbersome for a few months. I wanted to avoid a longer slump so I tried to diversify the way I spent my time outside the studio. It worked! Slowly, and with much care, I found motivation to get back to painting because I truly had things that needed to be explored. That has to be authentic. My paintings have been on the cusp of something this year, but it was an awkward growing stage. It doesn’t mean I didn’t work throughout that time, it just means that not everything I made was a keeper. I am frequently motivated by my partner, and I am so grateful. He is also an artist, he knows my work, and he encourages me. He gives me honest feedback and knows my bad habits, too. As a professor, I want to stay current in my field, and I want to make work so I can engage with students as an active member of our creative community.
Where do you hope to be 10 years from now and what would you like to say to yourself?
When I think about the future, I know I would like to feel a strong sense of connection to my home. I want to feel a connection to a place that develops slowly over time. I have lived in many states in the past few years, but I’d like to buy a house with my partner, and I’d love to be in a rural area with a big studio. We’ve already been together 10 years, and we’ll happily double it. Maybe we will finally get a dog! My work will always form around the people and places in my life. I hope my creative practice, through various galleries and projects, has a positive impact on my community in some way. I currently teach, and I would like to continue teaching. I haven’t seen my students graduate or go on to do other things yet, and I am really looking forward to watching and helping artists grow as time goes on. I want to remind myself to let go of things that don’t matter. I would tell future me to do something nice for myself and other people. And, I would tell myself that it was all worth it.
Find Sarah Swist on Instagram
