Artober Nashville

Did you know October is national Arts & Humanities Month? It is a collective recognition of the importance of culture in America. Metro Nashville Arts Commission has done a fantastic job of spearheading the month long celebration in Nashville, dubbed Artober.

Fifth Third Bank has been a big sponsor of Artober, hosting Artober Fridays at Fifth Third Bank through out the month. This Friday is the final event in the Friday series, and it will be held at the Hillsboro Village Fifth Third, near the intersection of 21st and Wedgewood.

I will be leading an interactive art making activity at today's event. There will also be food and fun live music by the Ukedeliks!

The activity invites you to stop by and contribute to this 3' x 6' painting of Hillsboro Village. The rough outline is pictured above; guest are encouraged to paint in or add onto any and all of their favorite parts of Hillsboro Village. This is free and open to the public. It's kid friendly, too!

Hope you can stop by and join me even if it's just a few moments on your lunch break- after all it takes a village to paint a Village!

New Work

New work.
This season those two little words carry much weight.
In October I was laid off from my full time job, due to the organization's recalibration of goals and financial duties. As anyone who has experienced a lay off can surely attest, it is stressful news to receive and results in a bit of soul "what do I want to do with my life?!" searching.

Cue the new work. 
After a bit of re-orienting, I've jumped back into working- more focused than ever. I am in the studio almost every day now, and am LOVING it. As I transition into working primarily as a visual artist my focus includes several facets:

• commissioned projects (yes, I'm doing pet portraits!)
• paintings for upcoming shows
• small mixed media pieces for shops and galleries around town (see photo below!)
• facilitating community art projects such as THIS Artober event

Nashvillians: Go to East Side Story Book Store and pick up a handmade book + pumpkin (bumpkin??) for your own!

Non-Nashvillians: Contact me at sarahkshearer@gmail.com to order!

Stay tuned for more work photos and updates. My new route does lead me into some intimidating days, but I welcome the change. I love adventure, I have faith this will work out for the best, and I'm pretty good at hustling- so freelance life: HERE I COME!

Stop! Collaborate and Listen.

The Arts & Business Council of Greater Nashville relocated into a new office space this summer, and I had the honor of developing and facilitating an interactive art project for guests at the Open House celebration.  The completed piece is pictured here; it is a mixed media collage on canvas. The design is inspired by the organization's logo.

Guests at the Open House event were invited to participate in the project by answering:

       “What is your favorite element of Nashville’s creative community?”

Each person contributed their answer by writing it on a piece of paper, which we then collaged onto the canvas. Reading the range of answers and then using them to create a unified piece was very a powerful statement about the strength and vibrancy of Nashville's creative community!

  

 

The image above is little close- up peek. Thank you to all who contributed, and thank you to the Arts & Business Council for the valuable services offered to support our fantastic creatives!