Biographical Statement

Installation of Splicing Series, 2003.

Sarah Sanford b. 1974 in Michigan is an artist printmaker who has exhibited her work both nationally and internationally. Recent projects include Printed, A Juried Exhibition (2009), Cabrillo Gallery, Aptos, CA; The Dimension of Dreams (2009), Academy of Art, San Francisco; Lightscape (2008), Alchemy: art+aesthetics gallery, Indianapolis; Herception, Indy Women Printmakers (2008) Basile Center for Art, Design & Public Life, Herron School of Art & Design, Indianapolis; Wrexham 2007 Print International (UK Tour 2007-09), Wrexham Arts Center & Memorial College, Yale College, Wales, UK; Still Light (2006), Edinburgh Printmakers; Recent Works: Artist in Residence (2006), The Edinburgh Academy and the London Contemporary Art Fair (2005).

Sanford has a Masters of Fine Art in Printmaking from the Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland (2003) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education from Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH (1996). Her images are created through a variety of printmaking mediums with the process of layering being the essential component. She combines colour, texture and pattern with the contrast between darkness and light, to create abstractions of space representing inner worlds within ourselves.

Sanford has earned several awards and honors that include serving as the Artist in Residence at The Edinburgh Academy from 2005-06, and being a Royal Scottish Academy prize recipient in 2003. In 2006 she was featured in a documentary film produced and directed by filmmaker, Eric Robinson, as part of her exhibition, Still Light at the Edinburgh Printmakers. Her work is held in the Edinburgh College of Art's permanent collection, as well as private collections in the United States, UK and Saudi Arabia. Fresh Surface based in New York City currently represents her work.

Sanford was an active member of the Edinburgh Printmakers from 2003-06 and has been invited to give lectures and workshops at several institutions including the Academy of Art University, San Francisco; Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; Edinburgh Printmakers, Scotland; and the Taigh-Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Centre, North Uist, Scotland. After living abroad for five years, she relocated to Indianapolis, IN where she served as an adjunct faculty member at the Herron School of Art and Design from 2006-08. She now lives in Santa Cruz, CA and is a visiting lecturer at University of California Santa Cruz and a member of the California Society of Printmakers and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society.