About the Artist

New Orleans-based visual artist and art educator, Sara Hardin creates paintings that explore the importance of domestic spaces. She synthesizes collage, painting, and digital media to investigate the connection between domestic spaces, femininity, and connection. Sara finds inspiration for her work in her everyday surroundings and the conversations she has with her peers. Her work is a cacophony of memory, color, expressive brush strokes, and the enigmatic nature of our lived experiences. Sara has taught visual arts at the secondary level for the past six years. Sara states that her students are a huge source of inspiration and motivation in her personal studio practice. From 2019 to 2020, Sara was a part of the Basin Arts Artist Collective in Lafayette, LA where she took part in several group exhibitions. She presented at the National Art Educators Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 2020. In 2021, Sara was awarded a fully-funded artist residency in Mississippi. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Fine Arts at the University of New Orleans while working as an Art Educator in the Greater New Orleans Area. Sara was awarded numerous Graduate Assistantship Awards from the University of New Orleans.

About Artist’s Work:

My work focuses on the connection of physical spaces to our own memories and sense of identity. Physical spaces in our dwellings are emotional vessels where we hold memories, secrets, and rituals. Having tangible representations of our identity gives form to the complexity, instability, and enigmatic nature of our lived experiences.

The imagery in the work is a stacked combination of physical domestic spaces and depictions of varying emotions and memory. This is evident through expressive brushstroke and varied color palette. By layering these two aspects, viewers can identify the personal connection they have with their own homes. The chaotic, collaged nature of my work gives the viewer the sense of unease when witnessing a strange combination of these familiar spaces. This gives way to the fragility and calamity of our memories and our dwellings.

The unique cultural and geographic features of New Orleans are an ideal representation of the emotion and memories we create in our homes. Opening the front and back doors of a shotgun house as a breeze flows through the home brings back the memories of playing as a child. On the other hand, the layered imagery gives a disjointed feeling to the viewer. This represents the realities of living in southern Louisiana, an alleyway for natural disasters. Where our stability can be turned upside down. Physical representations of our memories and emotions can help us understand how our domestic environment is impacting our mental and emotional well-being.

What does “Home” mean to you: 

Home is a place where you hold memories, secrets, and daily rituals. Home is a place where you feel you belong, and you are given space to grow into the next stages of your life. Home is a place, an emotion, and a vessel for self exploration.

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