Today we have our final interview of the Summer Series with Sarah Golden of Sarah Golden Art. I have admired Sarah's work for so, so long! I love her style and always love the modern quilt fabric she designs. Sarah is a painter and designer living in Sacramento, CA and is currently designing fabric for Andover Fabrics. I hope you'll enjoy her interview as much as I did! Let's jump in!
Did you always know you wanted to be in a creative field? What did you study in school? Tell us all about how you got to where you are today!
I didn’t go to college, I tried for a little bit, but it wasn’t for me at the time. I’m self taught, I always knew I wanted a creative career of some sort, but what that was exactly I didn’t know until about 7 years ago. I started my art practice in 2015 when my girls were 18 months old, my goal was to be doing art full time by the time they started first grade. It gave me a few years of working odd hours in the studio without the pressure of making a full-time income, especially when I was low on time. I was able to experiment and find my footing as an artist.
How long have you been a designer for Andover Fabrics? Do you have a favorite collection you have designed?
I’ve been designing for Andover since 2016, the first collection Maker Maker will always have a special place for me, I love the linen/cotton and the block print designs that I had been printing with by hand and sewing projects myself.
How many years were you working in this industry before you felt like you had the career you dreamed of? Or are there still larger dreams you are working towards?
It’s a moving goal post, I definitely never feel like I’m to where I’m going or want to get, pretty sure I’d get bored, so it’s the journey for me. I have immense gratitude for being able to do this as my job, and that I have the fine art side of things as well. Getting to do both licensing/fabric design and original art really is dreamy and what I wanted.
What other artists, musicians or creators do you find to be inspirational?
I love Allison Reimus’ work, she incorporates such a wide variety of textiles and everyday supplies into her work, it’s so creative. I will always love PJ Harvey, I listen to her a lot in the studio while working.
A blank page can be so intimidating. Where do you start when designing a new fabric collection or painting a piece of art? Do you start with one small element? Photographs? A theme? A color? Or does it just build organically?
I design in cycles for fabric, so it’s not all the time, in chunks throughout the year. But I’m making work all the time, so I’ll go through my designs, see what catches my eye and would work for fabric. Usually I’ve already had a handful of artworks that scream fabric to me and there’s usually a couple groups of work that has common threads. Then I take a look at what’s missing, or what I have already, like artwork that’d make great large scale repeats, directional prints, etc… I’ll make new work to fill in what’s needed. I leave color until the very end because I could literally work on color for months and never stop, it’s both fun and overthinking at it’s finest.
I always find color to be intimidating. Where do you start when selecting your color palettes?
I go purely by intuition and what I enjoy. There are color combos that just make me happy when I see them, so I try and use those. Sometimes I have to loose a color combo to strengthen the whole collection. That’s hard, but balancing between what a single design needs and how the collection as a whole reads is important.
What do you have coming up over the next year? Any exciting projects you want to share about?
I can’t share about a couple awesome projects that are still secrets. But I mainly enjoy the routine of working in my studio and just putting in the painting hours, becoming a better artist. I bought a giant printer and have enjoyed printing all my art prints in house and the freedom with that.
Are there any new mediums, creative fields or techniques you would like to try one day?
I really enjoy wearing and sewing with linen, so I’m pondering ways to incorporate linen into my artwork more.
How can people best follow you along your creative journey? (Instagram, email list, etc.)
My email list, you can sign up on my website - sarahgolden.org, Instagram and TikTok are both @sarahgoldenart