​Sarah Desmarais is a fine art printmaker and book artist whose work is inspired by poetry.  She is interested in the juxtaposition of text and image, the way that both can be open to multiple interpretations, and the ways in which one can influence understandings of the other. Poetry rooted in folk traditions (for instance the work of Serbian poet Vasko Popa and of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca) particularly inspires her as a repository of strange juxtapositions, uncanny metaphors and common lore of obscure origin.  She draws on outsider, prehistoric and children's art as well as art of the twentieth century inspired by untutored, direct forms of cultural expression. She works on paper with gouache, collage and relief printing, often using found and repurposed materials, and uses the materials - rice paste resist and mulberry paper stencils - of Japanese katazome to produce book cloth.

 

Sarah exhibits internationally and is currently represented by galleries in the UK and US.  She has been involved in arts residencies and research funded by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and benefitted from funding from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship trust. She has run workshops for Middlesex University, the Royal College of Art, Emory University Atlanta, Selvedge, and the Japan Society, London.

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