Sarah Marris-Swann is an artist from Utica, New York working predominantly in acrylic painting, printmaking, and creative reuse. She spent the last decade working as a nurse in Utica, Kolkata, Seattle, and then returning to Utica again during the COVID-19 pandemic. She began painting in her free time as a way of processing her personal and professional experiences, and in 2023, she left the nursing profession to pursue art, community engagement, and the formation of a creative reuse center in Utica.

I’m drawn to documenting the inner worlds of the people around me, and the deep, personal meanings that seemingly ordinary places and things can contain. My work explores themes of human connection, loss, and displacement; centering mundane elements that become sacred through these experiences.

I use a combination of styles and media to express our chaotic and emotional experience of the passage of time, and the disintegration, distortion, and censorship that exists in the fractured and imperfect nature of memory. High-contrast light and shadow are often present in my paintings, as well as plants and flowers with symbolic meanings. I include architectural elements in many works; examining the natural and built environments in different contexts as witness, stage, and monument to our shared history.