Spotlight: Sarah Entsminger, Fiber Artist

Sarah Entsminger creates fiber art inspired by the landscapes and nature around her. She captures the essence with her photography and then creates her detailed pieces using a variety of creative media.

How did you find yourself on an artist’s path? Always there? Lightbulb moment?

I have always been an artist. My earliest memories include an easel (and wooden box to stand on) that my father made for me when I was 3. I would stand outside in the carport and paint until the paint pots ran dry.

Art was a part of me, and I never questioned how intrinsic and essential it was, until I reached high school and the critics’ voices began to repeat loudly in my head and cloud my decision-making. I stepped away from art for some time, working toward a more traditional and “acceptable” career, although I always turned to art for solace during times of stress, grief, or major transitions.

After a few years, I allowed myself to work in various media as a hobby. I took more years than it should have for me to open the door fully. Art once again became the primary focus in my life, not an afterthought. 

How does your environment influence your creativity?

I live in northern Virginia, where we experience four distinct seasons. I walk regularly through a variety of parks, woodlands and meadows near my home or within easy driving distance. Being outside in nature has always been where I’ve drawn strength, remembered those whose loss I still grieve, and built images of artwork in my mind.

I walk with a camera in hand to record details and vistas to use as references in my artwork. My Mother taught me to notice the beauty in the smallest details of nature, and how natural elements work together to create our place in the world.

When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improvisor?

I am both. I spend a great deal of time planning a piece, often reworking it constantly in my mind, until I am ready to gather my materials and begin.

Once an artwork is underway, I’m completely amenable to allowing the piece to direct the work as it progresses. 

Describe your creative space.

My studio is in my home and I’m fortunate enough to have space for four worktables, at different heights, some moveable as needed.

Natural light streams through the windows, keeping me connected to the landscape outside. I move between the worktables, the design wall, and my sewing machine – sort of like the magic triangle that kitchen designers talk about. The space allows me to have more than one piece under construction at once, which is especially helpful when working on a diptych or triptych where I need to be able to see how the color moves across the surface of each piece.

I keep my fabrics in ventilated bins in the closet, separated by color. Keeping my fabrics out of the workspace, except for a specific project under construction, and organizing my art supplies by type and purpose, allows me to concentrate on creating an artwork without the siren’s call of color to distract me.

Are you a finisher? How many UFOs do you think you have?

I only finish the projects that need to be finished.

Some projects are only meant to teach me about a specific type of media, different threads, different ideas, or simple experiments with various art supplies. These projects don’t need to be finished, they can be put aside or thrown away once I’ve learned what I need to know.

I don’t keep track of UFOs, sometimes I take elements out of one piece and add to another, or I will finish a piece later when the ideas are more fully formed in my mind. 

How often do you start a new project? Do you work actively on more than one project at a time? 

I make artwork because I need to make it, or an idea refuses to leave my mind until I give it time and space, but not on a specific timetable.

I do like working toward a deadline as it helps with closure and pushes me to finish a piece in a discrete time frame, as opposed to letting it linger much too long.

I work on more than one piece at a time, sometimes I’m waiting for paint to dry, or for an idea to simmer, or simply because I don’t want to do a specific task on a given day. Working on more than one idea at a time helps to keep my mind active and consider different solutions to problems. 

Can you tell us the inspiration and beginning process for your work?

The inspiration for my work comes from memories of places I have visited, recorded with my camera, or created in my imagination. My camera serves as a sketchbook to record color, texture, and detail.

Photographs are too detailed and expansive to use in creating my artwork alone, it is impossible to include every leaf, branch, or blade of grass. What I want to convey instead, is how I see a particular landscape and how my interpretation makes me feel as I work.

I begin with a simple fabric base and then layer, manipulate, and add elements as needed to keep moving forward.

Which part of the design process is your favorite?

Definitely the planning prior to beginning. I love trying all sorts of ideas in my head as I work toward the creation of a new project.

I spend a great deal of time in the thinking stage, trying and discarding many different images in my mind, and this is often a longer process than the actual construction of the piece. 

Is there an overarching theme that connects all of your work?

Yes, I’m a landscape artist.

While I admire all the variety in work created by others, I’m drawn to depictions of the natural world in my own work. There is an endless number of ideas and elements that could be used – season, time of day, weather, physical location, point of view, and so many others. I don’t think it is possible to run out of ideas of landscape images to create. 

How has your creativity evolved over the years? What triggered the evolution to new media or ways of working?

My artwork changed a great deal when I realized that I could combine a vast number of fine art supplies and surface design work on a fabric base.

Media I most often use includes color pencils (both water soluble and not), acrylic paint, acrylic inks, wax pastel, gelato paint sticks, and others.

Fabric is incredibly versatile and so many techniques can be used to create an image as long as you don’t put it on stretcher bars before you begin. Fabric has been used as a substrate for art for centuries, look around any fine artist’s studio and you will see fabric on stretcher bars all over the place.

Are there any rules, guidelines, or restrictions you try to adhere to in your work? 

In general, I don’t like rules or restrictions, but I have changed my artistic style to an increasingly spare style in search of calm and simplicity in expression.

This quote by Hans Hofman describes my desire to reduce visual overload – “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” This style of working leads me to continually look for the minimal elements necessary to illustrate a landscape, or what it feels like to be in a particular place.

By purposefully reducing and abstracting elements, it allows a viewer to overlay their personal memories and experiences with my work creating a collective sense of place. 

How do you know when a piece is finished?

This is very hard. I’m one of those artists still fine-tuning tiny bits as I prepare a piece for shipment or delivery. While I can decide when the piece has matured to the finish line, it’s just those pesky tiny details continually catching my eye. 

What is the best piece of advice you’ve received in your creative journey?

To learn to trust myself. Tuning out the voices of others as I build a piece is critical so that I can be sure I’m telling the story I need to tell or illustrating an idea the way I see it in my mind. Looking for approval or seeking other opinions simply distracts me from the work that I need to do, although it is always temping to show a work in process to others.

Yes, I will participate in some types of critique groups, but it is often only with work that I’m not emotionally attached to. 

Where can people see your work?

My work can be seen on my website, www.studioatripplingwaters.com 

Interview posted August 2024