Sarah Nguyen

Sarah Nguyen

There are only two things that I wanted to be in this life, an artist and a mother. My work is inspired by the intricacies of family life and of familial relationships. I use a balance of abstract and representational forms in order to sever the connection between shape and meaning, connecting the viewer instead to the gesture of the brush or cut of the knife, so that s/he becomes complicit in the art. Myths, reverence and refinement of nature, and observance of daily life, are the concepts behind my work, expressing the vulnerability of motherhood and my own obsession of caring for a son with a fatal genetic disease.

How Does your Garden Grow? Consist two Jacob Ladder books. One side of the Jacob Ladder’s books contains printed images of original paintings of plants, which have been used to assist abortions, and the other side has information of how each plant was used in abortions. The Jacobs’ ladder format references the child’s toy and has biblical implications. The paintings of the plants are impressions of the plants. They are not botanically accurate paintings. Nor are the instructions, formulas, and information about the plants, any more than vague descriptions of what these plants were used for and how they were used. These books are not meant to guide or instruct women on how to obtain abortions through these particular means. These plants are not viable options to reproductive health. They are meant to only be impressions of the past and predictions for the future. Can be viewed at the Special Collections, Tutt Library, Colorado College. This series is part of my work which addresses political and cultural happenings in the United States of America. The stories and myths of a culture convey a sense of place and a sense of the people who inhabit that place. In this way, visual art that interacts with with a story enters a narrative sphere where it must encounter the local.