Eroticism, the subconscious, and “automatic drawing,” or drawing in which the hand is allowed to move randomly across the paper, all point to a surrealistic aspect in Sara’s work.

Sara has long admired Giorgio de Chirico, founder of the Scuola Metafisica art movement (“ … even his crazy late works,” she has said), and her heavy lines are a nod to German painter Max Beckmann. Also detectable in her work are the influences of sculptor Paul McCarthy and caricaturist Barry McGee.

 A resident of both Miami (during the winter) and the state of Maine (during the summer) for the past several years, Sara has found herself increasingly inspired by nature. Although her earlier drawings were mostly “grisaille” (a method of painting in gray monochrome, typically to imitate sculpture), she has since added vibrant colors. “(This) was a joyous reaction to flowers I planted in my garden in Maine,” she explains. Still, she is interested, she says, in exploring the deeper, sometimes darker, side of the human experience.

“My work has always had an organic, visceral, flesh-based aspect, which I consider to be part of my concern with life issues such as vulnerability and passion,” she has said.

For more information about Sara Stites, visit her website www.sarastites.com and find her on Instagram at @sarastitesartist