Biography

Sarah Ort is an artist from New Jersey who got her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022. Throughout her undergraduate career, she developed a practice with active imagination, automatic drawing, and therapeutic approaches to art making. She utilizes intuition to guide her work through countless imagined landscapes—forests of psychological data and oceans deepened by innate body wisdom. 
 
Her work is about building one's internal capacity to love, feed, hold, and forgive. This is an idea she learned from her work as an infant teacher. The bond between a child and a caregiver taught her what love can overcome, what it can give, and how it builds a person. It also inspired her to work in early intervention with art and other creative activities. 
 
She is currently a graduate student of Art Therapy at George Washington University. 

As an artist, I delve into the depths of my subconscious, utilizing walnut ink and graphite to unearth images embedded within my psyche. This meticulous process of active imagination allows me to revisit and reinterpret recurring imagery, seeking to grasp its deeper significance. The sources of these images are diverse, emerging from dreams, vivid meditations, and intuitive insights. My fascination with the formal aspects of drawing—such as value, contrast, and composition—drives me to meticulously define each shape through deliberate mark-making. The resulting artworks often exude a sense of unease or a dream-like intensity.

My practice is deeply informed by my studies in art therapy and explorations of the imaginal realm. This journey compels me to comprehend the interplay between an individual's internal archetypes and their reinforcement by external experiences. I perceive the self as a multifaceted narrative, akin to tuning into a subconscious frequency filled with myriad stations, conversations, and melodies. Deciphering these nuances necessitates repetition and is guided by the constraints and intentions I establish in my creative process. Through this practice, I gain profound wisdom and self-awareness.

As I continue to evolve, my artwork reflects this transformation; old patterns dissolve, making way for new ones to emerge amidst the creative flux. This dynamic progression enables me to move forward, continually discovering and expressing the complexities of the human experience.