questions / answers, July 2020

Posted on July 9, 2020September 7, 2020 Posted in artist statementsTagged Amy Bornman, art practice, art-making, arts workers for Black lives, book, books, Caitlin Metz, Carol Lee Flinders, communion, community, creativity, drawing, embodiment, friends, garden, generative, learning to see, morning pages, museum workers, painting, paying attention, presence, process, reading, readmorewomen, rejecting white supremacy, sketchbook, sketchbook practice, Spirit, trust the process, urban garden, Veronica Aranda, writingLeave a comment

Last week, I answered these questions for an instagram feature curated by artist and teacher Veronica Aranda.

links: 1 // 2 // 3

What is your artistic practice?

I am a visual artist who makes paintings and drawings, and enjoys playing around in other mediums when given the opportunity. I have been keeping journals and sketchbooks since I was a child, and consider daily writing or sketching to be a crucial part of my practice. My work uses observation of patterns as a framework for considering attention, embodiment, and communion.

What is art for you?

Art is learning to see more clearly, and responding in a generative way. I think about “learning to see” in the senses of honing my skills of observation, growing in the ability to remain connected to the present moment, and of paying attention to reality in the world and in myself, even (particularly!) when it’s difficult. For me, this is a spiritual practice.

What/Who/Where inspires or motivates you for your artistic practice?

This week, I’ve found inspiration in: cherry tomatoes ripening in our container garden, the book “Enduring Lives: Portraits of Women and Faith in Action” by Carol Lee Flinders, colleagues across the museum field who continue to call leaders to account for institutional racism and unfair labor practices, writings on pregnancy by Amy Bornman and Caitlin Metz, and conversations with a dear friend about the false divide between art and craft.

our wedding, one year later

Posted on October 17, 2018 Posted in reflectionTagged anniversary, celebration, hope, love, presence, wedding2 Comments

*one year + one month later

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our wedding, one year later | Lynnette Therese Sauer

I never understood when people said their wedding day was the best day of their lives, until I had such a deeply good day on ours. We were surrounded by all of our family and friends, hosted at the home of friends, ate our go-to Indy fast food, and had a party. There were a lot of people, and a lot of planning went into it, but in the end it felt natural and celebratory. I’d dealt with a lot of anxiety in the year prior, and was nervous that I would be so paralyzed with it that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the day. But the weather was gorgeous, and I felt so present to the day and its joy. What a gift.

And of course, Andy and I got to stand up and tell our truth – we love each other, and we promise to continue in that love for as long and as deeply as we can.

A couple months ago, I re-read our vows to each other. I think I was a little afraid that the words would be too specific to the people we were then. It’s only been a year, but they way I think about things has shifted; I see differently.

After reading them, I felt buoyed and hopeful, like these things are still true and they are spacious enough to keep walking in together for many years to come.

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Fine Lines

Posted on April 25, 2016June 11, 2019 Posted in artist statements, exhibitionsTagged art, art practice, BFA thesis semester, books, collaboration, college, drawing, friends, grace, gray, Indianapolis, learning, learning to see, line, line drawing, painting, paying attention, practice, presence, process, sketchbook, sketchbook practice, text drawing, thesisLeave a comment

This spring, I worked with Etta and Aaron (both seniors in the printmaking department) to create our joint thesis show, entitled Fine Lines. Completing a painting thesis at Herron includes several elements: an exhibition, oral review, and paper; the pieces displayed at Fine Lines represent several years of (conceptual and visual) idea development. Creating this show helped bring together components of my art practice which I’d previously seen as separate and difficult to reconcile. It provided space to consider the works in relationship to each other, the typically unseen elements of my art-making process, and real people who interacted with them. In the end, this portion of the thesis work was simply an extension of the rest of my years of Herron – art as process, as teacher, as connector.

The photos / statements below recap the visual part of my thesis work as seen at our show, which took place on April 15, 2016 at The Oilwick.

Show Statement: Marietta Miller, Aaron Green and Lynnette Sauer’s thesis exhibition is a celebration of line in drawing, printmaking, and painting. The work is thematically varied but unified by their love of mark making. Fine Lines references the idiom “There is a fine line between x and y.” It is in the fragile in-between, the gray areas, that Marietta, Aaron, and Lynnette find inspiration for their work.

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process project / thesis semester: intro

Posted on January 24, 2016April 14, 2017 Posted in sketchbookTagged BFA thesis semester, discipline, learning, painting, paying attention, practice, presence, process, process project, process project: BFA thesis semester, research, sketchbook, studio, studio practice, writingLeave a comment

Something like research / documentation / studio practice / progress / paying attention. Making a thesis exhibition (+ writing, etc.) happen.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

process project / intro | LTS

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end of semester / artist statement

Posted on December 17, 2015February 7, 2017 Posted in artist statementsTagged art-making, body, college, creativity, embodiment, grace, holistic living, learning, learning to see, lessons learned, pattern, patterns, paying attention, presence, process, repetition, sketchbook, wholeness1 Comment

In seeking to better pay attention, the art principles of pattern and repetition emerge as useful tools. Much of our learning relates to the recognition of patterns, whether biological, aesthetic, mathematical, or otherwise. By pointing out things we may have missed the first or second (or third) time around, they help us to notice.

This work¹ maps, tracks, and presents as evidence some of the repetitions in my life. It takes advantage of the power of pattern in several ways: as documentation, remembrance, meditation, points of empathy, and studies in aesthetics. The physical processes inherent in art-making demand that embodiment accompany mental-spiritual presence, and embodiment is always relational.

“I am stumbling in pursuit of grace²” – wholeness, healed-ness, holiness – for “out of wholeness we make good things.³”

Out of wholeness, we love.

¹some of it is here: lynnettetherese.com/portfolio
²Sarah Kay spoke this.
³Shauna Niequist tweeted this.

lynnette therese sauer

Tag: presence