Meet Sara O. Bledsoe | Artist and Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara O. Bledsoe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara O., is there something you can share with us that those outside of the industry might not be aware of?
The old saw that there are no jobs in art and one will starve to death need to be put to bed. If you replace “art” with “design” , it becomes clear that we live in a designed world from stamps to clothes to house to home furnishings to cars and on and on. None of the above can be picked off a tree. The woman who designed emojies for the internet is not a household name, but emojies have worldwide recognition.
To be successful in art and creative endeavors, you must also be entrepreneurial and acquire bookkeeping and marketing skills.
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Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have wanted to be an artist and a writer since the second grade. My favorite subjects were horses. I drew a horse a day in Third Grade. I stopped by Fourth Grade because we’re not getting any better, and I did not have feedback on my drawings. Seeing a need, years later I wrote and illustrated two books on horse drawing for beginners and used them as workbooks for my horse drawing workshops and classes. The books sold out.
It was hard keeping the art spirit alive while working in corporate America. Ironically, if a place was a good and caring place, they usually paid very little. If the company paid well, it seemed to care much less about employees. I am very glad to have my corporate days behind me.
My intention since I was 52 has been on filling in gaps in my initial art education at Colorado Women’s College. I have done that with numerous classes and workshops.
Horses, flowers, trees are my favorite subjects. I am known for my gesture (pronounced jesture) drawings of horses, drawn in seconds, not minutes, of live horses in front of me. Gesture drawings are done fast with a few lines, showing energy, direction, and weight throw a loose form. I also do finished a horse drawings with shading, often in charcoal or pencil.
Flowers and trees get my attention too. I use painting, mostly watercolor and bright inks, for them. In the last several years I have gone back to mixed media (watercolor or inks, glue, pastels, and the like) for florals.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my best friend was visiting, I would take her north of Sterling to Sterling Reservoir for a walk by the water. Next I would show her Bradford Rhea’s sculptures in Sterling’s parks and stop by Sterling Creatives’ store at 129 North Third Street to browse among twelve different local artists’ arts and crafts, including paintings, drawings, lino-cuts, jewelry, woodworking, and soaps among others. Lunch would be at Simkins’ Parlour on Main Sreet. Afternoon we would tour the century-plus old courthouse and stop at Zoe’s Nook for children’s gifts and the High Plains Spice Shop for spices, teas, coffees, and wines. All three are on Main Street in one block.
For dinner we would visit The Grill at River City and later attend one of five movies at the Fox Five Theater.
The next day, time permitting, we would stop at the Old Library Mercantile and pick up a hot tiger chai in the basement, then view the two art galleries at Northeastern Junior College
and tour the Overland Trail Museum east of the overpass.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to a long list of inspiring art instructors from several colleges and workshops, including Norteastern Junior College in Sterling; my monthly drawing and painting group in Brush; my art partner Kathryn (Kathy); and Sterling Creatives, an artists’ co-op on North Third Street in Sterling, Colorado, where I am a member and show my artwork.

Other: sterlingcreatives@gmail.com

Image Credits
Photo of Sara O. Bledsoe by Will Ross. Photos of Sara’s artwork by Sara O. Bledsoe