Sari Shryack: Reinventing the Still Life
Based in Austin, Texas, artist Sari Shyrack has gained international recognition for her work as a painter. Often drawing inspiration from teen culture in the 1990s, Sari’s still life paintings pay homage to a time when translucent telephones, bubblegum flavored lip balm and sparkly notebooks were all the rage. In this interview, Sari shares her journey as an artist as well as her passion for exploring a wide range of subject matter - from still life to landscapes, and the occasional meme.
Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.
I was always kind of an artsy kid. I doodled a lot, but I grew up very poor and without a ton of opportunities so I didn’t have many options to expend my creative energy. It wasn’t until I got to college that I started taking any formal art classes. I had a very engaging painting professor and I just fell in love with it then.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
I think a better question is, where don’t I find inspiration? Ha. I feel very drawn to anything with exciting color relationships and dynamic light. Anything with that combination automatically becomes a contender for what I paint. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become a little more selective and shifted from focusing on the formal elements to a focus on the conceptual elements. Right now, I’m very interested in processing consumer goods that were sold to young women and older girls, as well as interesting landscapes and fun iconography like disco balls and grocery store aisles.
What led you to focus on painting still life objects, and how did you arrive at your current painting style?
I first started painting still life objects in college as a way to learn. I did not initially enjoy still life painting because it was boring and very difficult because I was new to painting. So I swore off it and thought I would never paint them again.
But when I moved to a suburb outside Austin, I found that my favorite subject matter— landscapes— were not as readily available to me. While unpacking groceries one day, I noticed that I really liked the way light hit them and thought it was very interesting. I previously had enjoyed painting direct light in my landscapes, so I applied this lighting style to my grocery hauls and found that you could actually say quite a bit with still life.
How has your work shifted and evolved over time?
I definitely feel like I am slowly beginning to curate what I spend time and energy with as a painter. When I first started, I was just so grateful to be able to paint for a living and fun, and I really wanted to improve my skill. So I painted a little bit of everything; I had a lot of access to landscapes and still lifes so I did a bunch of those as well as pieces from pop culture.
As I’ve gotten older, though, what interests me has become more refined as has my style. I do hold on and maintain as much of that enthusiasm and whimsy from my earlier days by continuing to choose bright, bold colors, but I’ve refined my technique and subject matter.
What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?
My studio practice largely revolves around my family schedule. I cherish being a Mom so I find myself pivoting between my work and my family throughout the day. If you met me in real life you would see a person who spends most of her day doing “Mom” things with a couple hours spent in the studio. But I do have a consistent painting schedule with my kids; I sort of have to with my two young children.
Every morning after I make breakfast and put the baby down for a nap, I head out to my backyard studio, which is a wonderful place to go that is a little bit separate from the house. Since I’m very diligent about cleaning up the night before and preparing my materials, I can usually just jump into my paintings for the day. I’m very productive when I’m in the studio. I’ll spend two hours in the morning and if I’m lucky I’ll get one or two hours during the baby’s afternoon nap.
My practice has recently changed as my husband now works from home, which allows me to have more flexibility in the studio if I’m working on multiple projects.
Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?
I was drawn to art because I like working with my hands and I needed a place to sit and express my ideas. I’ve always struggled in getting out my ideas with writing, but art— even before I took formal classes— has been an arena where I didn’t feel limited by my shortcomings.
My desire to create has been intensified by my desire to connect with an audience and share my story with people who have had similar experiences as me. Sometimes those things are as broad and shallow as a meme, and sometimes they are deeper and more intimate like my childhood spent in poverty. But the connection with my audience is what keeps me coming back.
How has Instagram impacted your art career?
Instagram has dramatically impacted my art career. I was told upon graduating college in 2014 that basically if I didn’t move to a large city, New York or LA, and pound pavement by going door to door to galleries to share my work, it would be extremely difficult to have an art career. In 2014, it was kind of the last year where that was a true statement.
After graduating I took a year and a half off from painting for personal reasons and when I finally got back into art, at the beginning of 2016, I began posting my drawings and watercolors paintings on Instagram. Since I was posting one piece a day, I used Instagram as an accountability tool to keep me motivated. By the time I felt like I was out of the rut I fell into post-college, it was late 2016 and early 2017 and Instagram had become a viable option for people to sell art. Because I saw this as my one chance to participate in the art world (while not having to uproot my life by moving to New York or LA), I hit it really hard. I learned marketing tactics and made an abundance of content and was really engaged on the platform. I thought that if there was a chance for me to be in the art world without the traditional approach, I was going to go all-in on that.
I recently have slowly been able to step back from the intensity at which I approached Instagram in prior years, but I do think that Instagram is something that’s always going to be present in the art world.
What are your future goals and aspirations?
Even if I kept making art that felt really authentic and shared it, and was able to keep paying my bills with that income, I think that would be a pretty great victory. But if I’m dreaming, I would like to help make the art world a more welcoming space for everyone. Breaking down barriers and gates that are being kept is a constant goal of mine. One thing that the art world lacks is a desire to expand who is a part of the larger conversations, which can make it very out of touch. So if I can, with my life, leave the art world as a place where everyone feels welcome, I would be happy.
Website: www.sari.studio
Instagram: @not_sorry_art