Utter, Sarah

Sarah Utter is a painter, designer, and musician from Olympia, Washington. Her artwork highlights a love of the natural world, bright colors, and layers of pattern taken from old wallpaper and textiles. Sarah played electric guitar in the band Bangs for seven years, and her artwork has appeared on numerous Kill Rock Stars and K Records releases. She is also a successful apparel designer, with her line of ‘Reading is Sexy’ shirts appearing everywhere from television’s The Gilmore Girls to libraries and museum shops worldwide. Sarah loves cadmium red, owls, letterpress printing, and walking in the woods. She lives with two dogs, two cats, and one human in a cabin overlooking the Puget Sound, and tries to make something every day.

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Chair Affair Artist

Sarah Utter is a painter, designer, and musician from Olympia, Washington. Her artwork highlights a love of the natural world, bright colors, and layers of pattern taken from old wallpaper and textiles. Sarah played electric guitar in the band Bangs for seven years, and her artwork has appeared on numerous Kill Rock Stars and K Records releases. She is also a successful apparel designer, with her line of ‘Reading is Sexy’ shirts appearing everywhere from television’s The Gilmore Girls to libraries and museum shops worldwide. Sarah loves cadmium red, owls, letterpress printing, and walking in the woods. She lives with two dogs, two cats, and one human in a cabin overlooking the Puget Sound, and tries to make something every day.

Little Owl Chair

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I found this child-size chair sitting by its lonesome at the thrift store, a few scribbles of green crayon decorating the seat. Who was the young artist that once sat here? I took it home, put it in my studio, and began to paint with no particular plan in mind. A black canvas came first; bright orange and turquoise appeared next. And then.. owls! Two owls, friends from the forest, looking curiously back at me as I continued to paint. 

I’m very lucky to live in a little cabin in the country where I can walk in the woods every day. I take in the patterns of life around me: falling leaves, alder bark, the feathers of birds busily going about their daily work, and these become the springboard for my painting. Filtered through a brighter lense, saturated in color and geometric flourishes, my work is a technicolor reflection of the natural world.