Artist Diaries
Sarah Carlin-Ball
Artist, poet, meditator
When Sarah began a meditation practice fourteen years ago, she began painting and writing in earnest. The vivid sense of connection and oneness that she experienced in meditation moved her to express this harmony in her artwork. In her poem, Battle Cry, she wrote:
In stillness, rest — in love.
Hear the wind through the trees.
Feel your heart sing. See birds fly.
The life force hums through all.
You’re connected, you, all things.
While her main intention was to infuse her work with moments of resting in love, of calm and ease, and of freedom, more recently the work creates itself and Sarah follows along with her brush. Much of her work also points to the legacy of waste and carelessness humans are leaving behind on this planet — to the urgency of our predicament. Our way of life is harmful and she puts forward this question: Will we change?
Sarah’s acrylic paintings, collages, and linoblock prints comprise rich colours and vibrant textures that convey light/energy, our place in the world, and our potential for freedom. Not freedom to do as we wish, but freedom from suffering and from the prisons we make for ourselves with our very own minds.
Sarah currently teaches meditation courses for The Centre for Mindfulness in Muskoka, is one of several sangha leaders in the Muskoka Mindfulness Community, and has worked closely with several different dharma and non-dual teachers.
Artist Statement
There is an order to nature — a pattern — and humans are part of that pattern. So often, we are out of sync with that pattern, struggling against nature — including our human nature. We dam up waters, corral earth’s creatures, clear cut forests. Our culture is filled with symptoms of our internal struggles: intolerance, depression, anxiety, anger, doubt... Caught up in the stress of daily living, our focus can be very narrow. Many of us completely lose sight of the pattern — the intricate interwoven suchness of existence. We hear this in the words of sages: “what we do to the web, we do to ourselves.”
When I pause in nature or in meditation or in connecting with others and I’m able drop out of my narrow focus, something greater than all of us opens up. We are part of this intricate and beautiful flow of existence. If this comes through in my artwork, then perhaps it contributes a little to the movement toward kindness and care and away from hatred and greed. This is the same movement that will hold us back from the brink of environmental disaster.
Artist CV
EXHIBITION HISTORY (group exhibitions unless otherwise indicated)
A Conversation with Nature, with Carole Davidson, Alex Dufresne Gallery, Callander, Ont. May 2021
Life’s Longing for Itself, solo, Downstairs Gallery, Powassan, Ont. Sept 1 – October 15, 2019
Respect for Earth, NOVAH Galleries, North Bay, Ont. May 4 – June 15, 2019
(Curated and participated in this group exhibition of 18 artists, 60 works of art)
Petit Noel, Alex Dufresne Gallery, Callander, Ont. November & December 2018
Canada 150, Art on Main, North Bay, Ont. July 2017
Art Day, one-day solo exhbition and workshop, United Church, Chisholm, Ont. February 2017
Solo exhibiton, District Public Library Gallery, Powassan, Ont. March 2016
Shadowscapes, with David Carlin, Art on Main, North Bay, Ont. November 2015
10th Anniversary Members’ Show, Art on Main, North Bay, Ont. June 2015
Annual Members’ Christmas show, Art on Main, North Bay Annually, December, 2014-17
Collective retail display, Art on Main, North Bay, Ont. 2014-17
Patterns, Baked & Battered restaurant & gallery, Haliburton, Ont. May 2014
Members’ Exhibition, Rail’s End Gallery, Haliburton, Ont. 2012 & 2014
MEMBERSHIPS
Alex Dufresne Gallery, Callander, Ont. joined 2018
Art on Main, North Bay, Ont., Member, Vice-Chair, Co-Chair respectively 2014, 2015, 2016-17
Rail’s End Gallery, Haliburton, Ont. 2012-17
EDUCATION
Painting from the Model, Haliburton School of the Arts, Haliburton, Ont. 2012
Graphic design, selected courses, George Brown College, Toronto, Ont. 1999-2003
Bachelor of Arts, Honours, Nipissing University, North Bay, Ont. 1996
(English literature; secondary focus in fine art)
PUBLICATIONS
Unbroken, illustrated poetry chapbook 2017
Promise, illustrated poetry chapbook 2016
Selected works appear in The Artists of Haliburton, featuring artists of Haliburton County 2014
Water-back and a Path Among Lakes, illustrated poetry chapbook 1998
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE & AWARDS
Graphic designer, Patient News & The Haliburton Echo, Haliburton, Ont. 2003-14
Newsletter on Newsletters Gold award & OCNA Best Creative Ad respectively 2007, 2014
Sarah’s work is currently represented by Michelle’s Frame Maker and Gallery in North Bay, Ontario
