SARAH RAKES

Sarah Rakes is a self-taught artist who challenges a more established type of naïve painting. Strong, bright, layered colors are the primary means of communication in her paintings and sculptures, with line and pattern used as symbols. The frames are hand made and painted imagery in the paintings is often narrative. Born in Arkansas' Ozark Mountains in 1955, Sarah Rakes has always lived in a rural environment. When she was eight, the Nelson Rockefeller Artmobile visited her school; this was her first exposure to art. From that point, Rakes knew she would be an artist. Her early media were crayons and paper, and she has progressed to oil on canvas, acrylic on wood, oil pastels, gouache, and other mixed media. Continuing to educate herself about art, she visits museums, reads, and studies. Rakes lives in an isolated area of Georgia and her work reflects this. Away from the mainstream, she as developed an artistic style of her own.