Statement (2026)

Flowers are an ongoing theme in my drawings. Without flowers the world as we know it simply wouldn’t exist, not just aesthetically, but evolutionary. The inspiration for the most recent works are drawn from my mom’s garden in rural Oregon and from my time as an artist-in-residence at PLAYA in Summer Lake, OR.  

Each drawing is an unfolding idea, beginning in ink without much of a plan besides that of something that interests me: something I’ve drawn in a sketchbook, or closely observed, or a vision. From there it becomes an adventure. Through the accumulations of lines and dots an internal logic forms in each drawing.

Depictions of branches, snails, fruit, and flowers are entangled among hexagonal forms of snowflakes. The abstract doodle-drawn sixfold symmetry of ice crystals signals constant change and transformation: enlarging and shrinking, taking on different colors and moods. I see these drawings as a discussion of growth and fruitfulness amongst the constant tumult of seasonal changes and anthropocentric influences.

In my work I think about the experience of looking at nature closely and how that connects us to wonder and ourselves. This past year I’ve often thought about a quote by Georgia O’Keefe, “Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”

Statement (2022)

My fascination with non-linear patterns in nature drives my work. I consider how our relationship to nature is mediated both by our objective understanding and our subjective imagining of it. I think of how wonder is important to our connection to the world.

Drawing, in its immediacy and intimacy, allows me to go beyond trying to render or "copy" things I observe. Drawing allows me empathize and imagine a narrative or event that I wouldn't be able to witness otherwise. Bridging the gap between what I know and what I feel, the transparency in the making of a drawing is a way to understand my imagined relationship to nature. Automatic and repetitive, my drawing practice engages with letting small decisions and chance affect the outcome of my work. 

After experiencing a historic blizzard, I began making drawings based on snow crystals and their intricate structures. Snowflakes are not symmetrical; they are smushed together or broken apart by the time they fall to the earth. Perfect snow crystals are rare. I learned this as I grappled with the grief of having chronic illnesses, and snow crystals became a metaphor for the body. A perfectly functioning body is equally rare. Flaws and mistakes became central to the drawings, as I embraced them rather than abandoning them.

Imagining different registers of time—the beginning bloom of snow crystals within clouds, the fall in a storm, and the aftermath—I gather up microscopic and macroscopic relationships in my drawings. I think of how these things affect and depend on each other-- things break but the breaking creates new growth. Complex patterns and relationships give rise to the unexpected, catalyzing the viewer into a state of wonder. I find that wonder is a salve to grief, depression, and worry. Wonder allows you to wander elsewhere.

Words have recently tucked themselves into the elbows of lines and secreted among passages in my drawings. I began a dedicated sketchbook practice during the pandemic, I noticed a pattern of words that formed reassuring and bewildering phrases. Finding acceptance for what cannot change is a huge labor, and one that I seldom succeed at doing well. The words are the things I want the most, behind each leaf, cluster of raindrops, bit of frost—growing bolder.

Although my work is shaped by my recent personal hurdles, my interest in nature and looking spans years. Learning about nature is difficult in this time of endless ecological problems and drastic climate change. Looking deeply and being immersed in details de-centers the self and becomes restorative. My work is a search for connection through wonder.

Bio

Sarah Morejohn grew up in rural southern Oregon, and currently lives and works in Oakland, CA. In 2011 she earned a BFA in painting and drawing from the University of Oregon. Her drawings are a part of numerous private collections, and in permanent public collections at Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY), Huestis Hall at the University of Oregon (Eugene, OR), and Project Art & Medical Museum at the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (Iowa City, IA). She is represented by Bryant Street Gallery (Palo Alto, CA) and Kenise Barnes Fine Art (Kent, CT). She been awarded several artist-in-residence at PLAYA (Summer Lake, OR), Jentel (Sheridan, WY) and Lacawac Sanctuary and Biological Field Station (Lake Ariel, PA). She has been published in Superstition Review and Hyperallergic. Morejohn lives with her husband and bunny, and makes the second bedroom of their home her studio.

Represented by Bryant Street Gallery and Kenise Barnes Fine Art

Questions and inquires? sarah.morejohn@gmail.com