Mary Sauer

A Little Bit of Everything, a Great Deal of None, oil, 24 x 18" (61 x 46 cm)

INSPIRATION

I chose to paint this self-portrait with the theme of display, using the store as a metaphor for the image manufacturing that takes place on social media. My work deals a lot with using portraiture to show how we present an image to the world that is not actually reflective of our real selves. Just as a store displays items in an idealized way that is often outside the realm of their actual purpose, we often present a version of our life to others that is curated and is not reflective of our actual lives to “display” to others. By putting myself in the painting and quite literally in a store, it more fully brings the concept to life.

ARTISTIC PATH

I have always been interested in art since I can remember. In first grade, my teacher showed us paintings by Mary Cassatt, and I thought nothing was more beautiful or exciting. I went to college on a music scholarship but quickly decided that music would be a better avocation than a vocation and switched my major to art. I studied illustration in my undergrad because the faculty was excellent at figure drawing.

I spent two years apprenticing with the master artist William Whitaker, and I took classes and workshops at the Art Students League of New York and the Grand Central Academy of Art. I worked for two and half years for hyperrealist Jeff Koons in his New York studio. Working for Jeff gave me a taste of what it meant to be an internationally recognized artist. My big break came in 2012, when my painting Anna won best of show at Portrait Society’s annual conference and ended up on the cover of American Art Collector. That led to being approached by Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston who still represents me today.