The Art of Sarah Mills Bailey
Photographer
Lauren Portrait Art
Bio
Sarah Mills Bailey followed an unusual path to find herself a painter of abstract art. It was a progression that led her in its own way from scientist to artist. A native of New Orleans, Sarah studied microbiology at LSU in Baton Rouge and, at the graduate level, at Tulane University in New Orleans. Life itself was under the microscope and under control, orderly and predictable until her older daughter was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 2. The rigidity of work in medical research was untenable and unsustainable with an unpredictable schedule based on the occurrence of seizures. And there was a child to distract from the distress of chronic illness. Delving into the realm of arts and crafts, Sarah and her daughter searched for cast offs to reclaim with paint and fabric. The results were inspired! Home décor was the beginning. Soon she branched off into working solely with fabric, engaging her then school age daughter with the task of color and textile pattern selection.
With the birth of her second child, she knew just what she wanted to decorate the nursery. Having followed the creative impulse, and appreciating the joy it brought to her first child, she applied the brush strokes with a trust and anticipation perhaps unusual for a novice, led again by motherly compassion. Adding and scraping away paint as she explored not only the endeavor of painting, but beyond that, the depths of her inner experience, responding to life with all its unexpected turns. She found abstract art to be the perfect medium for expressing emotional range, not reacting to life but moving with it. The results, again, display their inspiration.
The artist lives with her husband and daughters, epilepsy free now, in San Antonio where there is much to celebrate and enjoy about life!