Showcase: Artist Sarah Z. Short

Collage artist and printmaker Sarah Z Short talks to us about her creative practice using books, paper and print.

Tell us about the art that you create:

My artwork preserves the past and reminds the viewer of the beauty in discarded and forgotten pieces of ephemera. Taking classes from artists who use books and ephemera as their primary materials changed my art practice, because as an English teacher and voracious reader, I loved everything about books. Understanding that I could create new stories with these old papers opened up the possibilities of how I worked with collage.

I’m interested in abstracting typography, so that it reads more like an image than a word. I’m a writer, and at first included found words in my collage art. But I found that distracting, because I didn’t want to force my stories on those looking at my art. The narrative is now for the viewer to imagine.

What do you look for in the materials you use?

I look for materials that time has touched with marks, fading colours and the handwriting of people long gone. I’m their caretaker, giving their signature, margin notes or accounting notes in a farm ledger a chance to be seen again. At the same time, I protect their privacy, and only I know the most personal parts of their stories.

I salvage books and papers that are headed for the trash – books that the libraries don’t want as donations, and what families clean out in estate sales. Most of my materials are pre-1960s because of the quality of the paper, the fabric colours in the hardcover books, and the marks that age and readers have left on the papers. Sun damage, foxing, rips, water stains… those are all interesting details. There is life in the old papers, and I have a hard time using anything new because I don’t feel the same connection.

Could you describe your creative process from start to finish?

My first decisions, when I start a new piece, are what letters to print, on which sheets of vintage paper and with which colours. I think of this part of my process as play. The composition of these pages, deciding how to structure the piece, and what to cover up or cut out, is the work of my art.

The process begins with printmaking. I select wooden type, not because of the letters or numbers, but because of the shapes I can create when I set them in different combinations. My vintage papers are organised by category, so I open drawers and find pages in sizes and colours that catch my eye. From there, I mix paints and print, usually spending the entire day printing.

Once they are dry, I start cutting and composing on wooden panels, creating the composition as I go. The details I want to keep or hide on the papers direct the composition. I feel like I just get out of the way of what they want to do.

Are there any tools or techniques that are especially important or essential to your process?

I have three letterpresses and hundreds of pieces of type, mostly wooden and poster-sized. It helps that I’m organised, because there are thousands of pieces of paper in my studio. My favourite tools are my brayers – some for printing and some for helping me to glue the papers without wrinkles and bubbles. A recent discovery, one that I’m very excited about, is pages and pages of dry-transfer Letratype. New materials can spark new collections!

How did your background as an English teacher influence your path towards becoming an artist?

I’ve been making things my entire life, so art isn’t a new development for me. My favourite part about being a teacher was the creativity and dreaming up ways to teach my middle-school students to love books. I’d have them create collages or write and bind books as part of novel study units because hands-on activities are more engaging than essays and questions. The more you watch kids engage with art, the more you want to do it yourself. As developments with the curriculum began to limit how much time I had to do this type of project with them, I leaned into my personal art practice even more, and eventually left the classroom.

What are you currently exploring or curious about in your work?

Some of my favourite pieces have a delicate balance of bold typography and the open space of layered vintage papers. They feel like poetry, and I’d like to create a series around that balance of soft and bold. In my most recent exhibition, in Colorado, I saw that those were the pieces that people really related to.

Do you see parallels between your practice and traditional forms of craft?

Collage artists, bookbinders, printmakers, watchmakers… we treasure our materials and want to create something new and beautiful that will last a lifetime. 

sarahzshort.com

IMAGE CREDIT: Amy Kristin Photography