Sara Joseph

Sara Joseph, co-owner of Artists' Showplace Gallery, creates bas-relief sculpture in polymer clay. For her, the medium has always taken a back seat to the thrill of the story-telling potential of art.

"Art has the power to move another deeply, even if they would not usually admit to being artistically inclined. It is even more potent when a story is woven through the artwork."

She employs multiple media, from oils and acrylics to watercolor, collage and mixed media to tell a single story. Once content to merely reflect the material world around her, today Sara Joseph is passionate about expressing her response to that tangible world, through the lens of her faith in Jesus Christ.

"One memorable night, many years ago, a simple prayer changed me, and my life and has never been the same since. I am keen on sharing that love story - my story, in whatever media is at hand.

An old classic song by Glen Campbell best captures the driving force behind my art."

If I had just one song, one song to sing,
To the world that we live in today,
I'd sing of the love, the wonderful love,
That helps me to walk down life's way,

I'd sing of the One, who loves me so,
He knows every breath that I take,
He's such a friend, on Him I depend,
To guide every step that I make

He suffered and died, that I might live,
To praise him is little to say,
I know you'd sing too, if you only knew,
This Savior I sing of today.
Glen Campbell

Instead of music, Sara Joseph works with pliable polymer clay; fluid passes of watercolor, oils, acrylics, poetry or mixed media, to explore the bottomless depths of that timeless theme.

"I may sound repetitive – but how can I ever be too grateful? Could anyone", she asks, "express heartfelt thanks too often?"

Sara Joseph has a BFA from Stella Maris College, Chennai, India. Her early training was in watercolor, in the restrained style of the East, where every stroke was in deliberate, transparent color. That restraint followed her for years, even though she was exposed to freer expression in watercolor at the Rhode Island School of Design. Transparent washes of luminous watercolor fascinated her for a long time, as she honed her ability to capture the world around her, without any thought to content, or meaning.

Later at the Creative Arts Center in Dallas, when Sara dug her fingers into moist terracotta clay, she was captivated with this new dimension of exploration. For six years she worked in earthenware and terracotta, grappling with the challenges of figurative sculpting using live models.

Making the transition to her current favorite medium of polymer clay was almost seamless. Polymer clay affords the opportunity to work in color and yet build in three dimensions. There is no shrinkage, or other change to the work after the firing; every aspect of creating with polymer clay is fairly predictable. Sara Joseph wields the clay like paint, then throws in the surprise of depth, by building up and out of the support, creating colorful relief sculptures.

"Regardless of the medium I use," she says, "if the content is without meaning, I feel I've missed an opportunity that I may never get again." So with conscious intent, Sara works at translating all the events, impressions and understanding of her human experience into multiple media, to best express the story that she has only one lifetime to tell.

Sara Joseph aspires to encourage others to do the same. She is the author and web master for Christian Artist Resource, a website that is dedicated to just that endeavor.

"It has been a unusual journey, connecting with contemporary Christian visual artists from around the world, realizing that we face common challenges. Who can tell where this journey will take us?

All I do know is that with Jesus, it has already been the adventure of a lifetime! He promises each of us abundant life, as we follow Him.

I've tasted that life, and it is good.

It has become an irrepressible force in me to creatively express and share that "Zoe" life, with every means at my disposal - whether through my art, my words, or my actions."

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