Sarah Bachrodt

Sarah Bachrodt was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois in 1944. A recurring visitor to Chicago’s Field Art Museum throughout her youth, Sarah was enamored by the institution’s collection of native American art. The way each work was imbued with their own sense of spirituality, each line conveying a different message to a god or deity, communicating volumes about art’s ability to heal and protect. The communicative and protective powers of the works inspired Bachrodt to create works of her own, to cloak herself, her home, and family in thoughts and expressions that would protect them.

Bachrodt’s desire to paint was also born out of emotional necessity: in the wake of personal tragedies and the loss of loved ones, the practicing poet relished in discovering new ways to channel her feelings, record experiences and make sense of her surroundings. Writing poetry allowed her to better understand her feelings and find clarity to cope with life’s challenging moments. Bachrodt art works study self- reflection and spiritual discovery through color, movement and line.

Artistry:
After relocating to Boca Raton, Florida in the mid 1980s, Bachrodt was inspired by tropical Florida landscape. Staring into the face of a flower, she studied the ways in which pigment pooled in its petals, and explored the relationship between color and space in her paintings.

Through their broad expressive strokes, layered textures and intricate use of color, Bachrodt’s abstract expressionist works are intuitive pieces to be experienced. Bachrodt doesn’t title her paintings, because rather than limit the evocative possibilities of a piece, Bachrodt believes in letting viewers extract what they may from her works. While they are profoundly personal recordings of her thoughts, feelings, and experiences, there isn’t one singular or uniform way to interpret or understand them.

The movement of light and paint found in Bachrodt’s paintings have been compared to that of Joan Mitchell. The use of line in her works were evocative of works by Jackson Pollock, and her interest in color reminiscent of Mark Rothko.