Let’s meet autodidactic artist Sarah McCoy.
Sarah began to paint only a little more than three years ago, after a mental health crisis. Following a hospitalization of several months, and an autism diagnosis, she found herself unemployed and uncertain what to do, having graduated with a law degree in 2016. Feeling she needed to do something to pull herself out of depression and to be productive, she took a job at a bicycle shop down the street, It was there that she began to sketch detailed drawings of insects during the slow season.
Sarah taught herself how to paint. She just decided one day to start, and began to watch videos on Youtube. She doesn’t claim to have a lot of influences or mentors, but fairly early in the process she connected with an artist in San Francisco named Cassandra, through the online autistic community on Instagram. Cassandra would follow her work as she would post progress shots, and then send Sarah helpful messages to guide her process.
It’s no wonder that Jesús the cat makes frequent appearances in Sarah’s work. He made himself the center of attention during the whole interview, misbehaving if his demands for lots of pets were not met.
One of the themes in Sarah’s work that just sort of happened was selecting subjects who experience low self-esteem. A beautiful portrait of her friend Leland happened after he posted the selfie (which became the reference photo) on Instagram. Leland’s struggles keep him home most of the time. Sarah and I agreed that the intensity of expression in Leland’s face that she conveyed cannot be put into words.
Leland’s portrait generated a discussion about Sarah’s painting style. She is proud of the fact that she prefers to defy advice, and experiments with contradictory techniques. When she first started to paint, she told herself that she could make images however she wanted, and chose to paint in bold blocks of vivid color, instead of utilizing a more realistic style. She noticed that doing so forced her to develop her skill in assessing and reproducing value in a rich but subtle way, blending the edges softly from one color to another. She described that technique as a “muddy airbrush look.”
Sarah has little interest in promoting her work commercially, preferring to trade with other artists (I’m a proud owner of a painting of Jesús), or even giving paintings away to friends sometimes. Her attitudes around this issue were undoubtedly influenced by childhood experiences as a pianist, in which she was forced into performing and competing. She also doesn’t like to pressure herself to complete commissions, as she feels the resulting work wouldn’t be her best. Sarah now works as an attorney for the City of Columbus Municipal Court, and is happy to maintain a separation between her career in law and her time at home painting.