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Sonia Lynn Sadler
Sonia Lynn Sadler was born on an army base in Kansas. As an “army brat” she
travelled to different countries and lived in five different states. She attended the Maryland Institute College of Art where she studied fine art and illustration. She also
graduated from Parsons School of Design. She enjoyed a successful career in fashion, working as a designer for Anne Klein, Jones New York and Liz Claiborne before dedicating herself full-time to creating fine art.
She learned to do scratchboards from her mother, a schoolteacher, and still employs the medium in most of her work. As a colorist, she is inspired by Matisse and she
employs a narrative style that is close in spirit to the great narrative series of Jacob Lawrence. Her vibrant paintings are rich with family stories and recollections and, at
times, revealing commentaries on issues of race and history.
Sadler has had a number of group and solo exhibitions nationally and her work has been featured in several
publications including the Washington Post, The Daily News, Essence Magazine and Washington Woman.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
“As a truly creative person I love to work in different mediums to express my feelings on a subject. I
work in scratchboard, linocut, oil, acrylic, watercolor, wax resist , graphite, quilt and paint .
My colored scratchboards and oils show my early memories of the strong wonderful people who taught me so much. They were not
rich in monetary terms, but the lessons and the love they gave me were worth more than gold. Because my father was in the military, my childhood was spent moving from one place to the next. I always looked forward to the next
new adventure and made good friends along the way who are still with me today.
The process of carving the surface of the scratchboard reminds me of the ancient relief work carved into pottery and clay surfaces used to
commemorate events.
In my work I want to explore culture. I want to show how the differences in cultures are minimal as compared to the likenesses. In other words we are all more similar than we are different.
There is a historical slant also in my work commemorating events and people,
sometimes unknown, that are the reasons why things are as they are today.
My work tells stories, sometimes there are double meanings to a scene
and subtle detail so that the viewer has to look a couple of time to see all the detail.
Pattern and color define my work, and I consider myself a colorist. My interest in color and pattern comes from watching the
women in my family work with fabric. They made their own clothes, later these clothes would become colorful prized quilts. These traditions fuel my work as I draw from all aspects of my heritage and
incorporating what is happening in the present to create my work.”
-Sonia Lynn Sadler
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