Solving Puzzles, Slowing Down, and Listening to Your Instincts: An Interview with Artist Sarah Intemann

How did you get to where you are right now in your career? Can you remember and identify clear moments that brought you to where you are today? How have you evolved over the years? It’s funny how often we become unaware of the passage of time - you think you’ll be stuck in a phase FOREVER and blink - 10 years go by just like that!  I’m learning to slow down and really appreciate the time I’m in, yes even with COVID and I hope that my conversation with Sarah Intemann encourages you to do the same.  Sarah is an abstract artist who lives in New York City. Graduating college with a Fine Art degree, she moved to NYC and has been exhibiting and painting ever since. It is on the New York subways that she constantly sketched and developed a line-focused abstract language that she uses today in her work.  I can’t wait for you to hear Sarah’s fascinating perspective and yes, her total nerdiness when it comes to her medium. Make sure to catch images of Sarah’s artwork located at the end of this post! Slowing down When you are young, the last thing you want to do is to slow down. Kids love to run around the yard, speed down steep hills on bikes, and a ton of other crazy imaginations that give their parents a heart attack. While there are plenty of people who have grey in their hair that still enjoy life on the edge, most learn to enjoy the quiet and slower pace of life.  In NYC of all places, you can imagine that the idea of “Slowing down” isn’t a popular one - something is happening all the time, the city never sleeps. Somehow, in the middle of that busy and bustling city, Sarah learned to do the impossible, slow down. When you learn to slow down, you start to notice things you’ve never noticed before - you discover little details that can become whole worlds unto themselves. I loved hearing how Sarah took the time to get into the practice of slowing down intentionally and how much it helped her professionally.  Once Sarah was able to slow down, she started to really listen to what she wanted to do. Have you ever found it difficult to find your voice or to tune out all the noise in your life? According to Sarah, slowing down gave her the capacity to listen to her internal creative voice.  Dreaming big What will you take away from Sarah’s powerful example of creativity, patience, and hard work? It was great to get to include one of my favorite questions in my conversation with Sarah, I asked her what she would do if she had all the resources at her disposal for any project. Never the one to play it safe, Sarah swang for the fences - she said that she’d like to go BIG and use a whole room to create a project! Don’t you find yourself rooting for her? I know that I do!  Outline of This Episode [3:20] I welcome my guest, Sarah Intemann.  [7:40] Sarah talks about her creative process.  [18:20] What keeps Sarah coming back to abstract artwork?  [22:40] How Sarah names her paintings.  [27:30] What aspect of painting has been the most challenging for Sarah?  [34:00] Artists that have inspired Sarah over the years.  [41:00] With unlimited resources, what project would Sarah work on?  [43:00] Closing thoughts.  Other artists mentioned on this episode Jackson Pollock Lucian Freud  Mitchell Johnson  Cy Twombly Giorgio Morandi  Anselm Kiefer Resources Mentioned on this episode www.sarahintemann.com www.instagram.com/sarah_intemann_art/ www.facebook.com/intemannstudios