Sarah Baker Bolek - 12/08/22 - 4/30/12
Sarah Bolek was drawn to art at an early age and, in her teens, immersed herself in the history and techniques of drawing and painting at the Chicago Art Institute. The early death of her father required that she put aside these pursuits in order to help provide for her siblings. Despite numerous challenges to her artistic development, she found ways to explore and nurture her natural abilities.
She was born in Chicago in 1922, worked and studied there, eventually moving to Los Angeles, California as a young adult. There she met an engaging Ecuadorian, Francisco Bolek. They married in 1945, had two children and moved to Medellin, Colombia in 1953. Her artistic maturation evolved along with her growing family (she had two more children.) She referred to herself as a “domestic artist” as her creativity emerged from everyday life. Returning to California in the late 50's, Sarah intensified her focus on art dialogue and process with other San Francisco Bay Area artists. Everyday life, as expressed in her work, mirrored the intriguing evolution of American society in the 60's and beyond.
Over the course of her life, Sarah Bolek participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions of painting and works on paper. Her influences derived from the various cultures in which she lived (U.S., South America, Europe and Mexico) as well as the many teachers, mentors and colleagues she associated with throughout her life.
Sarah’s work expresses a penetrating inquisitiveness about the nature of reality. Moved by the contrasts and contradictions that shape our everyday lives—birth/death, dark/light, humor/depression, masculine/feminine, etc.-- she worked and played with the materials at hand, with the sophistication born of training and practice, while allowing the coincidence of the moment to take form in her work.
Of her work, she says, “I have dealt with enigmatic themes, expressed through my own concepts of form and color. I feel that, on occasion, I have achieved what I always pursue, which is to face the truth, to perceive it and to express it with compassion, but never with sentimentality.”