Sarah’s New Hope

The exhibition opened yesterday in Arima and continues until August 19.

Burrows chatted a bout her second solo exhibition during an interview at Newsday offices in Port of Spain.

Asked about the early signs of talent, the 31-year-old from Petit Valley said all small children will paint or draw but “the difference between me and other people is I never had a reason to stop.” In primary and secondary school, Burrows entered art competitions, and won for the first time when she was 15.

She also entered the On the Wall/Off the Wall competition in 2009 for emerging artists and one of her paintings was placed on the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain for two years. One of the people involved in the competition was the president of the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago Courtney Williams and Burrows was asked to join, participating in group exhibitions.

In 2012, she had her first showing War and Peace together with fashion designer Josette James. Burrows recalled doing extensive hand-painting for the exhibition. She has also had three exhibitions with fellow artist Gabriella D’Abreau. This weekend’s exhibition, however, is the first show “completely on her own.” Burrows has done so many group shows that going completely on her own was not a scary proposition. She explained that the venue, Akimbo Art Gallery, focuses on the local artisan market including art, soaps and other handmade creations.

Her theme is an exploration of inner strength.

Everyone, she says, who is a determined, hard worker may try their best but at times it is not enough. You must re-evaluate your life, dig deeper and find things to keep going and this could be as simple as a kind word or gesture.

Gardening, which Burrows now enjoys, works into the theme of growing things, growing your own food and growing yourself.

While some people do art as a hobby to relieve stress this was not the case for her.

“Art is not my hobby, it’s my passion.” Burrows considers herself a mixed media artist because she works with different materials.

The artwork in New Hope is a combination of acrylics, inks and colour pencils and it will feature 15 pieces and she may do an additional two. She discussed three of her pieces: Glow, Legacy and We Are One.

For Glow, Burrows was inspired by the space theme and she had been watching documentaries about outer space phenomenon.

In her work she tied the space setting into the theme of hope.

“Typically humans are so obsessed with their own problems and their own difficulties that sometimes if you step back and you look at all creation, everything, we are just a little dot and everything that we are experiencing now is going to be gone within a second. If you imagine all of this, all of the planets and everything, all created, and you are just like one little spot in the universe it will make you realise how small our problems are and how easily, if you just take a step back, it could be solved.” Glow, which is acrylic and inks, is about looking towards the sun, the future and knowing that something good is on the way.

For Legacy, which is colour pencils and pastelles, Burrows started drawing someone with dark, smooth skin, and the more she drew the more it reminded her of a younger version of her grandmother.

Her grandmother was a single mother who took care of her children and had her own house. Burrows was in her early teens when her grandmother passed away in 1999 and remembers her as a strong woman who inspired her to move forward. Legacy is also her first colour pencil portrait. Although she prefers abstract paintings, Burrows realised for different stories she wanted to tell she needed to incorporate the human form.

Her third piece, We Are One (acrylic and ink) features a father with a child on piggy back which shows that “we are family working together as a unit.” Burrows observes that family members are the ones who give the support needed to go the extra mile, Burrows observes.

On her creative process, Burrows explains when she was younger she would just draw but now, especially as she is into portraits, she would sketch out her ideas before and then decide on a date to do the piece.

Asked about her training, Burrows did art up to Form Five but studied engineering at university and then did a Masters of Business Administration degree. But she found art allowed her to be more bold.

Also working in sales helped her to better interact with people.

Burrows does not have any favourite local or foreign artists but recalled seeing an exhibition by an Indian artist, years ago, whose use of detailed patterns inspired her.

She also has “art buddies”, among them D’Abreau and Reuben Gonzales, who influence her and her attitude towards art.

In past exhibitions, D’Abreau did more figurative work, while hers was abstract, but Burrows notes they are both attracted to bright and bold colours.

As artists and friends they support each other, encouraging each other to not give up in challenging moments.

Burrows finds the difficult part of marketing herself and her art is that she is not a naturally outgoing person but says “you need to have a strong network and ability to market yourself to make your work desirable.

You also have to make people want what you have.” The responses to her art have been good especially since she switched from strictly abstracts. She started an Instagram account and has had the best reception there. The comments have included, “oh my God, I love it”, “amazing”, “I love the colours” and “genius.” Burrows has given her best effort in her latest exhibition and is hopeful she will receive many red dots (which indicates the pieces have been sold).

But more than this, she wants her exhibition to inspire hope.

“When you look at it you must be inspired to do something, do some gardening. You should be excited to see it. Everybody would have their own interpretation. I want you to think about what you saw and leave in a better mood than you came in.” New Hope opened yesterday at Akimbo Art Gallery, 27 Prince Street, Arima and continues until August 19. Monday to Friday 11.30 am-5 pm and Saturday 11 am-6 pm.

For more information email akimbotrinidad@ gmail.com.