SARA SALTEE - mixed media assemblage artist
Upon seeing Sara Saltee’s work, one is immediately drawn into the the intimate intrigue of images and words that form her assemblages.
Sara says: “My shrines and boxes sometimes begin with a central object, but most often begin with the words – a quote, poem fragment, lyric, or found snippets of text. Once I find some words to spark a direction, my crow-self begins sifting through my random assortment of papers, objects, and ephemera to see what bits and pieces might best bring to life the feelings and imagery the words inspire in me.
I hope the little worlds that emerge from my visits to this “otherworld” become places of inspiration, amusement, reflection, or delight for you, too.”
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16”h x 5”w x 4.5”d
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When I was given a large book of wallpaper samples from the 1970’s, I was struck by how the familiar patterns and designs instantly evoke a sense of hominess. Against the backdrop of these evocative patterns, I assembled a totem of objects and miniatures that convey the sense of warmth, coziness, and light that envelops us when we are snuggled up in a loving home.
Materials: Vintage wallpaper samples; metal finial; vintage wooden toy blocks; miniature logs in metal grate; miniature dictionary and world book; slice of wood; carved dog; miniature chair, pillow, lamp, dustpan, and cup; metal lids from spice jars; boggle letters; plastic roosters; acrylic paints. In found bottle box.
22”h x 16”w x 1.5”d
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This whimsical interactive piece invites the viewer to look closely at the array of little elements and use the abacus to count the things for which they are grateful. Are you grateful for McDonald’s French fries? Aliens? Baseball? Coffee? Your brain? Love? Tune into the spirit of thankfulness as you move the abacus disks from one side to the other. Could be a fun piece in a kitchen, bathroom, or child’s bedroom.
Materials: Abacus; assorted minatures and ephemera; plexiglass circles; art papers; “Reasons for Being Thankful” text from vintage Sunday School primer; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
15”h x 8”w x 2”d
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This is a piece about a profound journey of transition. The snail at the center of this piece is poised between two different navigation systems. Below, the compass has been a steady source of direction for travels on the earth – a rooted place that is the snail’s natural habitat. But now, something has compelled our spiraled snail friend to slowly, calmly, venture away from the known world toward an entirely different way-finding system, one that emanates from the complex music of the stars and cosmos. Whether or not the snail ever achieves flight, something in their spirit calls them to move toward the compelling freedom and mystery of the realm that transcends the earth.
Materials: Porcelain snail; bamboo steamer basket; metal spice tin with clear lid; compass; altered earring; plastic leaves; amber sun pendant; wooden bead; plastic bird on wire; assorted cut and torn papers; sequins and glitter glue; acrylic paints. In cigar box with attached wooden box below.
10”h x 8”w x 1.5”d
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“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.” – R. Sockman
In a time when we are asked to equate strength with brutality and cruelty, this piece celebrates a deeper truth: there is real power in the gentleness, tenderness and love that emanate from an internal state of softness and calm.
Materials: Miniature rabbit; rattan ball; velvet back from vintage frame; plastic hands; tin bowl; gold faux petals; cut paper; beads and crystals; small metal tray; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
12”h x 9”w x 1.5”d
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“Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.” – Proust
I am captivated by the idea of motoring along the rocky ground of life in steady orientation to a little sliver of blue sky. Whether the sky is literally clouded over (as it so often is in the Pacific Northwest), or whether it is metaphorically clouded by depression or fear, Proust’s quote is a powerful reminder to keep searching for a little patch of light. I sourced the fragment of heavily-beaded red cloth from a Seattle artist who had leftovers from a large installation and enjoyed the way that the abundance of hearts and buttons somehow extended the aura of the sky into a glowing ball of love and life.
Materials: Altered tin car; silk-lined box lid; beaded cloth; silver pin; paper collage and cut paper strips; beads and sequins; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
12”h x 12”w x 1.5”d
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When the photo of this sweet girl came across my path, it seemed like it naturally belonged with one of the vintage metal roller skates that had been knocking around the studio, looking for a home. As we get older, we can forget how to access the happiness that comes so naturally to a child who needs nothing more than a Guinea pig and a roller skate to find joy. And, in a culture that prizes responsibility and seriousness, we can forget that “Being Happy is a Virtue Too.” This kiddo with her joy, her pet, and her skate, is here to remind us.
Materials: Altered vintage photograph; upcycled metal frame; vintage miniature metal roller skate; Guinea pig figurine; clay flower; upcycled jewelry; beads; cut paper; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
11.5”h x 4”w x 3.75”d
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“I will dive into my chaos and my Abyss will turn it into an art scene.” – Talismanist Giebra
In these chaotic times, many of us find ourselves tumbling into some form of Abyss – despair, confusion, darkness.This piece plays with the idea that we can choose to turn our tumbling itself into an art form, leaning into curiosity about the experience and using our creativity to transmute the pain of living into something provocative or beautiful.
Materials: upcycled wooden box with sliding panel; art papers; acrylic paints.
12”h x 12”w x 1.5”d
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Some time ago, the refrain from the Jill Scott song “Golden” entered my head and wouldn’t let go. This sparkly piece expresses the idea of living your life like it’s golden, radiating your truest gifts out through all you do. With the central golden being as a goldfish, the notion of golden living became intertwined with the notion of going with the flow, recognizing that the ever-moving water is your natural habitat.
Materials: Altered goldfish figurine; upcycled fluted cupcake tin; upcycled jewelry and beads; wooden bowl; gold plate; cut papers; upcycled tin lid; mirrors; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
14.5”h x 10”w x 3”d
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We all have moments when we outgrow whatever cage or enclosure has kept us safe and we find ourselves at the brink of stepping into a wider world. In the case of this little girl, she has been comfortable and cozy in her small world with her “World Book” to read. But a wildly colorful bird-friend has come to coax her to leave the book behind and experience the world in a more immediate way. With her basket full of what she’s learned so far, she stands poised at the threshold of a bigger life where she begins to notice that she is surrounded by all the keys she could ever need to unlock a fuller, richer, bolder life.
Materials: upcycled wooden box; assorted charm keys; vintage girl figurine; cricket cage; upcycled broken bird ornament; art papers; acrylic paints.
13”h x 16.5”w x 1”d
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This is a piece that asks us to leave behind the scientific “which came first” debate between chicken and egg and celebrate instead the incredible magic of the whole infinite biological cycle that includes egg, tiny chick, and big chicken. It is the wholeness of this cycle, not any one of the parts, that is anointed “king” in this piece. I love the way the buttons, bingo tokens, and wheels from a train kit evoke what the cellular world looks like through high powered microscopes, and I had great fun playing with the color gradations of the buttons.
Materials: folk art rooster, wooden eggs, embroidered chick, perfume bottle, altered doll house table, wooden game piece, gold coasters, straw coasters, buttons, metal containers, clay leaves, bingo tokens, plastic train wheels, acrylic paints.
12.5”h x 4.5”w x 4”d
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I seem to recall starting this box during tax season, a time when numbers inevitably start weighing me down and the ways my life doesn’t quite add up are highlighted. The David Whyte quote was a balm to my spirit and I loved the idea of this carefree guitar playing doggie perched (somewhat precariously) in a place high above the realm of numbers and math – the place of freedom, song and creative spirit that we are built for.
Box: vintage dresser drawer
Materials: altered dog and guitar figurine; vintage blocks; doll house stool; ½ apple box; beads; vintage addition primer; assorted papers; miniature dog and frog figurines.
12”h x 9”w x 1.5”d
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“Sight is a function of the eyes, but vision is a function of the heart.” – M. Munroe. While searching for a good way to use this beautiful silver filigreed vintage purse clasp, it occurred to me that, when open, it is shaped like an eye. With a little silver heart bead as the pupil, a story started to emerge about how when we look through the eyes of the heart, we can easily pick out the things in the world that echo love back to us, even when the world is busy and full of distractions. (Can you find all five silver hearts?)
Materials: Vintage silver filigree purse clasp; aluminum tin; plastic wheel; silver heart beads; wooden beads; plastic game pieces; cut paper; acrylic paints. In cradled board.
12”h x 10”w x 5”d
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This exuberant piece captures the primal elation I feel at the coming of Spring and expresses my deep sense of wanting to nurture our beautiful Earth - so I guess you could say it is part celebration and part prayer. The house-shaped box came to me with an all-white exterior and an interior already painted with lovely pinks and blues and scattered with glitter by - I’m guessing - a child. I loved the interior colors so much I decided to incorporate them into the work - so this is a secret collaboration with an unknown child artist.
Materials: upcycled house-shaped shelf/box; metal hook repurposed from broken candle holder; vintage tin plate from child’s tea set; wooden cradle; earth bead; assorted flower and bird papers (chickens too!); fragments of mosaic glass; feathers; assorted paper flowers and plastic grass; small plastic egg; acrylic paints.
20”h x 12”w x 4”d
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This piece celebrates how immigrants like my maternal grandparents stitched together lives from nearly nothing and sowed seeds of beauty as they traveled.
Materials: Upcycled kitchen drawer. Pressed clay shoe; sardine tin; vintage photo; spice tins; plastic wheels from children’s toy; assorted papers and maps; metal strips; dried flowers; jewelry and beads; small wooden house; handwritten messages tied in silk ribbon; acrylic paints.
20”h x 12”w x 4”d
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Sweet little fluffy has a dark side. In her birthday fantasy, her everyday chair becomes a throne of swords where she can sit and plot her attack on the fish that have taunted her from their pond all year.
Materials: Upcycled kitchen drawer. Brass cat; altered dollhouse chair; wooden beads and urns; felted Christmas lights; glass fish; altered porcelain
13”h x 8”w x 2.5”d
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When inspiration strikes, a crackling kind of energy is released, and the stars and moons seem to align in favor of the exciting new idea. This piece, which fittingly came together unusually quickly, expresses the experience of inspiration with the vintage light bulb generating light and heat and the whole universe colluding with our bird’s insight. Even the little letters above the bird’s head spell out BINGO – it seems her offerings of beautiful beads and berries have satisfied the muse, and the muse has struck!
23”h x 16.5”w x 6”d
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Who is Sandy? Where did she disappear to? What were the first 36 stories about? Mysteries abound.
About the Piece: This deliberately mysterious assemblage is built into a reclaimed kitchen drawer. The leaf patterns on the back are actually carved into the layers of contact paper that had accumulated over time in whatever kitchen this was once part of. The carved-out leaves were then painted green and scattered across the bottom of the piece - I liked the sense that the space itself was disintegrating even as the central doll/angel figure is undergoing her metamorphosis. In my mind, the story is one of transformation - one day the character stepped out of her little shoes, stepped into the silver pod/chamber, and emerged with wings and a readiness to ascend. The metamorphosis could be read as a death, or simply as a disappearance of an old version of self and re-birth in new form.
Materials: kitchen drawer; plastic doll body; altered angel wings; wire; butterfly images; broken Christmas ornament; doll shoes; assorted papers; leaves carved out of the layers of contact paper original to the drawer and painted; text “Story 37: Sandy Disappears” from vintage children’s book (full disclosure - in that book Sandy was a hamster who had gotten loose. As you can see, I did not stick with the original narrative.)
20”h x 12”w x 4”d
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This piece, inspired by my parents’ 59 years of marriage, celebrates lasting loves that withstand the challenges of life and the passing of time. The background is papered in vintage sheet music featuring love songs, and the red paper with an anatomical heart pattern that rings the interior space is both a continuation of the love theme, and a nod to my father’s profession as an anatomist. In a circle around the “clock” with the mated elephants at the center, the leaves turn from green to orange to red and then to brown and black, symbolizing the cycle of seasons through which a long marriage moves. To me, the outward-facing kitchen chairs at the base of the piece represent the way in which, over time, a couple shifts from gazing into one another’s eyes to gazing out at the world together, side by side. The connected circles above the chairs symbolize how two people come to take one another into themselves, becoming something greater than the sum of two parts. It seems to me that this kind of enduring companionship is as sweet and precious as anything we humans can know.
Materials: Elephant belt buckle, wooden bowl, straw coaster, glass leaves, dollhouse chairs, miniature ceramic table, paper flowers, wooden birds, metal “sticks,” small clock, bottlecaps, silver medallions, plumbing valves, plastic grass, vintage love song sheet music, anatomical heart paper, glitter, crystals, acrylic paints.