Sarah Ernst

Artist Statement

My work breaks down complex human experiences to divulge what parts of them are pertinent. I seek to separate filler from essence and to be left with what is important. I think that there is great importance on focusing on that which is real and noting the role of that which is fabled as the levees that they are against realities both pleasant and uncomfortable.



Biography

Sarah Lapp grew up in small towns in Wyoming where her earliest connection to art as a means
of communication was found in the illustrations of children’s books. The art that was present in
her area of rural Wyoming was non diverse, strictly representational, and for the most part, it’s
creation was a mystery as it lacked definitive brushstrokes, or signs of the hand. One exception
to this was the bright and dynamic graffiti that traveled along on the box cars of the trains that
constantly traversed the desolate Wyoming landscape. Sarah found an emotive quality and
energy in them, and they stuck in her mind as haunting evidence that there were people living,
creating and passionate about something in worlds that seemed so different from her own.
Graffiti and illustration remain among the things that inform her work.
Sarah’s c...

Bachelors- Studio Art- University of Mary Washington
Current MFA program- Lesley University, Cambridge Massachusetts

Selected Exhibitions:
2017: Bilocular: VanDernoot Gallery, Cambridge, MA
2017: Sarah Lapp at The Sunken Well, Fredericksburg, VA
2015: Sarah Lapp at Morin Gallery Satellite, Orange, VA
2015: In The Light National Exhibit: Juried by BJ Kocen and Jennifer Glave, Fredericksburg
Center for the Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, VA
2015: June 2015 Regional Exhibit: Juried by Joseph DiBella, Fredericksburg Center for the
Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, VA
2015: Uniquely Fredericksburg: Juried by JeanAnn Dabb, Central Rappahannock Regional
Library, Fredericksburg, VA
2015: Celebrate Color and Form National Exhibit: Juried by Margery E. Goldberg,
Fredericksburg Center for the Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, VA
2013: Slice of Life: Juried by Linus Galleries, Linus Galleries, Pasadena, CA
2013: Summer Juried Show: Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA
2013: June 2013 Regional Exhibit: Juried by Jon McMillan, Fredericksburg Center for the
Creative Arts, Fredericksburg, VA
2011: Summer Juried Show: Sylvia White Gallery, Ventura, CA
2011: Outlandish: Contemporary Depictions of Nature: Juried by Alison Gass, Bedford
Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2010: Annual University of Mary Washington Juried Show: duPont Gallery,
Fredericksburg, VA