User:Greggoid

Bio of Sarah Hamerman:

Sarah Hamerman was born in the town of West Haven, Connecticut, in July of 1989. As a child, she enjoyed wagon rides, dinosaurs, and reruns of "Gumby." Her artistic talents were discovered at the age of five and a half, as she was drawing with sidewalk chalk beside a busy local street. The owner of an independent art gallery solicited her skills for a solo exhibit which ran for two months; Sarah was the youngest artist to have works sold for over $1000 in the state of Connecticut. Over the next several months, her fame spread and her skills grew, and by November 1997 she was featured in the New Yorker for her works in galleries around the city.

However, Sarah's parents, Garnett and Paul, became especially greedy for the talents of their young daughter. They withdrew her from public elementary school so she could stay home and work on her chalk artwork. She saw no benefit from her earnings-- her parents purchased a villa in San Tropez and left her with her Belgian nanny, who was morbidly obese and spoke very little English.

At the age of ten, Sarah became sick of her oppressive lifestyle and ran away to Spotsylvania county in Virginia, where she was welcomed into an artist commune. She was exposed to a wide variety of new artistic mediums and styles, as well as an unlimited supply of stimulants and hallucinogenic drugs. Her art from this period, mostly acrylic paintings and small chalk pastel portraits, is at once vividly exuberant and highly disturbing.

By thirteen, Sarah was burnt out from drug use and had developed mild carpal tunnel in her left arm. She decided to move in with her grandparents in Richmond, Virginia, where she attended a center in the daytime for physical and emotional therapy. She took an interest in French literature and Polish history. By fourteen, Sarah's grandparents enrolled her in ninth grade at Trinity Episcopal School. Though she had skipped grades four through nine, Sarah was a natural student and made friends easily. She quickly shot to the top of her class.

However, she did not truly feel complete, so she decided to enroll in art class at school in tenth grade. This is when Sarah developed her current and most notable style. Sarah's pastel drawings are filled with vibrant and intense colors. She prefers to portray everyday people and objects, mixing sophisticated draftsmanship with a passionate love for the expressive nature of color. She pairs realism with surreal swirls of color in her backgrounds. Her most successful works show a tension and syllogism between these elements.

Sarah, 17, plans to attend Duke University next year, where she will study Art History. She also is interested in selling and displaying her works in small galleries, now that she has become emancipated from her money-grubbing parents. Without question, Sarah will be recognized as a great luminary of American art. She is the future of our country.