Photo: Rex Hohlbein
Photo: Ken Kinniwick
Artist Statement
I’m a local muralist and social practice artist, and I’ve been engaging communities in the public art process across the Pacific Northwest for the last 10 years. I have an affinity for creating works of art that are interactive, dynamic, colorful and engaging. I LOVE to create works of art that are bold, bright, geometric and/or depict native plants and animals that share urban space with all of us.
Public art and collaborative installations serve as a platform to engage communities, businesses and groups of individuals (any age) more deeply. Group creative expression has the capacity to break us out of our old ways of thinking and expand our capacity to think outside of the box and open us up to new ways of being. Co-creation has a deep capacity to facilitate depth, meaning and connection through a shared novel experience.
Over the last ten years I have witnessed nearly 3,000 people pick up a brush, tap into their inner creative genius and PAINT! A majority of participants initially said they weren’t creative or that they couldn't paint. However, amaigly, ALL of them participated and were delighted to find that they hadn’t lost their capacity to embody creativity. Over the years I have developed the tools and capacity to create the structure and space needed so others can access peak creative states known as flow.
In addition to being an artist, I also completed training as a Creative Facilitator through PYE Global, am a Creativity and Mindfulness Coach and a public art consultant. We all thrive when we push past our comfort zones to generate creative energy and share in that with others. The artwork then becomes more dynamic, engaging and meaningful.
If you are looking for creative facilitation on large scale interactive murals for your workspace, team or company, reach out I’d love to connect!
"Sara has infectious passion and excitement about public art and the process of engaging the community. She has a way to open people's minds in ways I never thought possible, and she knows how to handle all types of stakeholders at all levels of a project (neighborhood leaders, city and state officials, volunteers and young students!)"
-K. Schielke, Business Consultant and Neighborhood Board Member
Email: sarasnedeker@gmail.com
Text: 206-661-4352
***Scroll down for Artist CV****
" I believe that human beings are desperate, always, to belong to something larger than themselves." - David Whyte
Artist CV
ARTFORMS:
Social Practice Artist | Creative Facilitator | Life Coach | Placemaker | Muralist | Youth Mentor | Civic Engager
ARTWORK HISTORY
Wildflower Murals- Owner, 2005 – Present (founder)
Creating vibrant murals in and around the greater Seattle area for the last 15 years. I’m living my dream by bringing love and beauty into the community while at the same time evoking playfulness, expression and deeper connections with others. Most of my mural content touches on social and environmental justice issues, as well as, the striking a balance between dynamic urban environments and the native plant and animal species that reside there.
Street Heart- Creative Facilitator & Project Manager 2013-2016 (founder)
Street Heart is a collective of local artists who engage in social practice art. Artists create colorful portraits of those living on the street. The artists and subjects are companioned together to develop the concept and theme of the portrait. The portraits are colorful and vibrant and are displayed in public institutions to help dispel common assumptions about those living on the street. After the portraits are exhibited they are auctioned off at an annual auction to raise funds for the nonprofit Facing Homelessness. We’ve raised nearly 75k for Facing Homelessness to date.
Grants and Awards Received
- PSE "Artility" electric box vinyl wrap, City of Duvall, fall 2018
- Melrose Promenade mural grant, City of Seattle, crosswalk murals on Capitol Hill, fall 2017
Mural Size(s): Roughly 25x13ft
- City of Shoreline, Parkwood mini neighborhood grant, freeway underpass column mural, summer 2017
Mural Size: 20, 3 sided columns, roughly 5.5 x 65ft
- City of Shoreline, Community of Neighborhoods "Celebrate Shoreline Mural," summer 2017
Mural Size: 20x6 ft
-City of Bellingham (and Whatcom Community Fund) Birchwood Horizontal Mural, spring 2017
-City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 2017 Public Art Boot Camp
workshop participation awarded
-Shoreline Hopelink beautification grant, City of Shoreline 2017
Mural Size: 20x8 ft
-City of Shoreline, beautification mural neighborhood grant, fall 2013
Mural size: 8x10 ft
-City of Shoreline, Farmers Market Mural, summer 2015
Mural size: 140x110 ft
-City of Shoreline, Shoreline Pool mural, summer 2016
Mural size: 70x12 ft
-City of Shoreline, beautification mural neighborhood grant Ridgecrest, summer 2016
Mural size(s): 20x25 ft
-City of Shoreline, neighborhood mini grant for Parkwood Neighborhood Association, summer 2016
Mural size: 25x25 ft
-Vancouver CA, Mural Fest participant, painted a collaborative mural on a 35ft RV, summer 2016
-City of Bellingham, Birchwood Neighborhood beautification grant, slated for summer 2017
-City of Bellingham, KaPOW Placemaking contract grant, slated for summer 2017
Live Painting | Collaborative Murals | Installations
Freemont Abbey Fall 2017
Celebrate Shoreline 2017
Imagine Festival 2016
Vancouver Mural Fest, summer 2016
Interactive mural on the side of an RV during Vancouver's Mural Fest
Soul Revival Shakedown, Vancouver, Canada
Interactive mural board for a creative community grant with Universe Universe Collective
United Way King County, spring 2015
Collaborative mural for the Seattle nonprofits annual Resource Exchange
Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC), fall 2015
Collaborative mural for the Seattle nonprofits fall fundraiser, “Snow bash” at Evo
Sasquatch Visual Artist, summer 2015
The Cooler’s grand opening event, spring 2016
Lautenbach Recycle- 25th Anniversary, spring 2016
noWHERE exhibition at LoveCITYlove, summer 2015
Teaching and Mentorship
-2015 present: Art Docent at Ridgecrest Elementary School. Shoreline, WA
- 2015 present: Creative coaching and mentoring for creative types and those pursuing creative careers or expression. Greater Seattle area.
-2013 present: Mentor to local high school art students on large scale community murals throughout the greater Seattle area.
-2012 201: Created educational nature illustration learning boards for the Magnuson Park Jr. Nature Explorer’s Camp. Seattle, WA
-2012: Lead art classes for children at the annual Ridgecrest vegetable garden fundraiser. Shoreline, WA
-2009: Taught introductory painting classes to women sheltered at the Rose of Lima house. Seattle, WA
Civic Engagement and Clients:
Nonprofits: Facing Homelessness, Orcasong Farm, Universe Universe, Hopelink-Shoreline, NWAC (Northwest Avalanche Center), Rose of Lima House, The United Way King County, Magnuson Children's Garden
Educational Institutions: Ridgecrest Elementary, Daniel Elementary, Birchwood Middle School, Shoreline Community College, Shorecrest High School (Students)
Cities: City of Seattle, City of Shoreline, City of Bellingham, Vancouver, Canada
Businesses: The French Bakery, Neighborhood Bar and Grills, Johnny's Ice Cream, Lunch Box Laboratories, The Cooler, Lautenbach Industries, The Point, Cafe Aroma, Monkey Grind Espresso, Ordinary Things, Jazzercise-Seattle
Events: Imagine Music Festival 2016, Sasquatch Music Festival 2015, Vancouver Mural Fest 2016, Celebrate Shoreline 2017, Resource Exchange 2015, Just Say Hello Tour 2016
**Social Practice is a term that has allegiances with a number of movements in experimental art and performance studies. Those allegiances bring to mind other terms that share some kinship with social practice: activist art, protest performance, performance, ethnography, relational aesthetics, conversation pieces, action research, and other terms that signal a social turn in art practice as well as the representational dimension of social and political formations. (Jackson,S.The Cambridge Companion to Performance Studies)