Clark University’s Department of Visual and Performing
Arts Chair is Awarded the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Charitable Foundation
Prize

BY LEON NIGROSH

October 2005 – Just a couple of weeks ago, Sarah Walker was painting
in the studio portion of her 5-story live/work loft when the phone rang.
The voice on the other end asked if she were sitting down. She wasn’t,
so she did. The voice goes on to say, “Hi, it’s Nick Cappaso
from the DeCordova Museum. I’m calling to tell you that you’ve
been awarded the 6th annual Rappaport Charitable Foundation Prize.”

Sarah absorbed this information and replied, “Wow. I’m delighted
to hear this. What an honor. I’m really pleased to receive such
a prestigious award.” Nick continued, “Umm, do you really
know what I’m saying? Do you know how much money comes with this?”
“I don’t know. Five thousand?” “Twenty thousand.”
It’s a good thing Sarah was sitting down.

So how did Sarah get to this point in her career ? She came to Clark University
in 1993 as a visiting artist and soon after was given the position of
gallery director. While holding down that job, she curated several critically
acclaimed shows including “Dressing,” which contained, among
other works, sculptural clothing large enough for several viewers at a
time to actually\ walk inside it. She later curated that exhibition’s
exact opposite, “Small and Sorry,” made up of tiny, shy artworks.
Then Sarah received tenure as an Associate Professor in 2002 and is
now the chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

All this time, she has continued to paint and exhibit her large, intricate,
abstract acrylic works on paper. As a child, she had drawn and painted
what she referred to as “self-made worlds” and is today still
fascinated with the concept. She is attracted by the virtual quality of
painting, seeing it almost as a “portal to another dimension.”
She attempts to represent the entire space we live in ~ not just the obvious
threedimensional but the technological and psychological “spaces”
as well.

Each work is layered with very colorful, intricate patterns ~ with a special
emphasis on showing remnants of what has gone before, much like with life
itself. To achieve this end, it often takes Sarah months to complete a
single painting; she works on the floor, moving around the square paper,
changing her standing or sitting position as she sprays color and drips,
pools and brushes on the paint. Sometimes she puts a particular work away
for a year or two and then continues to develop
more designs. She says she’s creating “new power tools for
perception” so that people can absorb several different realities
simultaneously and have them all remain decipherable.

Sarah first came under the watchful eyes of the DeCordova curators before
she was chosen for inclusion in the museum’s annual show back in
2001. She, like all other award recipients, had no idea that she was under
consideration. The Rappaport prize is not a competition. The award is
based on the achievement and potential of artists who have already shown
significant creativity; it is also a way of encouraging them to continue
their art-making careers. It’s all very cloak and dagger.

With this generous yearlong stipend, Sarah hopes to find time and space
to create considerably larger works. Meanwhile, she’s preparing
for an exhibition in New York in February ’06, and for another in
April at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis in April. Congratulations go
to Sarah Walker for this important artistic recognition.

And if there’s a moral to this story, perhaps it’s that next
time you answer the phone, be sure you’re sitting down!