Sarah B. McCann

Landscape Paintings

After traveling to the Southwest United States for the first time, I became inspired to paint the landscapes I found there. These connect to the abstract paintings I have been creating and began an investigation where these two types of imagery meet. The exploration uncovers what lies beneath, including histories, feelings, dreams or spiritual connections. By creating paintings of the natural landscape I am discovering what motivates people who care for, enjoy or destroy such things. With the added layer of abstraction, I uncover the feelings that contribute to human interaction and impulse. These reveal my own emotions and question the unknown and unknowable.

Pictured: Deer Creek Canyon, 40" x 30", oil on canvas, 2024

Portals, Pathways, and Potentials are a series of paintings that examine crossing into a new space, the things that change us, and where we may end up. This series has roots in earlier work from the artist that sparked comments by viewers about the recurring themes of portals. In this new series portals again emerged as a theme and visual pattern. What experiences change us? What thresholds do we cross that change our lives physically and metaphorically? During the time the portal paintings were in progress McCann also visited the southwest for the first time and hiked in canyons, along rivers, and through landscapes that she had not experienced before. The experience of this new place was transformational and the paintings created after the experience spoke to moving between different spaces, places, and parts of life.

Pictured: From Within, 36" x 18", oil on canvas, 2024

Abstract Paintings 2023

This series was inspired by a conversation with someone I’m associated with through my nonprofit justice work. They asked me, “Why don’t you put that in a painting?” It gave me pause as I usually think of my artistic work and administrative work as separate. It stuck with me though, as I was feeling very strongly about some things I was witnessing in the nonprofit and philanthropic spaces and generally in the many injustices we are witnessing in the world.

I decided to try and start these abstract paintings. I have found I love making them, and love the paintings when they are complete, so the series continues. It has reminded me that in the face of a world that is on fire, art is how we stay human and is something we need to process, find joy, and see and work toward a just future.

Pictured: What Happens When the Wound Does Not Heal, 14"x11", Oil on Canvas, 2023

Something to Remember You By investigates my attempt at connection through online dating through the images and text that often reveal very little about a person, their presence, and the depths of who they are. In a modern world where technology has placed so many people at our fingertips we swipe right if we are intrigued enough to want to begin a conversation. What do we actually gain in these interactions? Do we even remember the face, the person, do we even get a glimpse into who they are? What do we know about whether or not there will be chemistry, a connection, or shared interests enough to build a relationship, home or life? What do we reveal about ourselves through crafting a profile? What do we present and what do we keep hidden?

In addition to these small rectangular drawings and text pieces inspired by dating apps, I have completed a series of slightly larger drawings of people that I know and love in real life, where connections were forged through collective experience.

Pictured: Something to Remember You By 9, 14"x11", ink on paper, 2024

Jesus Pieces

This series combines the lyrics from the song Suzanne with the Stations of the Cross. This body of work examines the role of spirituality, life and death, the journey of Jesus and in many ways how this journey parallels the journey of each of us through our lives. The lyrics “only drowning men can see him” were really what drew me to this work and I began creating these pieces by collecting discarded metal objects I found. As I created the work, it began to delve deeply into the dark thought that the only way we as a people are able to grow, change, connect to each other, and to something larger is by directly barreling toward our own death and destruction.

Pictured: Jesus Was a Sailor, 12"x9", Mixed Media, 2022

Tracing Transformations

September 19 - November 13, 2020

Keswick Wise & Well Center

700 W 40th Street

Baltimore, MD 21211

If you would like to attend our Viewing by Appointment – Opening Reception on October 2, 2020 to meet artist Sarah McCann, please contact Art Program Supervisor Sara Kaltwasser at kaltwassers@choosekeswick.org or 410-662-4235.

Appointment viewings can accommodate up to 4 people at a time, and folks may stay for up to 15 minutes. There will be 8 viewings over the course of our 2-hour Reception. All individuals who attend our Reception for Sarah McCann’s work must be screened upon entrance to the Wise & Well Center, and must wear a mask for the duration of their time on our campus.

Pictured: Beginnings, 8"x4", mosaic, 2020

Sarah B. McCann

Landscape Paintings

Portals, Pathways, and Potentials Install

A Journey in Five Parts

Abstract Paintings 2024

Abstract Paintings 2023

Something to Remember You By

Paintings 2022-2023

New Work 2022

Jesus Pieces

Photography

Tracing Transformations