Sarah Mertzlufft

Sarah Mertzlufft, a life-long Buffalo resident and artist, recently graduated from Houghton College with a BFA in Studio Art. During her education, she developed her understanding of the language of abstraction through the medium of oil paint, moving away from strictly representational work. She is inspired particularly by the abstract expressionist movement of the mid-twentieth century, by artists like Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell, all of whom encapsulated the idea coined by Elaine de Kooning, that a painting is “primarily a verb, not a noun.” Paint to Sarah is equally as important as the subject matter it is representing. She allows the paint to take on more sculptural characteristics, not confining the medium to blending with the flat surface of the canvas.