Jennifer Belair Sakarian

Jennifer Belair Sakarian is a visual artist and educator. She was raised and educated in the Midwest with degrees in Fine Arts, specifically Printmaking. She received her BFA from Siena Heights University and a Master’s degree in fine art from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She left the Midwest twice—once to do housekeeping in Yellowstone National Park for 4 months and another time at a luxury dude ranch in Colorado. Her travels have directly impacted her love for the natural world, which is a central theme of work. She currently lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband and is finding it very easy to fall in love with the cast of backyard birds—eastern bluebird, sandhill cranes and northern flickers. When she’s not making art and teaching on Skillshare she can be found exploring nature, traveling and absorbing as much life as she can.

You’re a new addition to the crayon box: Which color are you and why?
Lichen green-because it’s lovely.

How did you become interested in art?
I first become interested in art when I was in my teens. My sister and I would go to my dads on the weekend and while he was out fixing bikes and working in the garage—I took solace in checking out his record collection. Me and my sister would sit for hours hanging out in the living room—watching tv, playing guitar and listening to music. I loved thumbing through the old albums because they seemed really special to him. I wanted to get his attention so I attempted to make replicas of some really wild and wacky album covers—like the Sr. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band or the moody blues album with the wizard on it. It was therapy for me. My parents had recently divorced and I was feeling more alone then ever. Drawing became a place of peace.

What your path to art look like?
I didn’t have much access to the arts as a young person. I went to a small school with limited information on what an artistic life could look like. I had really fond memories of making art in elementary school with an extremely talented teacher. My high school art classes were sub par. I remember when the SAIC came to our school and I was so excited. I had never heard about getting a degree in art and had no idea it was an option. The great thing about being young is it’s easier to be “in the moment.” No one in my family went to college before me so I had little exposure to what that meant. After that presentation I was hooked. I was scouted initially because I was a good runner—running in cross country and track and field. I used that as a gateway into college because I knew my family couldn’t afford me going. So I did the best with what I knew at the time and chose a fine liberal arts school that was interested in me running and in my creative work. After 4 years of undergrad—learning, running, making—falling in and out of depression spirals, I finally made it. It was definitely the happiest and hardest years of my life to this day. I struggled with self worth but had a handful of encouraging professors who saw my potential. I was encouraged to join the McNair Scholars Program where I would be encouraged to apply to the terminal degree in my field—an MFA. I ended up getting accepted at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI—thus beginning a love for the great motor city and art exposure like I had never seen before. 

What does a typical studio day look like for you?
I am pretty all over the place and get bored easy. I have many projects going on at once, sometimes writing, medicine making, homesteading, learning, teaching, cooking, running. They all contribute to my studio practice. Some constants for me are to meditate daily, be outside, yoga and read.

Do you have a favorite part of the artistic process?
Getting excited for an idea. I love new ideas. So much so that I have a list in my phone of all my good ideas. I am a creator at heart. I find inspiration in all things around me. I was reading a science magazine and was picking up phrases that were entirely poetic—migrating moons, whale whisperer, primordial soup—it’s so amazing! I am not sure if they will become titles of work, parts of poems or phrases that I’ll forget out.

What is your favorite tool to create with?
pen and ink

How has your practice changed over time?
As my studio life has shifted from the intensity of graduate school to having the freedom to make work for myself and my own wellbeing, it has changed drastically. I am now in a spiritual partnership and manage the house, cooking and domestic duties so that limits my time but gives my life a different sense of purpose and less time to “mess up.” It’s similar to in graduate school when you have a big critiuque, you know you only have a few days, a few hours etc. Those actions—need to be precise, they need to be good, they need to be strong. It’s a similar mindset—I still doddle and scribble and make bad work but it has helped me to realize how important my creative time really is for me and my well being. Another really big thing—not having a printmaking press and letting go of the label, “I am a printmaker.” I still am, but I don’t want to be confined—I am a creative, a maker.

If you could become one of your characters/works of art which one would you become, and why?
I would choose to be myself. 

Where do you find sources of inspiration?
In all things. Mostly being in nature, spending time in the backyard watching and listening to the sand hill cranes fly by. 

Who are other artists that have influenced your work?
Jaune Quick to see Smith, Kiki Smith, Robert Rauschenberg are the OG’s

Can you speak more about your process of creating I’m okay okay. It seems like it would have been an intensely cathartic experience, what was your headspace during that time?
It was entirely cathartic. I had just taken a creative writing class and had received really a lot of praise from my peers and my professor so it gave me this beautiful new found confidence. I hope to keep putting books, zines, submission out there into the world. I was in a contemplative headspace, which I often am. I am an achiever—I love new goals and ambitions and do what I can to keep my life interested and engaging for me. Asides form writing it was a really cool time to learn a new printmaking process called trace monotype, learn how to put a book form together in InDesign and of course write and refine my writing. I love writing and aim to get more of my writing-based work out into the world. I had a recent 2 person show in Hamtramck, MI (an enclave of Detroit MI) and the gallery had my books for sale. It was a beautiful opening to have people there to admire you visual work but to also ask you to sign a book for them. It was really humbling. 

Which superpower would you have, and why?
The ability to be fully open hearted. To accept and to love unconditionally. 

Your work, particularly your digital and illustration work, is full of bright colors. How do you choose the color schemes of your different peices?
I usually use my digital and illustration work as a place to really play around. I am inspired by so many great digital artists that you can find so easily on IG. I aim to find my voice through various media and work in new and challenging ways. If it becomes too easy, it’s no longer fun. I often use colors from the natural word in combination with psychedelic infused color pallete’s I had been interested in the rock posters from the 60’s and 70’s which combine some really “far out” color combinations—it reminds me of Yellowstone in a lot of ways. 

Can you talk more about your time in Yellowstone National Park and how that has influenced your art?
Yellowstone has been one of the biggest life changing experiences of my life. It was like I was sleeping my whole life and then suddenly woke up. I realized how big the world was and how small I was. I met people from all over the world and made some life long friends.  I learned about Maya Angelou, poetry and spoken word from a dear friend Demetries Baldwin, a fellow creative, from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I drove to YS with my staturn sw1 station wagon so wasn’t able to bring the whole kit-and-kaboodle of art supplies, simply a sketch book and a fabric case of pens, markers, and colored pencils. I was more like a sponge than an artist while in YS. I absorbed the colors of the bacteria mat’s—Grand Prismatic with its otherworldly color palate---my work suddenly had color. It was no longer the deep dark colors that often symbolize pain and hurt but an explosion and exploration into the vastness of life—with all it’s quirks and breaths. 

You’ve spent most of your life in the midwest: do you feel like that is reflected in your artwork? If so, how?
Yes and no—there is a lot of expression of the feminine force in my work, usually in soft and contemplative ways. There is a lot of suppression of women out there—not just in the Midwest but everywhere. A woman has certain expectations on how to look, act, behave and feel. I have struggled with this most my life and I find it so unfair. The standards are too high, the pain too deep sometimes. If you are Midwest nice then you get taken advantage of. It something to be aware of. Something that needs to be taught in school and reinforced at early ages—you are more than your “Earth suit,” as Gary Zukav put’s it. The Midwest is great in many ways, but it has it’s limits. I try to navigate the best I can and am grateful to be in the age of awareness where I realize the only person I truly have to love is myself, everything else will fall into place. 

How is the art scene in Ann Arbor?
It’s great—there are many creative people here. Detroit is only a 30 minute drive away so you can get access to some state of the art facilities featuring the most contemporary works. I love the rural nature of A2 so it’s fine for me. I am thankful I had the opportunity to live, work and play in the motor city for 6 years. It’s really a special place. I am still figuring out A2. We have Stamps Gallery and UofM and UMMA, which are all great creative spheres. We also have the Penny Stamps Lecture Series which brings in incredible speakers—I have seen Fred Tomaselli, Robert and Shana Parkeharrison and Lucy Lippard to name a few. 

You mentioned that you are also an educator? What do you teach? And do you incorporate your teaching into your artistic practice?
I have taught at various universities, community college and art centers. I have been finding more and more that although these opportunities are rewarding and I develop deep and meaningful connections with my students, that there are other things I need to dedicate my time to. It brings me joy to have strong connections with my family and friends, to have time to work on myself. Right now I am teaching on Skillshare, I teach classes on relief Printmaking which I really enjoy.
You can find my classes here:

https://www.skillshare.com/r/profile/Jennifer-Belair-Sakarian/3601995

What is your favorite accomplishment thus far?
Artist in residence in Quebec with Est-Nord-Eset.

What is your ultimate professional goal?
To be happy, to feel enough, to always lift myself up. I don’t work in terms of professional goals anymore. I only wish to create and inspire others. If any “success” comes from that then I will rejoice and be thankful. I have already done some amazing artist opps—and for those I am grateful. I have done so much—artist in residencies in Australia, North Carolina and Quebec, Canada.