Sara Lee HUGHES
Sara Lee Hughes
Sara Lee was born in 1968 and raised in Dallas, Texas. After graduating with a BFA in theatrical design from Texas State University (formerly Southwest Texas State) she moved to Philadelphia and worked as a scenic painter for Television, Film and Theater. She has earned a certificate in painting and printmaking from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a Masters in Painting from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. In 2003 Sara Lee received a Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center. During her residency she developed large scale drawings and paintings inspired by letters and short stories from her father. This laid the ground work for her current body of work. In 2008 Sara Lee returned to Central Texas by way of a commission to create a painting commemorating Stephen F. Austin and his relationship with the Texas General Land Office.
Artist Statement
My current paintings are representational narratives influenced by growing up in the south during the 1970’s and 80’s with divorced parents and operate as metaphors for discovery, other-ness, identity, connection, balance and truth. As a body of work, they highlight moments, memories and ideas that mark a journey of navigation through the differences between my gay father, my straight mother and the socio-cultural norms of the era and those proceeding. In this work I am most interested in exploring and sharing the connection I had with my father before his death of AIDS, the profound guidance it had on my life afterword and how this personal experience fits into our country’s broader social and cultural heritage.
