School of Visual Arts, NYC
Graphic Memoir: Crafting Life Stories
How many stories can we tell from a day, a relationship, an encounter? The stories we choose to tell from our lives define who we are and what we believe in, whether they are tales of love or tragedy. In this course, students will envision themselves as the main character and transform their life events into engaging visual narratives. Each week, students will analyze excerpts from a range of diverse graphic memoirs and develop skills to connect with their audience on an emotional level. Through mini-comics and prototyping exercises, students will advance their skills in scriptwriting and visual production, creating a larger-format autobiographical comic by the end of the semester. Students will be encouraged to take risks and interpret their memories from new perspectives. Ultimately, they will share their stories with the class and, perhaps, with the world at large.
view the course Here.
COMICS and zine WORKSHOPS
I love making zines, comics, and teaching others how to make them, too!
“Comics for a Cause”
is a series of visual storytelling workshops in collaboration with “Friends of Colombia” a group for returned Peace Corps volunteers to connect and contribute to projects in Colombia. In these 90-minute sessions, participants create autobiographical stories based on various themes in the form of mini comics. View our last workshop here, and follow along on Instagram to sign up for future workshops.
“Sarah has an engaging energetic screen presence. She is a great teacher and communicator which is not so easy to do remotely. Her workshop is very fun! I was inspired to look at my photos in a different way. It doesn’t matter if you are an experienced artist or if you have never drawn at all. Sarah has some tips and tricks to get you going. She is completely non-judgmental. Finding your story is the most important thing. Sarah knows how to help you do it. I especially liked sharing with the rest of the group and seeing what they had discovered.”
ZINE WORKSHOPS
What’s a zine?! Zines are self-published visual narratives that can be created with a variety of media and materials. I have led several zine workshops in the US and abroad, most recently at Sattya Media Arts Collective in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Middle and High School Art Classes
For three years, from 2016-2019, I taught middle and high school art & design classes at Lincoln School, a small international school with a diverse student body in Kathmandu, Nepal. My curriculum incorporated a variety of art disciplines, including: drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, illustration, animation, photography and new media. Projects were based on themes and inspired by contemporary art, art history, and visual culture, challenging students to create art as personal expression and develop their creative problem solving skills. Risk-taking was strongly encouraged. I regularly documented student work on this Lincoln School Art Instagram.
Skillshare Classes
In 2016, I developed two classes on the platform Skillshare, featuring travel illustration and collage basics. Check out my classes here.
Photography & Media arts workshops
In 2014 and 2015, while volunteering in the Peace Corps, I conducted six youth photography camps on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The cameras and curriculum were provided by the San Diego-based organization “Outside the Lens.” View photos, videos and descriptions of the projects here. View our Youtube channel here.
