About Sara Cottingham
I’ve always been captivated by the interplay between people and places, cultures and landscapes, industry and nature. I love rural places—the kind that tend to be forgotten, overlooked, and a little rough around the edges. This love is what first drew me to West Virginia, and it continues to inspire my visual art, music, and local community development work to this day.
I make linocut and woodcut prints, paintings, and drawings that capture scenes from post-industrial landscapes, rural life, and the natural world. My goal is to render images that are realistic and true to form, yet also imaginative and evocative. My pieces are detail oriented, complex, and rich in texture. I often work from photographs (particularly historical ones), and I generally choose scenes that I find personally captivating and want to spend time studying in a deeper way.
Biography
I am a visual artist, writer, and musician based in Morgantown, West Virginia. I’m proud to be a 2024 Creative Entrepreneur Fellow with the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts. I make woodcut and linocut prints, as well as paintings and drawings. I also play the banjo and work as a community development consultant for rural towns and nonprofits.
A native Texan, I moved to West Virginia in 2012 to work with coal-impacted communities and immerse myself in the Appalachian old-time music scene. While music was already a major part of my life, by my mid-twenties I felt a strong calling to the visual arts. My interest in printmaking, drawing, and painting ignited when I took a few art courses at West Virginia State University. In the decade since, I have honed my skills through self study and workshops at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center (Hyattsville, MD), AVA Gallery & Art Center (Lebanon, NH), the Torpedo Factory (Alexandria, VA), the John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC), and Yestermorrow Design Build School (Waitsfield, VT).
My artwork has been featured in several notable installations, contests, and shows throughout West Virginia in recent years, including the “Lost Towns of the Mon” art installation at the Tygart Hotel in Elkins (2023), the City of Mount Hope’s Storefront Art Installation (2018), the “Weirton: The City Forged By Steel” contest and art show in Weirton (2018), the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts exhibition at the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse in Charleston (2018), and the “Sight of Sound: Making Music Visible” show at West Virginia State University in Charleston (2016).
Beyond my passion for the visual arts, I play in several bands including the Allegheny Hellbenders Old-Time String Band. I have served in volunteer and professional capacities with arts organizations including the Tamarack Foundation for the Arts, the Arts Council of Greater Morgantown, and Friends of Old-Time Music and Dance (FOOTMAD) in Charleston, WV. I am also a recipient of a Professional Artist Development Grant from the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History.
[email protected]
Other Creative Skills
Painting
Drawing
