Hello, I'm Sarah. I'm a mid-30s Midwesterner with a deep long love of creating and a dabbler in all-things-art. Throughout my childhood, I took art classes in school and spent a lot of time doodling or painting in my room (and, admittedly, in the margins of textbooks and notebooks, on the back of my hand, and even on my walls). In college, I majored in art history and adored my studio art courses, particularly design, painting, and fibers.

After college, I had no clue what I wanted to do, or be, so I moved to Philadelphia for graduate school and earned my master's in Writing Studies with a poetry concentration. Although I had shifted my academic focus from modern art to contemporary poetry, I never stopped drawing and sewing in that time. After three years on the east coast, my husband and I moved back to Missouri. We bought our first house and I finally had my own room for a studio and plenty of wall space to decorate, so I started blogging about my artistic adventures. That's when all my family, friends, and followers said "you should start an etsy shop!" ....and so I did.

I settled on "Sometimes I Swirl" for my shop name because that's what happens when I draw. Unplanned, flowing swirl designs just come out. Also because I gravitate toward symmetrical abstract designs, natural elements and mehndi, these influences come up quite often in my own work.

Now with a full-time day job, I create at home on week nights and on the weekends. Although I technically still have an office/studio in my house (ack, it's messy 100% of the time), I often rotate the spots where I sew and draw... and my two trusty cat assistants follow whenever I go.

I'm very much an introvert and require lots of alone time for drawing, sewing, listening to music, sketching, thinking, and reading. I love learning new things on my own and trying new artistic ventures, and I'll experiment with any medium I can get my hands on.

You should also know that I fiercely love Paul Klee, surrealism, any type of DIY project, watercolors, contemporary quilts, my hometown of St. Louis, and craft beer. :)

On to the swirls, shall we? http://www.etsy.com/shop/sometimesiswirl

(P.S. My profile picture comes from the wonderful Stephanie and Peter Zettl of http://zettlphoto.com/)