#YYC Spotlight: Sara Girletz

Hello and welcome to another feature in the #YYC Spotlight series!

For this round, we’re gonna get up close and personal with the talented local artist, Sara Girletz and how she started her amazing art biz.

A multidisciplinary artist, Sara’s work truly strikes home for me as a born and raised Calgarian! The story of how her art practice began and her advice for budding artists/creatives is definitely an inspirational read.

I’ll let her story and work speak for itself, so grab a cup of your favourite hot beverage and read on! Thanks Sara for giving us a peak inside your artist life, process, and thoughts 🙂

1. Tell me a little about yourself and your business. Where are you from? What do you do?

My name is Sara Girletz and I’m a multidisciplinary artist.

I make mixed media art pieces and home decor inspired by the aesthetic of old abandoned structures. I live and work out of Calgary, Alberta.

2. How did your business get started?

When I first graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 2011, I knew I wanted to make work but I didn’t really know where I fit into the art community (both YYC and beyond) or how I wanted to go about possibly making a living from my art.

So I found a full time job and began throwing myself into a variety of avenues to see what I liked. I tried lots of things from teaching art classes, learning how to write grant applications, exhibiting my work with a variety of artist run centres and even getting to travel and make work at artist residencies both in and outside of the country.

I eventually came to the realization that I did want the majority of my work week to be centred around making things in my studio. And because I have such a personal connection to my work, I knew if I was going to sell my art I wanted to be directly involved, not just in the studio, but also with the promotional and sales aspects.

I guess what I do today got its official start in December 2015. That year I did my first two markets in Calgary with my budding collection then known as “Homebody.” Since then I’ve continued doing markets, selling my work online through Etsy, and have select pieces available for purchase in a handful of galleries and shops throughout Alberta.

3. What inspires you to do what you do?

I love creating pieces that other people relate to and feel a sense of comfort from even if they can’t exactly articulate what that feeling is.

I’m not only inspired by those connections but in a way, I think that type of support is part of the reason for my momentum these last couple of years. My work is a nostalgic nod to where I’ve come from, along with a look at where I am now.

It’s essentially taking stock of where I am in a particular moment.

I’m inspired by Alberta, abandoned man-made structures, prairie horizons, small town culture, family imagery, abstraction found in nature, modern rustic design, feminine motifs, crumbling wall paper, layers and layers sun bleached paint—the whole lot of it!

4. What dreams or goals are you working towards with your business?

I want a decent sized woodshop. Like a heated garage attached to a house-type-of deal.

I’m so thankful for the equipment and space that I have now but as my ideas and the demand for work grows, I’m hoping to do some upgrades like that in the next few years.

5. If you could give one piece of advice for a budding entrepreneur or business owner in your field, what would it be?

Don’t compare yourself to anyone or any other business or business owner in your field.

Your business (especially a creative type business) is your business and it’s unique and it needs to be run the way you feel you need to run it so you are happy and successful. Seriously, there’s so many ways to do this and you can’t let people tell you your decisions are necessarily right or wrong because in the end you are the one that’s doing it.

You are the only one that’s inside your head and deep down you do know how you feel. With that being said, it’s alright to do things and not have them work out. Just like in the studio it’s alright to make mistakes and muddle through things. You have to accept that struggle will most definitely happen and you need to see failures as new beginnings, not ends.

Get to know how your business works.

Understand the audience that likes and purchases your work. Make sure that the majority of the time you are happy doing what you are doing and if you’re not, you owe it to yourself to step back, reflect, and refocus in order to get back to being happy.

6. Tell me three fun facts about yourself or your business.

• The inspiration for the shape of my triangle shelves came from waking up every morning and seeing just the peak of this old garage that’s outside my bedroom window. My mind was always trying to fill in that shape with all types of designs and things. Eventually I thought, “why don’t I just make something of this?”

• It’s a little bit of a dream of my mine to get my work featured on the Jealous Curator’s blog (and I’d probably just die if she wanted to have me on her podcast!) I’ve written to her three times so far and I’ve heard nothing. However, I did tag her in a post on Instagram once and she commented with a… rainbow emoji! I have the screenshot to prove it.

• I watch Seinfeld re-runs a lot.

7. Anything else going on with your business that you’d like Calgarians to know about?

I’m only doing one Christmas market this year and then I’m going to be taking a break from markets after that. But the one I’m doing is the West Hillhurst Holiday Craft Sale happening on Saturday, November 24th (10 – 3pm) at the West Hillhurst Community Association here in the Calgary.

I always love meeting new faces, so if you’re in the area come on out! If you can’t make it, I have small batches of work available at Outside the Shape (in Inglewood), Leighton Art Centre (just outside of the city), and Alberta’s Own Marketplace (if you find yourself in Canmore for the day).