Sarah Link has been a prominent figure in the art world for decades and has been creating cutting-edge works of art that question the morality of human’s relationship with the land.
“[It’s a] multidisciplinary approach to the understanding of form,” she says about her artistic technique.
Her journey began in her home state of California where she acquired a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley followed by a Master of Arts from Stanford. After immigrating to Canada in 1967 she discovered her gift of creating when taking a clay course at McMaster University in Hamilton in 1968.
“I was doing work for the psychiatry department in research at McMaster [University] and took a clay course and that was the end of my life in academia because I discovered I had a gift.”
Prior to discovering her artistic talent, Link was on a path into academia but once she began working with clay, that path took a sharp turn into the art world.
Link began showing exhibits across Ontario in Hamilton, Waterloo and Toronto, bringing her art to Northern Ontario when she moved to Thunder Bay in 1994 to teach at Lakehead University, retiring in 2008 after running the whole ceramics department.
During this time, Link joined the Thunder Bay Potter’s Guild and took up residencies at prestigious places like Art Farm in Aurora, Nebraska and the Institute of Ceramic Studies at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park in Shiga Prefecture, Japan in 2001.
Through these residences and ongoing exhibits, Link was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2005.
Local inspiration
Link says her inspiration has always come from the land around her.
“Being in this environment and seeing the history of this area [is] the inspiration for creating,” she says, noting the incredible landscapes Thunder Bay offers.
One of those landscapes, Sibley Park, is where Link’s installation Windfall is located. Created in 2004, it is about the silver strike at the turn of the century and the miner’s struggles during the long freezing winters.
With a background that could be considered worldly, Link has created installations that make a viewer question the world around and beneath them.
FARM, influenced by all the places she’s worked, exposes the consumer's relationship with genetically modified produce and part of that exhibit, TANE is now part of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
A place to be
Link is an artist that established and emerging artists alike look to for inspiration when walking through the art community of Thunder Bay, and she is always amazed by the local art scene here.
“The whole artistic community is just thriving in Thunder Bay [and] for a town this size it has amazing, accomplished artists. It’s an exciting place to be.”
Link still lives in town and is proud of living, working and teaching in Thunder Bay because, as she says, what a place to be inspired.
