Sara Goodnick

Art came first but when my parents gave me my first horse when I was 12 equine activities consumed and fascinated me from then on. I read everything I could get my hands on about horses. Studying Equine Science at Colorado State University was a pure pleasure. Travels with my husband required that I give up owning a horse, so I returned to art as my main interest. Living in Europe gave me chances to enjoy visiting many art museums and churches housing world class art. There are many ways to explore our world via differing art media, and I set out trying them all. Many were pleasing to me, but I certainly was not good at some of them. I came to realize the camera was my best voice when, at the end of a summer on a remote Greek island, attempting to master watercolor, I gave up on the last week and grabbed my camera. Wandering alone around the villages and empty hillsides, sometimes meeting people, photographing them, and anything else that interested me, was immensely satisfying. Once back in the U.S., I studied portrait photography and opened a small studio. It was enjoyable, but I realized my heart lay elsewhere, in animals, nature, and landscapes, as well as still life and macro photography. Adding to this group is the enticement of creating my own realities via digital painting. Examining a subject via photographic means, for me, involves very close examination, emotionally and physically. What do I want to say? How can I say it? Why do I feel the need? How will others react? Photographs that tell a story, ask a question, evoke a memory or an emotion, or allow us to see into a world we had not noticed before are the goals of my endeavors with this tool, the camera. The pure photograph is beautiful, but an image created digitally is an equally valid artistic expression. Maybe it was what I saw, but maybe it was what I wanted to see, or even dreamed. Accepted as Juried Member Arizona Art Alliance 2018 Master of Photography Degree-Professional Photographers of America (PPA) 2017 Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) designation-Professional Photographers of America (PPA) 2011 Photo Guide, Arizona Highways PhotoScapes 2011 Professional Photographers of America (PPA) 2006 Photographers Top Ten AZPPA Photographer of the Year 2011,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 Trinity University BA Degree, Art Major Linn-Benton Community College AS Degree, Graphic Design