Public Art

Aliens in the Garden

Outdoor wall mural of huge plant and leaf shapes and 1950s-style UFOs

This mural is on a cinder block wall, primed and painted in neutral gray.

The wall and mural measure approximately 72 x 6 feet.

The goal of the project was to add life and humor through sci-fi to this garden wall. The hubcap-style UFO design was used to keep the mural in the flavor of the surrounding 1950s-era homes.

Ocotillo Park Bench

cement park bench painted in light blue with red poppies and a roadrunner

cement park bench painted in light blue with red poppies and a roadrunner, closeup on the roadrunner

cement park bench painted in light blue with red poppies and a roadrunner, closeup on the roadrunner head and foot

cement park bench painted in light blue with red poppies and a roadrunner, closeup on the roadrunner head

cement park bench painted in light blue with red poppies and a roadrunner, closeup on poppies

Signage for Sarah Soward's painted park bench at Ocotillo Park, Cathedral City, California

Roadrunner and Poppies

This piece is meant to inspire and bring joy. The roadrunner is a symbol of the desert, its strength and resilience. The poppies are fragile and temporary, playing counterpoint to the roadrunner. The two exist in harmony. Surrealistic techniques of juxtaposition and dream imagery are used to increase the feeling of harmony. There may even be some hope as well, as the poppies are set free from the ground and sustained by water droplets that float with them. This is an art piece with one eye on creating a happy experience and the other on hopeful environmentalism, as a little water can go a long way.

Starry Ceiling

Dark blue-black ceiling with swirls, spiral, and silver stars painted on it

Starry Night-Inspired Ceiling

Two views of a ceiling mural inspired by Van Gogh's Starry Night painting. This piece was a group project. Doris Dialogu and "Chuck" helped out with this one.

The ceiling is 10 x 12 feet.

Dark blue-black ceiling with swirls and silver stars painted on it

Most of the paint for this mural is the same color but in different sheens. There are elements of the swirls that match the wall colors (a different hue of very dark blue-black) to help hold the experience of the room together.

The swirls are intentionally wild and chaotic. I decided that having smooth spirals with anything remotely like mathematical ratios would look trite. So I skipped all that, and embraced chaos.

I selected the light fixture specifically to add to the otherworldly effect of the ceiling art. They're like a cluster of planets or the center of a busy galaxy.

Rabbitville

Against All Odds We Thrive, Rabbitville public art bunny painted by Sarah Soward for the Gaslamp District of San Diego

Against All Odds, We Thrive
Side view of the completed rabbit for Rabbitville, on location.

Against All Odds We Thrive, Rabbitville rabbit sculpture that was painted by Sarah Soward for San Diego's Gaslamp District. 2 side views and a photo of it on location surrounded by adoring fans.

Against All Odds, We Thrive

Completed rabbit, side views, and photo of the rabbit on display in San Diego (with fans).

This public art piece is part of the Rabbitville series commissioned by San Diego. There is an entire warren's worth of fiberglass rabbits in the world now. Each one was painted by a different artist to benefit the Gaslamp District of San Diego.

Against All Odds, We Thrive, was designed to honor and illustrate the history of the Gaslamp District. Before it was settled and turned into the beginnings of a city, it was populated by wildlife—especially rabbits. Along with rabbits came coyote, foxes, and the odd mountain lion. Other animals were also roaming the wilds of San Diego at that time, but those listed are the few that made it onto my rabbit.

With human settlements, came sailing ships full of materials and merchandise and an ever-growing collection of buildings. The structures on this rabbit focus on the historical buildings.

One of the aspects of San Diego that I love is that there are still pockets of wilderness in the city. While we may not see mountain lions roaming the Gaslamp District when I lived in San Diego, I did see coyotes at the edge of my backyard.

The red banner that reads, "Against All Odds, We Thrive," ties together both the struggle of wildlife to keep their territory and the struggle of the Alonzo Horton and his cohort to settle the area. The sunshine that radiates on the bunny's back encourages all of us to thrive, whether we have four legs or just two.

Small Scale Murals / Large Scale Paintings

Eleanor's Words, non-representational artwork installation by Sarah Soward

Eleanor's Words
Each piece is 11x14 feet, acrylic on paper

This was an interactive art installation that was fixed to a sidewalk next to a park in Berkeley, California. The public was invited to experience the series of 3 paintings by walking onto them, sitting, inspecting them, having a picnic on them, drawing on them, or whatever they were moved to do.

These paintings were specifically made to be destroyed.

Art has the potential to be therapeutic to the maker as well as the viewer. Sometimes what is made comes from such a dark place that it is best if it does not continue to exist, even if the end result may be deemed beautiful.

The act of destroying can be just as healing as creating, and often it is absolutely freeing. In this case, the subject matter of the painting is hidden and kept secret in the form of illegible words layered over each other into a tapestry of pain and paint. The story in these paintings is one that millions of people know, but that a large portion of us never talk about. The vagueness of that statement allowed people to assign their own meaning to the work as they trod on it, spilled a drink on it, or ripped a piece away.

Part of the goal was to free the participants of something as well.

Other Works

Untitled piece honoring women burned as witches. I hand wrote the names of all listed women available to me on rolls and rolls of streamers and then wrapped an 8-foot-tall wooden sigil with the streamers. Displayed in Berkeley, California

Untitled piece as a stage backdrop. I glued paint swatches together into 10 foot long vertical garlands held together by fishing line and swivels. They were made so that the wind would turn them like horizontal turbines. The strands and swatches were arranges so that they created an ombre rainbow with intentional gaps in between. Displayed in Berkeley, California.

Halley's Comet, Cheetah
20x72 inches

Halley's Comet, Cheetah (Detail)
20x72 inches for the total image

This painting is part of my Starry Night series and features a cheetah as Halley's comet. The painting is 6 feet long and almost 2 feet tall.