Chief Magazine: Did you draw much as a kid?

Sara Antoinette Martin: I don't really remember drawing so much.  I always had a sketchbook, but I wasn't prolific about it.  I didn't really think I was that good at drawing until I went to Pratt.  However, I was always making stuff. I was really into origami, beading, and those yarn rugs… at one point I thought it was really cool to make handbags out of duct tape. My birthday parties were always centered on a craft.  Around the age of nine or ten, I made a comic book called The Adventures of Super Turtle.  I had a K’nex set.  I painted seashells.  I was always creative.

Where did you grow up? Along the coast?

I grew up on the south shore of Long Island.  Originally Sayville (the middle), and then in 5th grade we moved to Speonk, which is almost the Hamptons.  Both places have had a pretty significant influence in who I am, I think.

Growing up, what did you think you would be doing if not art?

In 5th grade I wanted to be a marine biologist pretty bad.  Other than that, I knew I had to do something creative, but I didn't know you could make a career out of art until I went to Pratt.  I thought I was going to do something with computers.

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There is a surreal current running through your work, along with a definite influence from Georgia O'Keefe, from the skulls and flowers to the isolation that you depict. What artists in particular have you felt an influence from?

I can't say any artist in particular that I am heavily influenced by, partially because I am really bad at remembering names.

That’s understandable.

Some of my favorites are Hieronymus Bosch, Otto Dix, prints of Albrecht Dürer, Winsor McCay, and contemporary artists such as Gary Baseman and Jeff Soto. I find that I see an exhibit that really moves me I will try and feed off that emotion or reference some part of it.

I take more influence by genres of art.  I used to be really into illuminated manuscripts and religious iconography. I reference traditional tattoos because of the way they can tell a story in a single graphic image and how they are rendered. I a big fan of Mexican folk art – just folk art in general.  The sea monsters drawn on old maps, symbols used by the Freemasons, weird dime store junk, Ultraman monsters, the idea of 'outer space' in the atomic age, El Santo movies, and patterns that you find everywhere, like my doorknobs and tin ceilings. Art is all around me and I take it all in.

Your paintings utilize a recurring visual language, with certain objects showing up in the backgrounds of multiple pieces. What interests you about repeating certain images, and how have you determined which images are worth repeating?

It cycles.  I'm interested in creating a unique visual language, so I will adopt a symbol, recycle it, and turn it into my own.  Sometimes I'll draw something because it's interesting to draw.  I'm also interested in what happens when you reverse a symbol, for example I'm really into upside down pyramids right now.

Several of your paintings, for example, incorporate disembodied teeth, either floating in space or bordering a piece. What is the intention behind this?

The molars first appeared in Our Lady of the Ring, which is a self-portrait with boxing gloves.  The teeth just kind of fit.  I thought they were pretty fun to draw so I kept using them.  I also like them because teeth are really invasive and visceral… and gnarly. Nobody likes going to the dentist.