ABOVE: Sarah Vanasse Miles has a variety of art work on display at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont. The show opens Tuesday, Feb. 14 and runs through March 31.

FAIRMONT– Sarah Vanasse Miles, a 2010 graduate of Fairmont High School, will have a variety of art work on display at the Red Rock Center for the Arts in Fairmont beginning this week. Miles’ works include oil, graphite and other artistic mediums.

Miles has spent years traveling and living in other cities, honing in on her art skills. She got married this past September and now lives in Fairmont, doing art full-time.

Miles shared that her introduction to art actually came from her father, Jeff.

“He was an excellent artist himself. My brothers were much better students than I was and their art work always got hung on the fridge. I forgot that bodies needed torsos. My arms and legs came out of the head,” Miles said with a laugh.

She a took a break from art for many years, though she was in Art I and painted the 2010 prom set while a student at Fairmont High School.

Following her graduation, Miles went to Gustavus Adolphus College where she studied Religion. She then went to grad school at Iowa School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. It wasn’t until this time that Miles picked up art again.

“One of our homework assignments called for a spiritual practice and I thought it would be so relaxing to go home and paint. That was in 2016 and I haven’t put the brush down since,” Miles said.

The first painting she completed, a self-portrait, was an acrylic pointillism.

“I was so broke at the time, a grad student, that I kept covering up the same painting over and over,” Miles said.

She became heavily involved in the art scene in Denver and finished a few more self-portraits before she moved on to abstract work after becoming inspired by a women of abstract expressionism exhibit at the Denver Art Museum.

“Their canvases were huge. They painted all in oil and used really confident brush strokes and bold colors,” Miles said.

She started working with oil at that point and created a very large self-portrait. Soon after that she started traveling.

“I wanted to see the country. That didn’t really allow me to paint on the big canvases so I started doing smaller works,” Miles explained.

Her travels brought her to Guadalajara, Mexico, where she lived for awhile. During that time she met an artist who taught her how to draw. One of her works from that time, an angel, is framed and will be a part of the exhibit.

“That was a special time for me because it was a huge turning point in my artistic career to start understanding the value of the fundamentals,” Miles said.

Along with working with oils, Miles began drawing, too. She said a drawing practice is good for a healthy painting.

She moved back to Minnesota, to Minneapolis, in 2018. Most of her subjects at that time were derived from following the work of Masters and she tried to emulate their figures and subjects.

One thing that Miles stressed is that people don’t need formal training if they want to make art.

“If they want to be an artist, everything they need to know is online for free. I taught myself to oil paint with a five minute Youtube video,” Miles said.

However, she said the study of Theology, for her, opened the door to a creative practice that incorporated creation in a respectful way.

Feb. 22 is Miles’ year anniversary of being a full-time artist. Along with painting, her time is consumed with marketing, scheduling shows and managing sales.

The Red Rock show has just over 30 framed pieces on display, as well as un-framed matted originals and prints that people can look through.

It is Miles’ first solo show, prior to this her work has been in group exhibitions, including at the St. Paul Art Collective and 410 Project in Mankato. This is also her first official show in Fairmont.

“I’m very proud. I value community and to share what I’ve been working on for the past six years with the place that raised me is an honor,” Miles said.

The public is welcome to attend an artist reception which will take place at the Red Rock Center from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19.