Materials Reclaimed brings together two mixed-media artists whose practices converge through a shared commitment to reclaimed materials and layered transformation. Working with salvaged objects — broken off furniture, textiles and plastic waste — each artist reimagines what has been overlooked, embedding new meaning into discarded objects. By recontextualizing materials, the work becomes a site of reflection on identity, relationship, and personal narrative with distinct aesthetic approaches.
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Sarah Rodriguez (b.1992) is a mixed media artist and educator in Cincinnati, OH. She received her M.F.A. from Miami University (2017) and B.F.A. from Wright State University (2014). She is currently an Academic Advisor for Art & Design at Northern Kentucky University and a grant recipient of The ArtsWave Black & Brown Program: Truth & Innovation.
GR: How did you start? Paint us a picture of your journey.
Rodriguez: As creative people, even when we have lots of love and support, we're always going to come up against people not understanding our ideas or where we're at. But being able to trust in yourself — that you have a vision that you want to pursue or that you know where you're going — you have to learn to believe that.
GR: Like other artists, Rodriguez has thought of herself as an artist since childhood. Her family was supportive of her passion for the arts. Despite this constant source of support at home, Rodriguez still faced uncertainty about her path as an artist. She recounted a formative memory from an elementary school art class, when she had an ambitious vision of creating a gargoyle head. While she had her image in her mind, her classmates and even her teacher, Mrs. Coy, were unsure she could execute the project. However, once Sarah finished the base structure and began to add details, her vision snapped into place. This sparked a sense of self-trust that would stick with her.
Rodriguez: I think a big part [of my journey] was getting exposed to other creative youth, like other people who really are excited and passionate about art too. At that age I wasn't really surrounded by them [other creatives]. So being amongst other people who were again, taking it seriously was really pivotal.
GR: Rodriguez also went on to relate the importance of several recent projects including her commissioned works for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, facilitated by Kohler Designs and her project entitled Patchwork – a community art project which consisted of a series of workshops in various neighborhoods in and around Cincinnati. These projects were not about creating an artwork for the artist’s own satisfaction and according to the artists own vision but instead were collaborations, driven by commercial requests or programmatic needs.
Rodriguez: Those projects have been like very much like, here's a prompt now execute it. There is some creative freedom but I’m still delivering what the client wants. And I think my skill level has improved immensely because of those projects because there were limitations that I had to work within.
GR: Why do you make art?
Rodriguez: I think about my artistic practice as having two hemispheres – one is like art education and is geared toward serving others. Then the other is more about my own personal work. Here I try to hone in on my own voice, I try to understand and express myself and communicate my ideas about the world through a visual language. I think that as an educator, I try to meet people where they are. And as an artist, I try to meet myself where I'm at.
GR: Rodriguez also went on to talk about Sargy Mann and the ambitions of art.
Rodriguez: At the end of one of his lectures, [Sargy] Mann urges the audience to consider how ambitious art can really be. And that's something that I try to tell my students a lot is that art can have a really big impact and not just on others but on us, as makers. It radiated outward. So what I tell my students is that it's a gift. What we get to do is such a gift and we should be open to how big it can be and how ambitious it can be.
GR: What has changed about the way you look at your practice?
Rodriguez: I think there's been just an incredible amount of growth… I think my practice is so much richer. And it's richer because I've lived more life.
I don't think about my influences the same way I did and I didn't really think about how personal it can be. And I’m not so hyper-focused on just art, but I’m thinking about how multifaceted we all are and how all of those things kind of can come together and impact what we make.
One of the biggest things aesthetically that I'm doing is making more sculptural and object driven work. Like, I always say I was raised as a really traditional oil painter and I have some paintings that [are in Materials Reclaimed at PAR-Projects.] But breaking free from that and pushing into three dimensions… that's been like happening for a long time, but it's just a slow process.
GR: What advice do you have for other makers or young people?
Rodriguez: Terrence Hammond says, be nice to everybody. Always be kind. I think that's a good one.
GR: Rodriguez then tied her response back to the beginning of our conversation during which we talked about self-trust but also vulnerability.
Rodriguez: So you gotta give yourself grace and meet yourself where you're at… I’m also excited for this next part. I think [Materials Reclaimed] is part of that – the phase where I’m not being timid to be myself or be as personal or honest with the work.
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SLiNK Love is an abolitionist and fine artist based in Cincinnati, OH. SLiNK received an MFA from UC DAAP (2024) and has curated, directed, and shown in dozens of international and underground installations and activations.
GR: How did you start? Paint us a picture of your journey.
SLiNK: My whole life I have made [...] marks at minimum. Growing up, my family had nicknamed me Kelsey Doodle, because that's all I did, like anytime, like before I could walk fully, I would be out of the crib ...and my mom would come down. It would be like five in the morning, and she would see that I had taken food stuff out of the fridge, usually ketchups and mayonnaise and stuff, and smeared it on the walls.
GR: Seeing SLiNK’s love for making things, her family gifted her artmaking kits, sketchbooks and various supplies for her to dabble with. But when she was younger, she didn’t believe that art could be a career path; living in a rural area of Florida outside of Jacksonville, working artist were not part of that landscape. Instead, SLiNK focused her energies on academic success and sought out medicine as a career so that she could help support her family.
SLiNK: When I came to the north, my junior year of high school, that was my first time in a real art class. And I [had] never used anything that wasn't a Crayola product. So in that class, I got to use acrylic paints, tempura, and mess around with collage. I started doing a lot of mixed media portraiture… I was still very drawn to representational work back then, but I still did not consider myself an artist. It was just a hobby.
GR: SLiNK continued to work hard to get into med school. But a high school teacher encouraged her to also apply to college for art as well. She applied to Columbus College of Art and Design and was accepted. Moving to Columbus and immersing herself in the culture of not only a metropolitan [region] but also of art school was a transformative experience, though she ended up leaving CCAD for University of Cincinnati.
SLiNK: Before, I’d describe my practice as compulsive and unintentional. But after seeing Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, I snapped into this state of mind where I asked myself "who am I, what do I want, what has happened to me?" …I was deeply unsatisfied and depressed not because I was unloved or unsupported, but because I didn't know myself. Since seeing that film, being a studio artist has been a non-negotiable and I try to make sure I can support my studio practice.
GR: Why do you make art?
SLiNK: I started because I had to. It's soothing to me. And I believe that it is how I contribute to the conversation on what it takes to create a freer world. But I honestly, I just believe humans are compelled to make things, whether that is making lunch or making babies or making friends laugh or making culturally defining artworks. I think that's just part of the human condition as we are creative beings.
GR: What's changed in the way that you look at your art practice?
SLiNK: I was taking my mental health very seriously. This was 2021. I put myself through a four-month holistic therapy program. It's called integrative healing and the program incorporated a bunch of different methodologies like nutrition, somatic practices, traditional talk therapy and more. And that really changed the course of how I approached my work. I became aware that I’m a conceptual artist which is where my practice currently lies.
GR: What is your advice for young artists or peers?
SLiNK: I would say experiment with materials. Just like nonstop. And do things that challenge you. Not to piss you off necessarily… but to get us out of our comfort zones. Find that balance. That means that you need a little bit of that grit and that friction as well as things that you're very comfortable with – things that you can do with your eyes closed or that make you super happy. I think you need balance to keep you present.
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Thanks for following along,
Gabi