Sara Lubinski
Brownsville, Minnesota
 

"The river is in me," says artist Sara Lubinski, who lives in a log cabin outside Brownsville, Minnesota, with her ecologist husband Ken, two dogs and two cats. She is a painter in pastels who loves the Mississippi River area and paints to explore and share the wonders of the region.

After a childhood in Lincoln, Nebraska, her family moved to Arlington Heights, Illinois. There the love of beauty and a commitment to painting were fostered through high school art classes and summer courses at the Chicago Art Institute.

She began college as an art major at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire, graduating as a botany major and an art minor. Love of nature and the environment led her to complete a botany masters there in 1987 and to become a botanist specializing in aquatic plants.

During the 1990s she worked for the U.S. Geological Survey, researching aquatic plants of the Mississippi River and mapping plant communities in the national parks.  Though she left the full-time position there four years ago to focus more time on painting, she still works part-time with the USGS in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Once active in skydiving, skiing and hot air ballooning, Lubinski now finds excitement in "the little things that make life so beautiful."

She finds a strong connection between interpreting the landscape artistically and understanding and respecting the environment. Her background as an ecologist and botanist heightens her awareness and appreciation of the natural world and enhances and compliments her artistic perspectives.

"Painting is challenging - it is both intuitive and cerebral at the same time," Lubinski says, adding that practicing meditation "helps my understanding and helps me to focus." The act of painting is for her "a working meditation" a search for the essential function of art, the exploration of the mysteries of the world and sharing.

Lubinski enjoys "the excitement of the painting process and the discovery of ways of solving the problem and getting the message across."  For this reason, "My favorite painting is usually my current work," and she's not attached to the individual paintings once they are finished.

"I would like to make a living with my art," she says, "and I would like to be among the top in my field.”  Toward these ends, she is continually learning and has taken workshops with, among others, Lorenzo Chavez, who paints in Colorado and New Mexico, and Marc Hansen, in Minnesota.

Her goal is bringing art to other people, sharing with others her sense of awe and place in the world. In her art she tries respond to the challenge of artist Robert Henri, that "Artists should be the people who keep track of the unnoticed adventures underlying the routine of daily life."

She keeps track through her pastel paintings in which she tries to "capture the spirit and look of our area," particularly of the rivers, forests and farmlands in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa.  That focus comes through in a visit to Lubinski's web site, which she has titled "A Sense of Place."

Sara Lubinski's work is found in local and area galleries and art fairs in Minnesota and Wisconsin, including local juried art fairs in Door County.  And in 2006 she won a second place at Scottsdale’s Artist School Best and Brightest Show, and was juried into the Northern Colorado Artist Association’s national exhibit.

 A visit to her web site is an opportunity to view the beauties of the Mississippi River and the Midwest landscape through her eyes.

A Sense of Place
www.saralubinski.com
507-482-6252

Interview by Sharon Murphy
Photos courtesy of Sara Lubinski