Birds, bands, and badass t-shirts

Google and googly eyes aside, Sarah Utter embraces her inner “art weirdo”

By Jonathan Shipley
Published: February 23rd, 2009 | 12:00am

Perhaps we should be thanking my mom, Ann Shipley, for Sarah Utter’s success in the arts; she was Sarah’s 4-H leader. “Your mom,” the Olympia, Washington native relates, “guided me through many important crafting milestones: decoupage, sewing my first potholder, and adorning things with googly eyes.” Then again, no, it wasn’t my mom. It was Sarah Utter herself who created a crafty empire of her own thanks to arts, crafts, and a t-shirt seen on Gilmore Girls.

Growing up in Olympia, Utter says, “I started going to see bands play downtown during high school in the early ‘90s, and was completely inspired by a whole community of artists and misfits and geniuses and losers who were shedding the 9-to-5 mentality in favor of creativity and experimentation.” Those terms she uses for her peers and chums back in the day – artist, misfit, genius, loser – she could use on herself. As a full-time artist she creates shirts and mugs, stickers and wallets, buttons and bags all adorned with her one-of-a-kind style and of her own devices. No cubicles for her. No commute. No corporate hoohaw.

Her bestsellers are her “Reading is Sexy” t-shirts, stickers, and totes. “After the shirt made a very brief cameo on Gilmore Girls, things started to get a little crazy. Who knew people Google-searched clothing they see on TV?” Google they did, and it remains quite profitable for her. She also has a line of “Knitting is Knotty” paraphernalia and Poketo wallets and calendars and all the rest, but her true love is her painting.

A self-described “word nerd,” “art weirdo,” “crazy dog lady” (she walks Otis and Rosebud daily through the forests around her cabin that overlooks Puget Sound), inspired by the likes of Piet Mondrian, Joan Brown (tragically killed when installing her own sculpture), and Beatrix Potter, Utter finds that her best work usually evolves from a colossal mistake; “from experimenting and working through a problem and eventually ending up with an entirely different image.”

She’s experimental all right. She’s played guitar for various groups (Bangs, Witchypoo, Plastique), she’s had her work shown from Olympia to Los Angeles to Edinburgh. She’s also had a part in the creation of the world’s largest banana split but, again, it’s her daily painting that gives her greatest joy.

When she was a little kid, she had two vocations in mind: artist or ornithologist. She’s married these passions into her vibrant color-splayed artwork. “The color and the pattern of birds; the intensity of their eyes – that’s always had a huge hold on me.” One piece is called “Penguin with Panflute.” Another – “Owl on Lyre.” She branches out from time to time with raccoons and deer and “Mister Lumpy,” a house cat. These pieces are all striking, a bit comical, whimsical, happy, but the intensity of the birds she’s loved since a kid, remains. “I am overwhelmed by beauty every day!” she declares. “It’s in my nature.”

It’s nature that continues to inspire her. Nature, old crafting books, field guides, and design blogs keep her a busy woman. “My goal with all of this: to make something every day. To keep busy and creative and fulfilled; to continue trying to figure things out.” She’s still trying to figure out my mom’s fascination with googly eyes. Good luck with that.