Step Into Sarah Niksa’s World of Wibbles
Sarah “Birdie” Niksa is an artist whose work comes from a deep emotional place, blending creativity with personal exploration. In this interview, Sarah opens up about her creative journey, sharing how her childhood experiences with her grandparents, both of whom were artists, inspired her passion for art. She talks about the different ways she creates, whether it’s through painting or soft sculptures, and how intuition plays a big part in her process. Sarah also shares how she handles creative blocks and the importance of experimentation in her art.
Sarah “Birdie” Niksa is an artist originally from Crystal Lake, IL suburbs of Chicago. Her artwork is created from the spirit within and from a well of emotions as a form of exploration and catharsis of the psyche. Her stories are ones that express the strangeness of the human experience. Crafted from a collection of hopeful discoveries of the self and alternate realities. She plants her seeds of ideas in her sketchbooks where she cultivates her novel creations in a place that is safe and free in her wild expression. A place of refuge amongst pages and pages of messy anecdotes, expanding the boundaries of character design and world building. She is currently getting her MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
1. What inspired you to become an artist?
What inspired me to become an artist is my grandparents on my dad’s side. My grandmother was always showing artwork and participating in state fairs to show her paintings and my grandfather worked designing cars for Chrysler. Their influence definitely rubbed off on me. I was always enamored by their home studio. The garage was full of their paintings. Stacked along the walls. I would remember they would reuse all these different food/snack containers to store their art supplies. Chocolate boxes and Pringle cans for colored pencils and coffee tins for brushes. There was something magical about seeing their art supplies all around the house in containers I thought were snacks. Going to their house to visit was always special and meaningful to me. They unfortunately passed when I was very young before I made a solid decision to become an artist and I felt like I missed a lot of conversations with them about being an artist. I sometimes recognize their mark making in some of my works, that connection between them and myself is very special.
I try to work in different ways if something isn’t clicking. Experimentation is big in my practice and it helps to work intuitively or more planned out depending on my mood.
Sarah Niksa
2. What is your creative process like from start to finish?
My creative process from start to finish can look very different depending on what I’m working on. I’m an interdisciplinary artist so working on a soft sculpture can be a totally different process than working and creating a new painting. The soft sculptures I have done typically come from an intuitive place and I work with the materials while responding to certain decisions as I go along. In my current painting series, I usually start from a sketch in a sketchbook or I sketch right on the canvas. The sketches compared to the paintings can look entirely different and usually I’m okay with that. I tend to work very loosely and quickly. My underpaintings lately are done in fluorescent colors to give myself an added challenge to create a painting with harmonious colors. When working on a painting I respond to the colors and forms I’m using within the painting, either it goes well or something just sticks out to me and maybe not in a good way. I typically finish a painting in two sessions. One session to get the majority of the painting done and the second session to do any touch ups. I’m learning to slow down a bit in my painting practice and it’s been a welcomed, but also an added challenge.
3. How do you handle creative blocks or periods of low inspiration?
How I handle low periods of creating or art block, is usually I like to consume other media like books or video games and take a step back to reflect and to find inspiration elsewhere. I love taking walks when the weather is nice and that can help clear my mind and find inspiration in my local neighborhood. I try to work in different ways if something isn’t clicking. Experimentation is big in my practice and it helps to work intuitively or more planned out depending on my mood. If I have low energy then planning something else in my sketchbook works best, but let’s say I don’t know where to start. An intuitive practice works best for me where I can experiment with technique or materials. Also taking inspiration from museums or doing studies from life helps immensely. Drawing from life keeps your practice going and skills sharp if things are slowing down in the studio for a bit. The ebb and flow to my creative practice is perfectly normal for me and I try no to let it discourage me because I know how I work best and sometimes I need time to step back from my practice and to reflect on the work I’ve created.
4. What role does experimentation play in your art practice?
Experimentation is so important to my work. It’s how I developed my current series, “The Wibbles”. Normally for me, something like a series has to come organically over time through experimentation, rather than coming up with a solid plan in the beginning. I love to create work based on my curiosity. In the early stages of my work I was curious what my own figurative work would look like, I had never done figurative artwork before. I worked with no reference or sketch and would just draw whatever came to mind and through my hand. It was like working with my subconscious on some level. Then through this work I created figures that look like my work today. These bulbous, orange, fleshy masses with large lips. I know I can work from sketches and refine the work rather than working purely intuitively. More recently, I’ve been working on acrylic transfers from photos of crude figures I’ve created with polymer clay or air dry clay. Then I bring the photo into Procreate and create a lot of mark making with the different brushes. One thing leads to another and I have to be open enough to follow the thread and listen to my intuition.
I love to create work based on my curiosity.
Sarah Niksa
5. Are there any upcoming exhibitions or projects you’re particularly excited about?
Some upcoming projects I’m excited for is finishing up my thesis for my MFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. This has been a huge and welcomed undertaking as I have worked hard on my thesis and had a roadblock almost stop me from completing it. I had a series of health issues come up last year and the beginning of this year and I thought I wasn’t going to finish. So far since starting back up again, I’ve been well and so has my work. The program was kind enough and had the resources available to allow me to finish remotely. I’m so grateful for that and the opportunities it has allowed me to pursue.
Through her art, Sarah “Birdie” Niksa invites us into a world of raw emotions and personal discovery. Whether it’s through soft sculptures or vibrant paintings, her work is an exploration of the self, with a focus on curiosity and experimentation. Despite challenges, including health setbacks, Birdie’s determination to complete her MFA thesis and continue creating shows her commitment to both personal and artistic growth. To learn more about Sarah, visit the links below.
