Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work Portfolio Hello Reader, Every year since I was a child, I've gone to my favorite library book sale in July. Now, as an artist, I've developed a reliable ritual: I ignore the tables of contemporary titles and walk straight to the unpacked cardboard boxes stacked below the folding tables. These are the books the volunteers don't bother to unpack—the ones with spine damage, faded covers, and loose pages, which means they're perfect for me. A few weeks ago,...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work For Artists Blog 2026 Workshops Hi Reader, My son had a new pack of markers, so I convinced him to sit outside and draw with me. A few days before, I had started a mark-making sketchbook, and this was my chance to use it. All went as planned for about a minute, then devolved into us passing my sketchbook back and forth, drawing progressively wilder scenes. It's summer, so I'll take any moment of creativity I can find. This had me thinking about all the...
15 days ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work Portfolio Hello Reader, Have you ever tried to learn an instrument? All my attempts were short-lived, as I liked the idea more than the work. For this piece, the base was composed of vintage sheet music, which ended up mostly covered with a grid of abstracted lettepress prints, though fragments still remain. Follow the Notes, 48" x 36" $2200.00 Once a week, she sat at the piano and brushed off the dust before her tutor arrived. She hoped it wouldn’t be...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work For Artists Blog 2026 Workshops Hi Reader, After staring at this blank email for too long, I turned on some lights, lit a candle, and made myself a latte. By the time my espresso was ready, I knew what to write. Sometimes walking away is the best way to solve a problem. There are also times when getting into a project with no plan at all leads to the best results, which is the spirit behind the class I'm teaching next month in Rhode Island called Make a...
30 days ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work Portfolio Hello Reader, Last time, I shared the story of Doris' notebooks and how those papers have continued to become part of my art. Very few of my pieces are focused on a single source, like the one I'm sharing here. Down Payment is composed of many papers and, therefore, many stories. I imagined a woman slowly adding funds to her account as she saved for something important, like a down payment for a new home. Down Payment, 12" x 9" x 1.5", Framed...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work Portfolio Hello Reader, Have I ever told you about Doris? A few years ago, my son and I went to an estate sale and found an entire box of stories. Some were written in ledger books, but most were on the backs of letters, scrap paper, and advertisements. Doris was thrifty — she repurposed every piece of paper for her writing. As far as I can tell, only one story was ever published. But she did find success as an artist, creating paper silhouettes. My...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work For Artists Blog 2026 Workshops Hi Reader, The coffee table was one of the first things I bought for the house. It was already well-loved, but the price was right. I lightly sanded the top and polished a bit of shine back into the maple. It became a place to play games, eat dinner, hold blankets in place for forts, and was the perfect height for jumping off of onto the giant bean bag. When my son was little, he'd undo the screws and bolts that held it...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work Porfolio Hello Reader, Six new pieces are available on my website. They arrived the way they usually do — a found inscription, a chapter heading, pages that have been letterpress printed on my old press. A checking register from a Maine bank. Violet ink on recipe pages, inexpertly bound. A stamp hinge still attached. Conversations, real or imagined, that led me to put these certain pages together into new works. Each piece was photographed on my living...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Sarah Z Short Driftway Studio New Work For Artists Blog 2026 Workshops Hello Reader, My sketchbook practice began on the floor of my living room, working on an old cafeteria tray, making collages with vintage magazines and a glue stick while I watched TV with my son. These simple compositions helped me learn to love working small and quickly, without any pressure to make them perfect. These little studies began to influence my studio practice, and I haven't stopped making them. Scraps: A Tiny...
3 months ago • 1 min read