Sara Gately, Painting

Artist Statement

Sara Gately is Boston based 2D Visual Artist and K-8 Art Teacher. She has been practicing the Visual Arts for over ten years and has exhibited in group and solo shows throughout the New England area.

For the last few years, Gately has been creating a series of animal portraits in order to inspire empathy and compassion in the hearts and minds of the viewers of her work. Gately’s portraits are a reaction to increasing environmental concerns. Animal habitats are consistently threatened by encroaching human development. Factory farms have taken over the food industry and a variety of species are becoming endangered and extinct due to environmental pollution and illegal poaching. It is Gately’s aim to call attention to the dire need for humans to have compassion for animals. In having compassion for other living beings, by allowing ourselves to understand that animals possess feelings and thoughts, people can widen their understanding of the natural world and thereby better understand themselves.

In many ancient cultures, animals were considered to possess symbolic powers and were venerated, respected and worshipped. Gately believes that it is time to return to a similar system of thinking, in order to ensure our spiritual, as well as our literal survival. Gately believes that humans and animals possess souls and her artwork calls upon the viewer to witness the soul of the animal depicted. In this visual process, it is Gately’s goal to not only create empathy, but to deepen the viewer’s humanity. 

Recent Awards, Honors, Newsworthy Activities

Piano for the Boston Street Pianos Celebrity series event.
Solo Exhibition - Brockton Library - October 2017