Sarah OKoon practiced art therapy with children, adolescents, and adults. Her focus was using the power of creative art to heal wounds of numerous kinds. Learning how different media impact different individuals led Sarah to try many types of art before settling on her love for watercolor. To me watercolor is the premium form of art for my own personal exploration. The fluidity leads to spontaneity, discovery, and meaning. The luminosity of the medium lends itself to my favorite types of subject matter be it florals, in various states of beauty and decay, and still lifes. I am an avid photographer as well, and I am attracted to those images that show emotion, value contrast, and flow of color. These images from both travel around the world and right in my own backyard give me all the inspiration I need.

I was born in North Carolina and moved to Louisville, Kentucky, following my graduation from college. I attended Duke University and Newcomb College and graduated with a BA in sociology and history. My favorite class taken while there was the History of Art which led me to explore museums and established a lifelong love of art. I taught school for several years, married, raised two children, who gave me five grandchildren. In my 40's I returned to school first taking more art history with a focus on great painters such as Picasso and Van Gogh. It hadn't really occurred to me that I could paint myself, but a try at watercolor was exciting, stimulating, and successful. I took many classes and traveled to workshops in Santa Fe for in depth education. During that time I earned numerous local awards and commissions and was represented by Edenside Gallery. At that time my husband found a connection with sculpting, and it has been fun to have these common passions. Feeling the need to make a difference in a life, I eventually enrolled at the University of Louisville to earn a master of art therapy degree, which gave me the ability to help others through the use of art. After retiring from a gratifying yet very challenging career, I have returned to my own painting primarily with watercolor and some collage.  

Besides using photography and design skills in the family business and being an active grandmother, my focus now is on a painting career. I paint what inspires me, and I also do commissions of heirlooms which I paint into still life paintings which give permanence to objects meaningful to the client.