North Georgia resident Sarah Rakes remembers first being fascinated by art at the age of nine, when a traveling museum show came through her small Arkansas town. During teenage years marked by loneliness, she frequently turned to drawing and sculpting as an escape. Rakes did not turn to art again until 1986. Her paintings are a rich testament to her rural experience and passion for nature; pots of flowers undulate with color, and fields of ripe pumpkins glisten under the blazing sun. The intensity of her creations is further enhanced by the exhilarating painted frames she places them in.
