For almost her whole life growing up in Crawford, 22-year-old artist Sarah Barnes has been doodling. Almost every piece of paper she touched ended up covered in drawings.

Sometimes, it even appeared like her habit was getting out of hand. As early as the fourth grade, Barnes was grounded because of her drawing.

“I made a 37 on a math test one time, and of course, I drew all over it,” Barnes said. “My teacher said ‘you may have made a better grade if you didn’t draw all over your test.’ So I actually got grounded from drawing because I made a 37.”

But on Thursday night, during an opening reception for the Columbus Arts Council’s January Exhibit, Barnes’ doodles peeked out from Artist Alley at the Rosenzweig Arts Center, while she gave a live demonstration of how she draws and paints to exhibit visitors.

While Barnes has been drawing all her life, taking art seriously as a career path has only happened for her over the last few years, she said.

But when Barnes started to plan to go to college, her dad suggested that she get a degree in graphic design. Barnes followed his advice, attending East Mississippi Community College, where she took her first formal art class.

Eventually, Barnes transferred to Mississippi University for Women, following her passion for art and teaching. In December, she graduated with her degree in art with an interdisciplinary emphasis, giving her experience with as many mediums as possible so she can eventually teach them in high school classrooms.

“That’s my goal right now, to be a high school art teacher,” Barnes said. “Coming from a school – I went to a private school – art was not a big thing. And kids need art, because it not only allows you to express yourself creatively, but it also helps developmentally.”

Since the fall of 2022, Barnes said, her style has started to focus on continuous line drawings, layering and conveying a sense of space with her doodle-like portraits. In her artist statement, Barnes calls these doodles and faces a “subconscious expression,” as these faces peek out from the sides of her paintings.

Barnes said her artwork does not have an exact meaning, and the faces she paints do not represent specific people. Instead, she is drawn to the process of drawing and painting in and of itself, while the faces can be interpreted to communicate both comedy and melancholy, depending on the mood Barnes was in when she painted the piece.

“My art really is not anything that is message driven,” Barnes said. “It has a sense of ambiguity to it. Which is really cool because it means something different to everybody. Everybody looks at it and can see something different, which I think is cool.”

Columbus Arts Council Executive Director Salem Gibson said it is important to include artists like Barnes in the organization’s exhibitions as a way to support art in the next generation, along with helping to connect the city to students at MUW, and vice versa.

“She’s got her whole life to work on and continue to grow,” Gibson said. “Getting to see it at the forefront and at the very beginning is the encouraging part for the community because people can say, ‘this is someone we’re cultivating and helping to kind of raise in the art world.’ And then she gets to go off into the world as her work continues to progress.”

The Columbus Arts Council’s January Exhibit will be on display at the Rosenzweig Arts Center throughout the rest of the month. The exhibit also features works by artist Sean Starwars (Sean Stewart) in the Main Gallery.

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