Sarah Vaughn

Sarah Vaughn discovered glass while pursuing a BFA at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Upon graduating, her thesis work was honored as the sole winner of the Rickert-Ziebold Trust Award, a prestigious competition for graduating seniors in Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited and collected internationally, received numerous accolades. As of the fall of 2021, Sarah is a resident artist at Penland Mountain School of Craft.

"I create sculptures that pause to consider pivotal moments and visualize the precarious balance we maintain throughout life. Focusing on responses to experiences, I see each piece as an abstracted self-portrait, capturing thoughts, anxieties, and fractured memories, expressing the desire to find harmony and a sense of order while acknowledging that I am tiptoeing on the edge of chaos. As I wander deep into my mind twisting and turning, searching, hoping to find some tiny part of myself, I feel time pass and time standstill. I know I can never find whatever it is I am seeking. And even as the world turns and it begins to feel like what I remember I am searching for, it will never be the same." – Sarah Vaughn