“I grew up with a fascination for collecting toys. When you look around, you find a lot of toy objects. I got to thinking about them as alive, and they were animate and they could talk and tell stories. I began to paint collections of them as toyscapes and gave them unworldly backgrounds.”

“It’s more than just a person sitting there. It’s a personality. I like to paint beyond what you’re seeing visually and to perceive an inner quality. Painting figures to me is just like painting anything else. It’s part of nature. It’s full of life. People are full of life, and they tell a story in the way they talk, the way they sit, what they look like, and I love to paint the story.”

The four-hundred pound, stainless steel roller occupies prime space on a large table in the center of Cecelia Feld’s studio in Bells. Sometimes art takes a little muscle to go with the inspiration.

Youth and stature are not deterrents to the high regard that fellow artists and older students show to Birdsong. Cassandra Harris, artist and fellow student said, “Sarah has actually taught me how to paint. In her portraits, she creates such depth. She did a drawing of me. I had never thought of myself that way. It was so beautiful I almost cried. Sarah paints the emotion of the personality.”

And then there were the eggs. “For a long time I was drawing and painting eggs because eggs are so fragile, but they hold life, you know. Things like that really fascinate me, things that are delicate, but strong.”