Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself.

For those are not familiar, my name is Sarah a.k.a. ORANGEinal a.k.a. Princess Clementine a.k.a. Tangerine the Vampire Queen. I was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario and now currently reside in Downtown Toronto. I have been creating visual art from the moment I knew what it meant to pick up a pencil and draw with it on paper. From a very young age, I thrived in anything that had to do with art. I created work that has been displayed in my schools and my friend’s and family’s homes. I did every extracurricular art program, made sure to have an art class in my timetable every year, and even outside of those things I was always creating something. I was definitely the classmate you wanted for your visuals in a group project. After I finished high school, however, I did not pursue a full-time art career, nor did I apply for an art program as most thought I would. I instead went on to study law and was hired at my current position with an environmental law firm in here in Toronto in 2013. Now, I know what's on your mind: Sarah, you’re an artist! How can you work a 9-5! What were you thinking!? And for some reason, I hear you saying this in a very panicked Jerry Seinfeld-ish type of voice, to which I say – let’s put a pin in that.

I have experienced so much in my career as an Artist, even while working in a corporate field. I have spent the last 6 years creating and selling art, working with other amazing Artists, participating in art events (inside and outside of Canada), curating my own art events and shipping my artwork and more across the world. As we flew into 2021, I realized I had reached all of my major creative goals that I set out for myself thus far and I have to say I am very proud of myself and what I’ve accomplished. I curated and hosted my first solo ORANGEinal Art show in 2017, which then birthed my second solo show, titled “Representation Matters”, in 2018. Later that same year, I launched the first line of ORANGEinal Merchandise, which has been sported across the globe. I had my first art residency in one of Toronto’s most well-known (and my favourite) comic bookstores, The Silver Snail, for 3 months in 2019. I’ve sold and shipped orders to places like Germany, France, all over the United States and Canada wide. I’ve had the honour of meeting people who have attended my shows in Toronto, visiting from out of town or out of country to see my work in person. I’ve had the great opportunity to have been a part of two art shows in New York in 2019 and 2020 for the Unapologetically Different Art Expos, both of which I was able to attend and experience. I've also shipped my work to shows in other parts of the world like in Notting Hill, UK in 2018 for the Art of Carnival Art Show. Let’s not leave out the live painting events, interviews and the Toronto Raptors commercial feature (which was so much fun!) and more in between. All in all, the last 6 years has been very ORANGEinal Art focused, which has been amazing. I have been growing, learning, and flourishing. I have received so much abundance in these experiences that I feel so full (and so very grateful) and there is this urge to share the overflow with my community. This is why we’re here.

This is the beginning of the official ORANGEinal Art Blog. This blog will be directed to all creatives, in any medium or stage in their artistic career, to be able to learn how to navigate through the art world for themselves. I will be sharing my good experiences, bad experiences, lessons learned and the shared experiences of my close colleagues to create a platform where creatives can seek answers, advice or maybe just another perspective on topics that are not usually discussed in the public creative realm. I also plan on selecting a Toronto Creative once a month to do a write-up about and promote the work they are doing within our art community. Toronto has so many extremely talented artists and I would love to use the platform I have grown as a means to share that with my viewers. Out of the many experiences I have had within the 29 events I’ve been a part of and the 8 events I have hosted and curated myself, it is the learning experiences themselves that I cherish the most. With this, I get a lot of questions from other creatives: How do I curate my own event? How do you price your work? Should I do art full time? The list goes on and I am always happy to answer, however, I want to take this opportunity to do it differently.

My artistic goal for this year is not as ORANGEinal Art oriented like the years before. This year’s main goal for ORANGEinal Art is to build up other creatives through sharing. Sharing art. Sharing insight. Sharing one goal: to thrive creatively - so that when the world opens up again, we have the tools to do just that. Thrive. I hope you'll join me on this new journey of navigating through this new reality as creators.

Blessed be.

Sq