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T
here is an underlying beauty to nostalgia as
we reflect on the people we’ve known and
places we’ve been in our lives. For artist Mary
Sauer it is the driving force of her paintings.
It appears in the littlest, and maybe overlooked,
details, such as the outfits her models wear or the
room they’re standing in or the wallpaper and objects.
They’re all once treasured and treasured yet again as
Sauer breathes new memories and life through her
compositions. This November, Sauer’s latest solo
exhibition opens at Sloane Merrill Gallery in Boston,
presenting a range of works she’s been creating over
the past few years.
Growing up in Kentucky, Sauer lived next door
to her grandparents. Their homes were built by her
grandfather and Sauer spent time watching her
grandmother cook in a now-retro kitchen. “I see
these places and I feel connected. I don’t know if it’s
because of family or memories, but especially today
with a lot of businesses moving online I feel like a
lot of the shops and homes I depict are places I’d like
to go to and physically be able to walk around,” says
Sauer. “I also enjoy finding really charming, quaint
bakeries and coffee shops. Places like that, where
people have to go in person and visit the space.”
Spaces are integral to Sauer’s artwork, sometimes
appearing alone in works such as Yellow Kitchen
and Retro Kitchen, and in others they are a smaller
part of a larger narrative. However, they are where
the paintings usually begin. “My husband and
I bought a 100-year-old house in Utah, and we’re
slowly redoing the whole thing,” says Sauer, who adds
that her husband is doing most of the renovations.
“My plan is to design the house so that each room
can be used as a set to do photo shoots and to create
paintings of figures in the home.”
She also scours real estate websites, trying to find
open houses for residences that have 1950s or ’60s
bathrooms and kitchens in hopes of documenting them.
“I just love going and seeing the places in person and
taking photos and a lot of times those become paint-
ings,” she shares, also noting, “Where I live in Utah the
real estate market is hot right now and going for crazy
prices. People are taking older homes and making them
look like a brand-new tract home inside and it sells for
a lot more money. So these older homes, they’re disap-
pearing and I want to find them before they’re gone.”
Often Sauer’s paintings feature her daughters, such
as Scarlett with Dishes, Eventide and Girl in a White
Doorway. “They’re in vintage-inspired or actual vintage
outfits,” Sauer says. “It’s the kind of clothing that family
members might have worn during their life. I love all
historic costumes, but in my paintings I gravitate
usually to the same kind of clothing that maybe my
grandmother would have worn. Not clothing from aWHAT
WE
ONCE
KNEW
Mary Sauer’s paintings
are reminders of places
and spaces of the past.
BY ROCHELLE BELSITO