SARAH WILLIAMS

Based in Kirkbymoorside, which is known as the Gateway to the Moors, the North Yorkshire Moors, England.

Born in York 1961. Brought up from birth in the world of the arts.

Studied art at York College and Norwich School of Art where she gained a first class degree with honours and won an award from the Royal Academy.

Thereafter Sarah continued to exhibit her paintings world wide and also achieved publicity for other work that she did in interior design, garden design, fashion, furniture design, graphics and architectural drawings.

She now feels that all her experience in art has collided into one area in her creation of Butterfly Buckles.

"My aim is to give the thrill of layers of texture, shape, colour, and light, with extreme sparkle, using the best quality Swarovski & Czech crystals. Each buckle is an individual painting, exhibited on the living, in the real world. What better gallery could you have?"

Sarah's whole family are involved in the arts, as she put it:-

"The only one that wasn't was a vicar."

Sarah is the daughter of Reginald Williams, one of the York Four, who designed and made abstract resin and fibreglass windows, of which a church was built around several in Wombwell.
He was also a painter and sculptor who had studied many areas of art. His sculptures adorn many buildings and universities. He was awarded by the Queen for his achievements in the world of the arts.

"He absorbed every colour shape surface sound using all his senses with a great passion. He lived life to the full, to me he was like a full bodied red wine."

Sarah's mother, Rosemary Williams, designed the Kangol beret and was deeply involved in the world of fashion having such friends as Zandra Rhodes and Vivienne Westwood.

"My mother was a perfect crystal, the purest white, the brightest light; not only to me, but everyone who came into contact with her. Love is not a strong enough word for the way I feel about my parents; the devastation that I felt and feel losing them both is indescribable. I portrayed their deaths to my children in the best way that I could.
We crawl through life like a caterpillar and when we die we become a chrysalis so that we can hatch out on the other side as the most incredibly beautiful butterflies, a miracle."

Sarah has her body tattooed with her own designs of butterflies.

"I am my work and my work is me,as one."

Sarah lives and works with her partner Toby Baden-Powell, who does the photography and administration.




For those who might like to reflect on some philosophy of life, let us quote the columnist Mary Schmich; the text being made famous by the Baz Luhrmann song "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)" -

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '99,
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked....You're not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you.

Sing

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind...the race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life...the most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds
I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children,maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary...what ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either -- your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever
own..

Dance...even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen...