Sarah Z Short

Sarah Z Short is an abstract collage artist from Rhode Island who works with vintage materials—ragged book covers, the marks readers leave on pages, the forgotten scraps at the bottom of estate-sale shelves that no one else wants.

Her compositions emerge from how these materials respond to being salvaged, as she decides what to leave visible and what to layer over. She adds typography through letterpress printing with vintage wooden type, abstracting bold letterforms until they become pure shape and rhythm within the composition. What was once beautiful becomes beautiful again as it's reimagined through collage into something entirely new.

Her work is represented by galleries across Rhode Island and held in private collections. It has been featured in House and Home, Luxe, Pressing Matters, and regional publications. She teaches workshops and courses for artists and collectors at venues including the Collage Artists of America, Ah Haa School for the Arts, the Providence Art Club, and online.

Before turning to art full-time, she taught middle school English—a background that shapes how she thinks about materials and meaning. She holds an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.