Sarah Weizhen Xu

Sarah Weizhen Xu was born in China, 1993. being raised in a family that placed great emphasis on learning art as a means to further ones growth, Sarah has been exploring with pencils and brushes since she was 4 years old. At the age of 10 she began Russian style academic fine art training in a local art studio. However, just 3 years later, her parents, fearing a difficult future for a female artist with limited family financial resources, forced Sarah to drop off the art courses.

In 2015 Sarah got her Bachelor's degree in Economics at Beijing Language and Culture University. The same year, at the age of 22, she came to the U.S. accepted at Syracuse University for the Master of Science in Accountancy program. Even though business school ate much of her energy, Sarah never lost her passion for art, grabbing every possible opportunity to create and learn. In her spare time she did many portrait illustrations for J.R.R. Tolkien's fictions and was selected by The Lord of the Rings, the Chinese Wiki website as a contract illustrator. Sarah also took workshops at Grand Central Atelier in New York.

Early in 2017, Sarah finally decided to follow the call from her inner heart. With only a little bit savings in the bank and almost no source of income, she quit the business school that she was originally going to graduate within 6 months and instead focused herself in art.She decided to pursue the goal of professional artist in classical realism, with the confidence that she would prove herself to be a highly skilled craftswoman in classical fine art, what she truly wants to be but had been put aside for over 10 years. In April, the Florence Academy of Art admitted Sarah as the first international student in the U.S. branch. In November 2017, Sarah’s art works has been selected for “Drawing on the Masters” - The Florence Academy of Art's Benefit Auction; and in same year December, her art works has been selected for "Believe in Syracuse Creativity Crates" Public Auction, in Everson Museum, Syracuse. In June 2018, and March 2019, she received Merit Based Workstudy Scholarships from the FAA.

Because of the training she receives from The Florence Academy of Art, Sarah works in sight size, and insist in drawing and painting from life. Sarah is talented, hardworking and desires to be a credit to the school, and an inspiration to the world.

* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 14^th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.