Liz Sanders and Lauren Puchowski are documentarians, of sorts — they use their artistic talents to capture moments that matter to them. Whether it’s the glow of afternoon light illuminating the leggy stems of late-season nasturtiums or the way your father gestures with his hands when he speaks, at the heart of every act of documentation is the desire to preserve something important and impermanent. Sanders and Puchowski ask viewers to reconsider what makes something worth saving.

The hidden beauty of a broken telephone receiver or a discarded Solo cup may not be immediately obvious to most viewers, but experiences with art can stretch our boundaries and allow us to think outside our own proverbial boxes. Using poetic titles that provide insight into her enamel sculptures, Lauren Puchowski positions familiar subjects in relation to a personal narrative. Lauren’s perspective transforms ordinary objects into treasures that are worthy of attention and contemplation.

In the quiet, light-filled spaces of Liz Sanders’s photographs, her father receives a haircut in the yard. In another image, he folds his arm behind his head. On his wrist he wears a broken watch – an appropriate metaphor for a man who is no longer bound to concepts like time or self. By sharing private moments from her father’s decline and death due to dementia, Liz Sanders generously exposes her own vulnerability as an unspoken offering of connection to others who have also experienced loss.

Liz Sanders was born and raised in Hot Springs, Arkansas. She earned degrees in French and Anthropology from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock before returning to school to study Documentary Photography at the International Center of Photography in New York City. After several years living in France and then Arkansas, Liz currently works as a freelance photographer in Brooklyn, New York. Sanders has received numerous prestigious awards for documentary photography. Her work has also been exhibited in the US and abroad and featured in numerous print publications including The New York Times, TIME Magazine, and The Atlantic.

Lauren Wilcox Puchowski is an artist and writer currently living in New Jersey. She received an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Brown University before earning an MFA in Creative

Writing from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Lauren lived in Little Rock for many years while she worked for the Oxford American. Her writing has been published in the Paris Review, the Washington Post Magazine, and Smithsonian Magazine, among others, and her artwork has been featured in multiple exhibitions in New York, New Jersey, and Arkansas.

"HOW DID THE FEELING FEEL TO YOU: Liz Sanders and Lauren Wilcox Puchowski" will be on display in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists through January 2023.