Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
Store
July 17, 2026

Clever Watercolor Pencils Are No Mess and No Mixing To Make Painting a Breeze

Are you feeling intimidated by watercolor paint? If so, you’re not alone. Aside from controlling pigment with water, color mixing is a common challenge. Finding the right ratio of pigments to hone your hues takes experimentation and practice. But there’s a way to still give watercolors a try without the mess or the mixing: the Colorbrush set by Snifty.

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Photo Contest
July 9, 2026

Meet the 7 Winners of the Prestigious 2026 Hasselblad Masters Photo Competition

The prestigious Hasselblad Masters has just announced its winners for its 2026 competition. Selected from 70 finalists around the world, seven photographers have earned the title, signaling their technical mastery and strong artistic vision. They rose to the top from 108,000 submissions in 160 countries, with images in the following categories: Landscape, Architecture, Portrait, Art, Street, Wildlife, and Project//21 (a category dedicated to photographers aged 21 years or younger).

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Oil Painting
July 2, 2026

Artist Paints “Glitches” Into Surreal Candy-Colored Landscapes With Giant Dandelions and Floating Cacti

Artist Alexis Mata was walking between the trees and mountains in Tepoztlán, Mexico, as dandelions drifted across his vision. Their existence fascinated him; the way they moved so freely, the seeds taking hold and pollinating new places. “In that instant,” he explains, “I experienced a strange sensation, as if I were standing on another planet, in another time, confronted with an entirely new landscape.

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History
June 26, 2026

How Estevanico, an Enslaved African Man, Survived a Shipwreck To Cross the U.S. Decades Before European Settlement

In 1528, an enslaved man from Morocco washed ashore on what’s now Texas. He was worse for wear; he had spent a month adrift in the Gulf of Mexico alongside Spanish sailors on a rickety lifeboat. Eventually, the small group landed on an island near present-day Galveston, Texas, where they would be the first people from the Old World (parts of the world known to Europeans) to enter what’s now the United States.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.