Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
Photo Contest
March 13, 2025

Sony World Photography Awards Has Revealed the 10 Category Winners of Its 2025 Open Competition

What's the single best photograph taken in a year? It seems impossible to choose, but every year, the Sony World Photography Awards makes its selection. While the Open Photographer of the Year has yet to be announced, the organization has revealed the 10 category winners in the 2025 Open competition. Now in its 18th year, the Open competition “celebrates the ability to capture and distill a singular moment.

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Installation
March 11, 2025

Refik Anadol Reimagines Architect Frank Gehry’s Work Through AI-Generated Art

Artificial intelligence can imagine our world like never before. Media artist Refik Anadol has harnessed its immense power to create immersive installations that redefine what art is and how we interact with it. His new exhibition at the Guggenheim Bilbao continues to push the envelope of what AI-generated art looks like. Titled Living Architecture: Gehry, the show reimagines the work of visionary architect Frank Gehry, the man behind the Guggenheim Bilbao’s design.

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Painting
March 10, 2025

Exquisite Exhibition of Swirling Landscape Paintings Imagine Intangible Elements of Earth Through Color

Taiwanese artist Su Yu-Xin visualizes intangible elements of Earth. She's created a series of paintings around this idea for her exhibition titled Searching the Sky for Gold. Now on view at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), the show is her first solo museum exhibition outside Asia. In this new body of work, she uses natural and synthetic materials to create pigments and delves into atmospheric and geological phenomena within her paintings.

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Crafts
March 4, 2025

What Is a Junk Journal? Learn How To Get Creative With Everyday “Junk”

There are some things, like that receipt for your bagel, many of us classify as “junk.” A scrap of paper or a clothing tag serves a purpose but ultimately finds itself in the garbage or the recycling bin. But there's another place for them: your junk journal.  A junk journal is exactly what it sounds like: a book filled with “junk,” or small paper items that you’d otherwise discard.

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My Modern Met

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