Sara Bates

Sara Bates was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1944.[1] In 1987, she graduated from California State University, Bakersfield with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art and Women's Studies. In 1989, she graduated from the University of California (Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture and Painting/Intermedia).[2][3]

From 1990 to 1995, she served as the curator for American Indian Contemporary Arts (AICA) organization located in Piedmont, California. In 1997, Bates served as an instructor at San Francisco State University, and the following year, she taught at Florida State University as a visiting professor of art.[1][4]

Bates is known for her mixed media mandala and medicine wheel designs. She makes these out of various plant products, like pine cones, seeds, leaves, and flowers. According to Phoebe Farris, these designs "are usually laid on the floor in an 8- to 12-foot circular designs, with the center in an equal-arm cross, the arms oriented toward the four cardinal directions."[5]

• Farris, Phoebe, ed. (1999). Women Artists of Color: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313303746.
• Rushing, W. Jackson, ed. (2013). Native American Art in the Twentieth Century: Makers, Meanings, Histories. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-18003-3.