This mixed media collage titled "To Make it Grow" of a vintage nude on a vintage book page with a poem made of found words on the page and the remainder of the page painted on to. The piece comes to 5 1/2" x 8 1/4".

For Sara's collage work, she uses vintage and antique photos combined with patterned and handmade papers along with words cut from vintage and antique books. She arranges the words individually or in phrases to make 'found poems'. Sometimes the poems are only a phrase, some are several stanzas long.

All framed piece sold by Applegate Gallery are framed to museum quality standards. Materials are acid free and glazing used is museum quality with 99% UV protection with little to no reflection . No artwork comes in contact with glass. All framing choices are made with the artwork in consideration. Colors and design choices are made to best accentuate the art. Frames used may be hand made, antique, hand painted, unique premade frames or custom made. Antique frames may not be perfect, but imperfections are allowed as a compromise for the beauty of age and designs that are no longer available.

Sara Minarik Applegate was born and raised in Reston, Virginia, and graduated from South Lakes High School, completing her degree in only three years. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art, the oldest art school in the country, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in printmaking in 1997. She also spent one year at the California College of Arts and Crafts in an exchange program where, besides printmaking courses, she was able to study artist’s bookmaking, papermaking and holography.

Her first piece of artwork to sell went to 2 museums in China in 1995. Her work has been collected by Actress Rosie O’Donnell, Singer Madonna and Author Anne Rice of Interview with a Vampire.

Sara is a Master Certified Picture Framer, one of 63 in the world, and has been framing for twenty years. She has won first place awards regionally, nationally and internationally for her work. Her Mickey Mouse Mat won a national competition in 2002 for mat design and her Circus Tent frame design won the Professional Picture Framers Association’s International framing competition in January of 2013. She specializes in unique mat designs and unusual presentations of artwork.