Sarah Munro

• NZ Dip Phys (AUT)
• BMA (Hons), Wintec
• MA, Wintec
• PhD (CQU)

www.sarahmitchellmunro.com

It is a privilege to teach within the creative sector. For me, working with the ideas that a student is engaging in is an opportunity to learn also.

I am a studio painter based in Hamilton, New Zealand. I am interested in what happens to the brain and body when a painter paints. My doctoral studies traced strategies painters engage with that activate a perceptual shift from intellectual to embodied cognition. Interviews with painters and my own studio practice informed this investigation which found that the phenomenon of diffraction──wave movement experienced by the painter as surprising and improvised encounters during the painting process──diffracts the intellectual mind of the painter and activates embodied cognitive processes involved in creative thinking.

I have been an oil painter for the last 25 years with gallery representation in New York, Italy and New Zealand. During my doctoral studies I developed a watercolour practice that I showcase both online and with annual exhibitions. This has allowed me to develop a close relationship with my collectors which has been a very enjoyable aspect of developing a viable creative practice.