Hello, I’m Dr. Sara Witty. And I’m a lot of things. That’s all you need to know if you don’t want to read a lengthy bio. If, however, lengthy bios are your thing, I’ve got one all lined up for ya.

I can weight a summary about myself in a number of ways. I can, and usually do, introduce myself as an artist. Sometimes, I lead with the fact that I’m an art historian. Sometimes, I get real specific about my academic position and tell people I’m an architectural historian whose doctoral research was on mental hospitals in America but that, in my short stint as an adjunct prof, I taught art history overall. Honestly, most people have glazed over well before I can get through that monstrosity of a sentence, so I rarely go into the details without prompting.

Sometimes, I tell people that I was a tattoo artist for 10 years and owned my own shop for a few years until 2020, when the pressure of touching people in close confines finally pushed me over the edge. Sometimes, I tell people I’ve worked as an academic copy editor for over a decade… but that very rarely works in my favor. It’s true, of course, but no one actually likes the people who fix their grammar.

Sometimes, I include that at the beginning of 2025, I went back to school to get my master’s in counseling. The only reason I don’t always include that facet of the ever-evolving CV is because I’m extremely new to the field and I always imagine whomever I’m talking to thinking, “Holy shit, they let people like this asshole near folks in distress?” I mean, yeah, I think they do… but I’m not sure yet. Since I’ve loathed 98% of the mental health professionals I’ve met and that population was dominated by people who were very much not the same kind of asshole as me, I have high hopes that I can bring some much needed and enthusiastic forthrightness to the field.

I have done and been and remain a great number of things, but no matter what I do with myself professionally, the core part of who I am is the artist and the lover of art.

I studied studio art for my BA, which is when I first worked as a tattoo artist in the small town of Stevens Point, Wisconsin. I briefly attended the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, before I decided to study art history instead of studio art. I went on to get my master’s in art history at the University of St. Thomas and then completed my doctorate in art history, focusing on the history of architecture, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I intended to study manuscripts (because, 1. I love comics and manuscripts are in the same family, categorically speaking, and 2. Studying manuscripts is a sure-fire way to get into the Vatican archives…. No, I hadn’t yet read the Da Vinci Code at the time of this decision, I just happen to be stupid in the same manner and degree as Dan Brown… though I’d like to go on record as stating that I, obviously, know art historians refer to the man as Leonardo. Sheesh. Amateur hour over here, Mr. Brown), but I was wooed away from them and into architecture because there is a magic in understanding space, human usage, the mythology of place, and the impact of environment on everything from the individual human psyche to entire civilizations.

I have received grants and fellowships for my research on the history of mental hospitals and their counterparts in fiction (Arkham, Mount Massive). I love architecture and I love its history. But I found that the pressures of academic success cost me, and I was not prepared to continue moving around the country and carrying heavy course loads, all while trying to get published and be pleasant enough to secure tenure. There’s something about me that deeply agitates superiors, and it seemed unlikely to me that I could pretend to be likeable long enough for anyone to give me the tenure I’d need to survive.

So I went back to tattooing, started working as an editor, and have spent many professionally satisfying years balancing my professional work and my art work. In 2025 I started Project 25:365, now called Project Arts:365, to encourage community connection and daily practice through the arts. As an artist, an art historian, and a counselor in training, I believe in the power of the arts to enrich the human experience and lead people toward a deeper understanding of themselves, beyond the boundaries created by consumption and manufactured correctness. I don’t think this is an easy activity or necessarily universally pleasant. I believe in the slow, torturous work of actually being a person, in contrast to get-enlightened-quick schemes. I don’t want to offer anyone hugs and rainbows (okay, but, yes: glitter and stickers will probably be included at some point), I just think it would be nice if we could all remember we’re gonna fucking die and maybe we should try to be a little bit alive before that happens.

Much like who I am as a person overall, as an artist I am… to be honest, all over the place. I paint, I draw, I write, I bind books in leather; I work big, I work small. Right now, I’m in the middle of completing an entire Tarot deck. Most of the time, I have no idea what I’m doing or why, but I’m really into doing it regardless.

I am deeply grateful for the humans who have patiently helped me be slightly less of an asshole than I was before, the dog who has taught me how to play, and the magicians, artists, poets, dancers, and joyful weirdos who share their time and dreams with me.

You can follow my blog here and contact me here.