"Sara, your words were like a seven course meal after eating granola for a week! You've helped me to look at things differently and have given me gentle weaponry with which to defend my creative life. You have done an excellent job tuning up my creative engine - thank you so much!"
— L. Silex, Mixed-media artist

"Sara Saltee is the remedy for every bad English teacher or mean editor a writer has ever encountered. Sara helped me tap a deeper, more spiritual well of ideas that sustains my professional and personal expression. Sara will inspire you."
— K. Browning-Blas, Professional journalist

"I feel like my creative dreams are like tender little shoots in the springtime. I've been wary of sharing them with most of the people in my life for fear that their responses will - intentionally or not - smoosh my fragile new growth back into the mud. Thanks for helping my little shoots grow into a strong vine with deep roots. Can beautiful blossoms be far behind?"
—- W. Windsor, Mixed Media Artist

Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, Sara grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Anthropology from Swarthmore College in 1990, she spent the next eight years earning a Masters Degree and pursuing a doctoral degree in Communication at the University of California, San Diego. In the lengthy process of not completing a Ph.D., she made some pivotal personal discoveries:

1. Prolonged abject misery is a generally reliable sign
   that one is not doing what one is meant to do
2. Just because it looks good and sounds good
   doesn't mean it feels good,
3. It is really OK to build a life around that which brings
   the greatest pleasure, satisfaction, and joy.

As she emerged from the cocoon of academia, Sara began deepening her commitment to her lifelong love of paper cutting, collage, and "sparkly bits," and gradually and intentionally moved creative self-expression out of the margins and into the center of her life.

In 2002, Sara expressed her growing commitment to honoring her creative self by christening the craft table in the corner of the guest room Second Grace Studio, and began focusing her artistic work on creating mixed-media assemblages in shrine and shadow-box forms, an art form that continues to hold great joy and fascination.

Parallel to her ongoing artistic life, Sara has worked as a faculty advisor to adult students, and served as an adjunct faculty member in English and Communication at Regis University in Denver and Front Range Community College. She has also taught courses in creative non-fiction writing, creativity, and personal writing, and worked for five years as a communication and learning specialist with a small consulting firm specializing in organization development and strategic planning.

In 2003, Sara's study of the creating process led her to Eric Maisel's body of work on creativity, and she completed his online creativity coaching certification program. Working with creative people to define direction and move through creative blocks was a natural extension of her work with emerging writers and with adult students defining pathways for their educational goals.

Today, Sara lives and works on beautiful Whidbey Island, Washington. In addition to her playtime in Second Grace Studio, she serves an invigorating array of clients as a coach, editor, and writer through her business, Updraft Services. Link to www.sarasaltee.com. Sara's deep empathy for creators and passion for exploring the mysteries of the creating process continue to fuel all dimensions of her work.