About Sally Hall

I grew up spending summers living in a big yellow tent on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My mother, three sisters and I helped my father, a Biology professor at San Francisco State University, conduct his field research on the Kaibab squirrel. This squirrel lives only on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

I have hiked the Canyon many times, starting at age 9 and have run the Colorado River in wooden dories twice. It is not possible for one to spend so much time in a place as powerful, intimidating and magnificent as the Grand Canyon and not have it become the reference point for all other facets of one’s life.

After 16 years of this wonderful and unique life, I left to pursue my higher education in California, Utah and Washington. After earning my MFA, I moved to New York City -- the very antithesis of a remote Arizona wilderness -- where I worked in the Education Dept. of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was during my first year in New York, in a bout of intense homesickness, that I started painting the skies, landscapes and images of the Canyon culture with which I had grown up and that had shaped me so strongly. These were the things I found I missed and valued most. These are what most closely define who I am.

The uplifting strength of the Grand Canyon and, in particular, the Native cultures that have evolved and endured in direct relationship to this powerful region are the lenses I continue to see my world through. The immense, dramatic skies, the seemingly solid rock that can still crumble, and the strength of the people who have survived in this environment combine to create a striking image of life in one of its extremes. My paintings allow me to remember and honor that strength, exploring and perpetuating its presence in my life today. If a painting is successful, some of the appreciation for the drama, power and sheer majesty of our world is shared.

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