Interviewing Sarah Rosedahl's Perfectly Posed Poultry

The Muses, popular in neoclassical art, were often depicted lolling under picturesque copses of trees, playing music, reading and vaguely dishing out creative inspiration to passersby. It is not a scenario most artists today will recognize from their daily lives. We are taught that art is work and requires discipline, determination and hard choices. How, then, to best represent the more down-to-earth inspirers of fertile invention? What does it take to be an effective modern muse?

Engineer turned cartoonist Sarah Rosedahl, 63, channels artistic wisdom from a gaggle of goddesses who undoubtedly also spend their time lounging in glades, though perhaps with less epic poetry and more bug eating. In other words, her muses are her chickens.

Vermonters may have seen Rosedahl’s flock pictured in stickers, coloring books and prints at the Burlington Farmers Market or her new studio in the Soda Plant on Pine Street.

After moving 13 years ago to a North Hero home that already had a coop, the artist acquired a small bevy of backyard birds who have inspired her ever since. Recent portraits, for a forthcoming book titled The Chickens’ Guide to Self Care, have them enjoying a bath, getting tattooed and taking up journaling. In other scenes, they drive tractors, go hiking and protest.

All that activity seems like pretty hard work, even if it’s relaxing. Seven Days wondered what it takes to go from poultry to professional posers, so we asked Rosedahl to facilitate interviews with Lucy, Ethel, Violet and Rachel, who play such an important role in her creative process.

Visit Sarah Rosedahl at her studio in the Soda Plant on Pine Street or at the Burlington Farmers Market, Saturdays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., through October. srosedahl.com

The original print version of this article was headlined “A-muse-ments | An interview with Sarah Rosedahl’s perfectly posed poultry”