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2025 Cut/Paste Publication Feature

As a young guitarist during the early days of YouTube, Sarah Longfield ’24 earned millions of likes by shredding at breakneck speed, pushing genre boundaries, and constantly putting up fresh content. But when she arrived at 51���Ϲ��� in 2019, she learned to slow down and focus on taking her time.

“At first, finding out we were going to work on one painting for six weeks just made me want to cry,” Longfield says. “But as I forced myself through that assignment, I realized that slowing down can be good. Working on a single project for months on end is really rewarding. I began to see the value of the process.”

Paying attention to timing has served her well, starting with her decision to enroll at 51���Ϲ��� at the age of twenty-six, when she knew she was wise enough to make the most of her education. “When I was eighteen, if anyone had told me how to make art, I would have said, ‘You’re wrong—don’t tell me what to do.’ But being older, I had learned not to tie what I was making so closely to who I am. I’m really happy I waited.”

As a true multi-disciplinary artist, Longfield has been exploring different avenues to her creative life since graduation, making and releasing new music with her band, playing any instrument she can get her hands on, building exhibit installations as an intern at the Minnesota Children’s Museum, and designing and building the furniture she sells on her website. “Furniture is so cool because it’s like a living art that’s almost magical to me,” she says. “How it gets used transcends the artist’s initial intentions and becomes part of a space, part of people’s memories, and then woven into their life story.”