Freelance artist and designer, Sargent has a B.A. in woven textiles from Middlesex University in London, England and an M.F.A. in fibers from Arizona State University in Tempe. She taught fibers at the University of North Texas and at Memphis College of Art where she was Director of Exhibitions and Lectures for six of those 12 years. She has instructed students in the art of tapestry at the American Tapestry Alliance retreat, and at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg. She was also a presenter at the 2018 Tapestry Weavers South at St Simons Island in GA.
Sargent is both a contemporary artist weaver and part of a continuum that stretches back thousands of years. Through the slow process of tapestry weaving she intensifies and transforms lived experiences into pattern and color, proffering a counterpart to the beauty and diversity of the world.
Over the years she has received multiple awards for her tapestries such as the Individual Artist Fellowship from the Tennessee Arts Commission in 2004, Second Place and Purchase Award at Fiber Directions 2007 exhibition at the Wichita Center For The Arts in Kansas, in 2011 she won Third Place and a Purchase Award in the Small Expressions exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville, and in 2013 she received the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis, Legends Award, commissioned artist to honor Carolyn Hardy, Chief Executive Chism Hardy Investments LLC. She was inducted in 2016 into the Costume & Textile Institute at the Tennessee State Museum, and in 2018 Sargent received a Merit Award for her work in the Best of Tennessee Craft exhibition at the Custom House Museum in Clarksville, TN. Currently she is participating in the 2022 Master Artist Master Artist Apprentice Program, a collaborative project between the Tennessee Arts Commission and Tennessee Craft. Some of her work is in the Tennessee State Museum, the City Collection of Memphis, Christian Brothers University and the Wichita Center for the Arts.
