2025 Senior Exhibition Artists 2025 Senior Exhibition Artists: Sarah Mailloux

About Sarah Mailloux

Sarah is a New England illustrator with a love for storytelling. She often focuses on topics in mental health and exploring the display of neurodivergent behaviors in art. Sarah has a strong love for all things vintage, trinkets, and plushies. When she is not illustrating, she is sculpting miniature clay charms and other figurines to fill her collection.

Statement

This project started as a world-building exercise and a way to display my process with my character, Buttons, a plush raccoon. Over time, I pivoted to working on picture book stories featuring this character.  

Buttons lives on a farm in a small New England town. Most of his time is spent collecting trinkets, gardening, and taking care of the animals with farmer Junie. He resides in the farmhouse attic, where he has a cozy living space. He is introverted but playful and friendly. He often struggles to understand the world around him and acts aloof, but he manages to enjoy the small things in life amidst the chaos he unknowingly creates.  

Buttons is a cute and cuddly character, but he also serves as a representation of my experiences with autism and CPTSD. Buttons is a full character; he does not exist solely to represent my autism but also to show what acceptance and accessibility can look like for people with disabilities. He is a reminder that we live in a world that was not built for people with disabilities, and because of this, we often struggle more. Buttons urges us to remember that it is not our fault if we struggle with situations others deem easy. 

SarahMaillouxArt

Sarah Mailloux

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