Sara Ziff is a painter and environmental engineer based in San Francisco, California. Science and art are both integral to her life. She holds degrees in engineering and chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Whitman College, and has also taken numerous classes in illustration, painting, and sculpture. Her lifelong fascination with portrait art started with making paper dolls that covered the perimeter of her bedroom. Her work is in response to pressures that society places on women, from maintaining a youthful body that conforms to narrow expectations to keeping a spotless home. In her paintings she depicts the complex emotions that come from living as a woman in our modern world.