Sarah Jane Szikora was born in county Durham, England, in 1971, into a large family and often had to find ways to amuse herself as a child.  It was because of this that she fell in love with drawing and painting. She was encouraged from a young age to pursue her interest in drawing which led to a course in art and design at Harrogate College. Illustration at Cleveland College of Art followed, from where Sarah Jane Szikora developed a love of drawing the human form.  Throughout all her years of study, she was always interested in life drawing and depicting the human form.  Local dance studios created a melting pot of material from which a collection of drawings were created and developed into the fat and skinny ladies found in the artwork of Sarah Jane Szikora.

Sarah Jane Szikora, unable to make a living on her paintings just yet, opened up a business called "Wild Things" in 1991, where she made paper mache models by hand, often creating animal-inspired sculptures that were up to seven feet tall. Soon, though, she returned to painting and her new work became increasingly popular, especially her gingerbread men and the "Big Girls with Attitude" pieces. The humor with which they are infused is made more potent through Szikora's use of vibrant colors, delicate details, and expressive faces. In 1995, her agent introduced her to Washington Green and the world-renowned Halcyon Gallery. Since then, Szikora's paintings and limited edition fine-art prints have been sold all around the United Kingdom and the world. 

Sarah Jane Szikora creates art, that at first glance, can appear care free but scratch beneath the veneer of paint and you discover that her work often betrays deeply thoughtful ideas about the human condition. Difficult personal experiences such as her mother’s dementia and her own long term sight problems have also been examined. There is empathy in her art with which the viewer can often identify. Galleries across the UK and overseas have supported Sarah-Jane’s art; it has also been successfully exhibited in major solo shows, reproduced as limited edition prints, books, sculpture, Royal Worcester ceramics and more.  Among her favorite artists are Stanley Spencer, LS Lowry, Renee Magritte and she loves the recent surrealist paintings of Michael Sowa. Sometimes she is responding to social issues. For example, much of her work has focused on turning around the negative relationship, that women, in particular have with their bodies, thanks to the media presenting perfect airbrushed models for women to live up to.Sarah Jane Szikora, by using fun, vibrant colors and playful characters, creates brilliant, bold, and insightful sculptures.