Introducing Sabrina
This month’s featured artist is Sabrina, who is motivated by questions of person and place. Relishing travel, Sabrina produces artworks that reflect the regions she visits. She notes,
I take a place I like and create a character for them, known as geographical personifications, based on the geography and traits of their homeland.
In the past, she has made drawings that reflect on Canada and the country’s unique relationship to Scotland – a vast portfolio of these drawings can be found on her personal website, which catalogues her artwork from 2002 all the way to the present – winter sports themes and panoplies of Canadian dress abound. More recently, however, her attention has drifted south to the complex state that is Texas –
I went on holiday to Texas over the Christmas period, which is what sparked me to create my newest series, "The Lonestar Boys" - Texas's nickname is the Lone Star State.
At the time of writing, Christmas is less than three months ago, and yet Sabrina has already filled several sketchbooks with her detailed scenes.
One of the most fascinating aspects of Sabrina’s art is this attention to character development. Each character is given a comprehensive set of characteristics and a story arc - Austin, for example, is a country singer, artistic soul, and a social liberal – personifying the city’s informal slogan “keep Austin weird.” Whilst, Houston is, enigmatically, mayor of the city with which he shares his name. His more conservative sensibility is represented in his flash corporate attire. Using her signature rounded line making, reminiscent of anime in its simplicity, Sabrina creates scenarios in which the figures interact in various imagined settings whether that be in the kitchen, the beach, or even the club.
In response to a question about her about her artistic precedents, she cites Disney as a strong aesthetic influence as well as drawing attention to the work of Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe. Sabrina speaks passionately about this show -
it is a Cartoon Network series about extra-terrestrials of a species called Gems, who have gemstones on different parts of their bodies. Four of them become the guardian of a human Earth boy named Steven, and they have many adventures in fun, heroics, and self-discovery together.
Hearing Sabrina speak to the key themes in the show, one is struck by the parallels between her art and that of the cult animator; both creatives are preoccupied with community and connection. In Steven Universe, as Sabrina draws attention to, aliens form a parental figure for a human child – a clear metaphor for connection across socioeconomic divides. Similarly, in Sabrina’s work, her cast of characters are often unified in pursuing a shared goal – e.g., playing in a ten-piece band or baking together. However, their differences are not eliminated, even within these group scenes, and this can lead to moments of tension. In the cartoon below (top row, centre scene) Dallas verbally responds to an unwanted nickname with a throwaway chuckle. However, the thought bubble reveals to the viewer what he does not quite express, and the viewer gages the tangible sense of Dallas’s frustration.
In keeping with Sabrina’s economic graphic style, facial expression is less variable than clothing or attributes and it is poignant that the quiet facial expressions that Dallas and Fort Worth possess are near identical. Yet, when combined with the text, these similar visual expressions articulate very different emotions, whether that be dejection/ frustration or teasing/ spite. Thus, Sabrina’s cartoons subtly convey the limitations of facial expression and body language. Although the eyes are conventionally considered windows to the soul, her work reminds us that visual cues do not offer direct access into other’s thoughts.
Sabrina notes that she uses her artwork as a means by which to explore social and political ideas;
I've started to become passionate about equality and diversity, especially racial diversity, gender diversity, and the LGBTQ+ community. This is evident through some of my most recent artworks.
She mentions a storyline in her most recent series, the Lonestar Boys, in which same sex relationships and marriage are centre stage. “Dallas and Corpus Christi are a bisexual couple,” she notes, “and they got engaged on Valentine's Day.” The image below shows the couple together with Dallas on the left and Corpus Christi on the
right. The colours have been applied digitally.
Sabrina uses these storylines to demonstrate her solidarity with LGBTQ+ folk, particularly those living in conservative areas.
They [Dallas and Corpus Christi] are getting married in June, but I did do some research on how Texas sees the LGBTQ+ community. Despite federal law legally recognizing same-sex marriage in 2015, Texas state law still says that marriage must be heterosexual, which most likely means Dallas and Corpus Christi would have to get married in a more LGBTQ+-friendly state.
Sabrina speaks and writes about this with an energy and directness that elevates her artwork into the realm of activism.
The characters grow and change in real time, for example, Dallas has recently changed their pronouns (to he and they), and viewers can witness this change within her artwork. She makes clear that Dallas and Corpus Christi got engaged on valentine’s day and are due to be married in June. On Valentine’s Day, she posted images of the couple of social media, as if to solidify their engagement. In this way, she has used her artwork to publicise the message that love is love, her characters gaining a voice beyond the pages of the sketchbook.
Sabrina is prolific and her focus immense, she often produces several drawings each three-hour session and she continually teaches herself new skills both digital and manual. Her beliefs and principles are her driving force,
issues like these, are the reason I'm so passionate about my work, and why I firmly believe in equality and love for all
