Sabra Booth
Woodcut, Drypoint, and Silkscreen, Edition of 5, 14.75 x 22 inches, Paper Fabriano Rosapina 19.5 x 26 inches, Triptych 19.5 x 78 inches, $300 each, Set $800
Wall installation: Mixed Media: MDF and Suede Paper Forms with Silkscreened Text, Sand, and Copper Powder, 240 x 120 x ½ inches. $6000
Comic Book, Off-Set Lithography (from the originals in collage, drawing, and watercolor), number 1 from an edition of 50, 8.5 x 11 inches. $18
Statement
The Woods Within is inspired by my time in Finland while on a Fulbright grant in 2007. In this piece, I abstract the woods into a graphic tableau that encompasses and even oppresses the viewer, much as the endless nights do that far north. It addresses a psychological state relative to the body politic and internalized desire. The writings of Herman Hesse in Steppenwolf were also of great influence.
Mariposa Machismo is a project involving South Texas in the summer and fall of 2006 and is still ongoing to a lesser extent. A multitude of brown snout-nosed butterflies were generated by the unusual climate circumstances of extreme drought followed by torrential rains. Global warming was most likely a contributing factor. Curiously, 95% of them were male. It’s ironic in a state that does not exactly support alternative lifestyles; millions of male butterflies were flitting and flirting everywhere. The term “Mariposa” is also street lingo for homosexual in Mexico. The wall installation documents this unusual phenomena while examining the historical and current social implications of male butterfly bonding. Butterflies have also typically been associated with the ideals of femininity in the West. The butterflies are rendered on MDF board and suede paper, that has been rubbed with copper powder, and silkscreened using sand for a textural effect. Mariposa Machismo offers an enlightened glimpse into the little before known underground culture of brown snout-nosed butterflies. This project continues an ongoing discourse in my work concerning the intersections of gender, nature, myth, and identity.
In Persama and Medusin, I am using art as a means towards political satire. I have always had a fascination with mythology from around the world. This project is a revisionist tale of the Greek hero, Perseus, who slays the monster Medusa. The story acts as a tongue in cheek metaphor about the most recent American presidential election with Barack Obama as Perseus and Sarah Palin as Medusa. Most of the other characters were deliberate choices, such as Dick Cheney as a stinky sea monster, while some were arbitrary, like Dolly Parton as a sexy nymph or Billie Jean King as Medusa’s bereaved sister. Nonetheless, the end message is a serious statement of hope for Obama’s adminstration. In terms of being a printmaker, there is a long history of social protest art with artists such as George Grosz, and the Dada collage work of Hannah Hoch. This specific project is a contemporary follow-up on these precedents.
Biography
I was recently included in Brooklyn’s Central Booking show, Chemical Reactions. I returned from Germany, last summer where I had a solo show at Werk-Statt-Galerie in Mönchengladbach and was part of a group show at Arthouse Tacheles in Berlin. In 2007, I visited Finland while on a Fulbright Scholar grant. I had a solo show at the Nelimarkka Museo in Alajärvi, Finland and the Fulbright Center in Helsinki. In addition, I was awarded a travel grant by Art Pace, San Antonio. I have also been awarded a Brooklyn Artist Grant and a Houston Cultural Arts Council Grant. I worked for the Lower East Side Printshop in New York and the Houston Fine Arts Press in Houston, Texas. In addition, I have designed nationally award winning exhibits for science museums. I am an MFA graduate of Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and a BFA graduate from the University of Houston, Houston, Texas. I presently am on the fine arts faculty at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas.
