ABOUT
Sarah HaBa’s paintings are a built emotional refraction of space — the space that is the shadowed weight that holds an object to a surface, the space that is the walls, floors, and ceiling of home, the space in-between breaths, the space in-between her brushstrokes — all of which overflow with emotion. None of her world is bare-bones.
HaBa builds her paintings with shadows. In this way, the white of the paper or gessoed canvas is activated as light. The light destroys the form. It is in this visible space of destruction that emotion is conveyed. The visual weight of an object’s shadow transforms into emotional weight through the lens of the viewer’s gaze.
Her work is composed through intuition. Whether still life or figurative, the placement of the subject, the tilt of the compositional plane, the repetition of color and reflection of form, are all taken from HaBa’s own emotional temperature. HaBa paints in watercolor or acrylic. Water-based media is a negotiation between air and water — she keeps the drying time of her canvas, her palette, and her brushes always on her mind. HaBa’s brushstrokes are careful to pause the viewer’s mind or loose to move the viewer’s eye. Color is used as local color in one area and shadow in another. Her palette is always a mess.
Through paint, water, and patience, her paintings become an external product of an internal process, shoved out into the world, her explanation of life.
Sarah HaBa, raised in Sacramento, was first exposed to art through collections of family friends and the Crocker Art Museum. She grew up surrounded by the works of Northern California painters — Wayne Thiebaud, Gregory Kondos, Richard Diebenkorn, and David Park. Their artwork became her visual vocabulary. Sarah continued her studies at UC Santa Cruz, receiving a BFA in 1995. Painting serves as a lifeline to Sarah, pulling her forward during difficult times. Eager to see the next painting, she works with a wet paintbrush in hand, trying to capture her emotional life. Sarah paints in her studio overlooking a garden in the Mission District of San Francisco... head down, listening to music, lost in thought.
