Every now and then, we like to tell you something about one of us …
Not only does Lisa Sabo, VP/creative director, spend her days creating smart work for clients. She spends her time away from SMZ creating intriguing work for herself and audiences at ArtPrize, among others. So we asked her a few questions …
This is your second year participating in ArtPrize. What did you submit last year?
I called it Quilt of Frugality. It was a series of acrylic paintings. I started with the idea of using the paint left on my palette at the end of a painting session (frugality). Like the idea of making something unexpected out of nothing or leftovers (like a quilt). The title is “Quilt of Frugality.”
Where’s your studio?
It’s at home in the basement, which I am taking over more and more of. In nice weather I also paint on my sunporch.
You make jewelry as well?
I use aluminum wire with glass beads. The tools are pretty standard find-in-your-home-toolbox things. Different pliers, wire cutters and hammers.
This year’s ArtPrize?
I’m using acrylics, some watercolor and lots of glue.
This is my explanation of it:
What worries you? Nags at you? What keeps you sane? Makes you happy? The blood, sweat, tears, joys and thoughts that propel you forward or hold you back. That bombard you with opportunity or failure. That occur to you at any time. Randomly. Connected. Disconnected. Wake you up. Keep you awake. “Anxiety: Fragments, awake at 3 am” is composed of over 900 painted fragments. Assembled together on a canvas. Held together with expressive layers of paint that interrupt, join together, create something new. It’s colorful, sometimes dark. Ordered. Random. Sometimes messy. Imperfect. How it feels when your mind is so full, you just can’t sort everything out.
Every year we dress dolls for the Detroit Goodfellows. I remember the ones you dressed as Kid Rock and Dorothy. Any other favorites?
I liked last year’s police woman and the Detroit Zoo Summer Safari teacher I did a few years ago. She wore hiking boots, khaki shorts, and a T-shirt with a Summer Safari frog stenciled on it. My son Garth worked for Summer Safari for 7 or 8 years when he was in high school and college.
Some of us are absolutely in the right profession. To quote Confucius:
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
Trish Cowan, Senior Copywriter