Sabrina Wanamaker

Sabrina Wanamaker is an illustrator based in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Cherry Creek High School in 2019. She is graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder, and is getting her BFA in drawing and painting. Her artwork explores colorful, playful scenes and focuses on portraits and figurative work. She uses a variety of materials in her work including acrylic, oil, graphite, colored pencil and digital work.

 My paintings explore themes of childhood, identity, reminiscing, vulnerability, and closeness focusing on a series of close-up portraits. I explore these topics with color, brush strokes, and framing. I have always been drawn to portraits due to the details that reflect the complexity of the face which consists of various colors, shapes, and shading. The main subject of the portraits is my sister whom I employ to explore the aforementioned topics.

With this work, I create a nostalgic narrative through portraiture. I use saturated colors to represent a memory of childhood. I focus on memories and childhood in order to represent nostalgia and depict a different perspective of my life. The entire face is not completely visible in the majority of the paintings, allowing the viewer to imagine the remaining features, expression, and disposition of the persona. The smaller-scale paintings invite a more personal, up close perspective including details without overemphasizing them. On several of the paintings, I add doodles inspired by drawings I created as a child to add interest and extend the content of my work. In another body of work, I replaced the people’s faces with scenes that I associate with my childhood. Together, the work shows different representations of memories through portraiture.