We recently connected with Sandra Jabbour and have shared our conversation below.
Sandra, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I began drawing and painting early in my childhood and I quickly developed a passion for it. Learning to create impactful artworks required a balance between learning to apply the basic fundamental skills and elements of design, while also allowing myself to experiment and play with different mediums. I learned the core foundational art skills by taking several different art classes throughout my life, and while those skills are crucial to the creation of fully developed works of art, it is understanding when and how to intentionally break those rules to convey the concept you are trying to express that elevates the work from a technically well-executed artwork, to a work of art that creates commentary or evokes emotion in the audience. To speed up the process, I would suggest not getting too caught up with the final product when learning to create art. Being too strongly concerned with perfection at the beginning stages of learning to draw or paint is limiting. Allowing yourself to explore the medium and its functionality through experimentation forces you to learn how to control it, and more importantly, how to accept that some mediums require you to let go of control. The quicker a new artist gets over the fear of creating a bad drawing, the quicker they will learn to create a good one. The skills that are most essential to getting over that fear, are often the ones emphasized in beginner drawing classes, such as contour (one line drawings, where you cannot lift your drawing medium) and live model figure drawing exercises. Contour drawing, often done with the non-dominant hand or without looking at the page, forces artists to learn hand-eye coordination, and forces them to spend more time looking at the subject than focusing on their drawing. These drawings are notorious for being disproportionate and having no volume, which seems counter intuitive when learning to draw, but it is helpful in learning about line quality, and observational skills. Live figure drawing is an essential fundamental skill, as it builds on the skill of observational drawing, while encompassing several other vital skills, such as gesture drawing. It forces the artist to think and make decisions about volume, line quality, movement, proportion, scale, and value. I also think it is important to study and understand art history, or at the very least look at a lot of art. Understanding the historical context behind works of art, and learning to understand artists decision making, regardless of subjective opinions on the work, and having the vocabulary to be able to critique artwork beyond just not liking it is important to be able to evolve as an artist. The biggest obstacle that stands in the way of learning more about art is being afraid to create a “bad” artwork. Learning to draw or paint comes from doing it, I believe the best first step is playing around.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a Canadian interdisciplinary artist, of Lebanese and Syrian descent. I graduated from the University of Windsor’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts program in 2023, and I am currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Waterloo. My work navigates multiple themes, my strong connection, and disconnection to my Lebanese and Syrian heritage, as a first-generation Canadian, family dynamics, and childhood nostalgia. Drawing inspiration from family photos and home movies, I integrate nostalgic imagery and motifs from early 2000s technology, incorporating elements like television static and VHS fonts, as it is the technology my childhood was documented with. My paintings often resemble television screens, highlighting the irony of painting technology and adding depth to her narrative. Through my art, I delve into my parents’ memories of their home countries, reflecting on cultural traditions that have shaped my identity. By immortalizing elements of my childhood surroundings, such as distinct patterns on furniture and curtains, I preserve memories that are otherwise slipping away. Most of my work consists of acrylic and oil paintings, but in the pursuit of my MFA, I have ventured into creating multimedia artworks that integrate the use of a HEX editor to digitally corrupt images and create distortion and glitches, as well as video and installation works.
My passion for painting and drawing led me to this discipline, as well as my passion for teaching. Although my art speaks to my personal experiences and family life, it is impactful to many first-generation Canadians who share a similar strong love and passion for their culture, while slightly feeling disconnected from it. I am proud that my work can serve as representation for people of my culture, specifically in academic spaces, and that I am able to honour my family through my work.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist/creative is spending hours in the studio, pouring yourself into a work that feels genuine to you, not knowing if anyone will connect to it, but then exhibiting it and watching viewers draw connections to their own lives and deeply connect with what you have created. It is also very rewarding to be an artist in an academic space, where I often share studio spaces with my peers, allowing us to learn from one another, give each other feedback, and watch each others practices evolve.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
For non-creatives, it is often easy to overlook the importance of creative fields, or to understand the purpose in taking a risk by pursuing a career in a field that may not guarantee financial stability, but I believe that successfully pursuing this career path is worth it and very possible if there is enough passion there for the craft. The arts are often overlooked, and invalidated as “smart” fields to pursue, but I find that every aspect of attending art university programs has positively impacted my creative progression, as well as my progression as a human being. Theoretical art courses, instill knowledge in students that goes beyond just art history. We learn extensively about other disciplines such as photography, film and architecture. At a graduate level, our required readings strictly consist of research papers across several fields of research whether that be scientific, historic, psychological or philosophical, and they often spark insightful debates. Artists are extremely intelligent. Not only does a successful academic art career require high levels of skill and physical labour, it requires the ability to think critically and encourages emotional intelligence through the extensive studying of other people’s experiences. Art education teaches historical and social consciousness. Artists are often very empathetic and I believe it is due to the amount of awareness they have to the struggles other people face or have faced in history and the range of perspectives that are studied within art history or visual culture courses.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sandrajabbourstudio.com/
- Instagram: sandrajabbourstudio
Image Credits
Sandra Jabbour