Sabaitide
Artist Statement
It started with one wave and a stroke of inspiration. Then, what first began as a few oil paintings in a not-so-serious, yet very ambitious attempt to apply to art school, eventually and naturally grew into an interpretive collection of art and a developing book idea that I will continue to work on as I pursue my graduate studies—and that truly is the art of the creative process.
I first captured my wonder in waves and clouds to illustrate my emotions and thoughts. Then, it’s like the clouds around my head parted ways and a waterfall from the sky graciously appeared to encourage me to think above and beyond the boundaries of my reality. Captivated by my newfound Christian faith, The Sky Hasn’t Fallen Yet explores the duality of light and darkness foretold in Genesis 1.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below and the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse heaven. (Genesis 1:1-8)
God separated the waters above from the waters below and He called the space in between heaven. How beautiful is that? I expressed the duality of light and darkness with color, depicting the light with sunset hues and the darkness with shades of blue. I then explored the duality of space and time through the sun and moon, visualizing the sun as the color red and the moon as the color blue. There's far more to the bigger picture and The Sky Hasn’t Fallen Yet is a God-given stroke of inspiration that is coming together surely.
One thing that I wonder about is that there may be a day when the waters below will become too polluted to sustain our way of life on earth, and it’s on that day that we will pray for the waters above to come—or panic! That’s such a far out thought, but one thing we can do now to avoid that scenario is to make conscious choices in our everyday life that will lessen our environmental impact on the ocean and to raise awareness about the implications of climate change. And what does that have to do with God? I don’t know yet. This is a work in progress, and so I am sharing my art so that you may come to your own interpretation of the bigger picture.
Creator’s Club
What kind of art do you create?
For my art practice, I love to create oil paintings and painted pots, and then I like to pair my art with poetry and other creative side projects.
How did you get started in your artistic journey?
I’ve always been an artistic person, but I feel like I had to start all over later in my twenties after I was raped in college. I spent years of navigating severe mental health challenges and being afraid to express myself. By then, I had lost my style, but it was also an interesting time to start from scratch.
I had painted over and over my old paintings, but I didn’t like the vertical composition in one particular piece. Then I painted over it once more and turned the canvas horizontally. The new composition I drew came so naturally, so I went with that, and I started to get to know myself again through painting.
I started painting sky concepts onto canvases, and because I work with plants, I began to paint terracotta pots. On one of my first pots, I painted this cloud island with waterfalls falling from it, and that image became the beginning concept of my art collection and developing book idea called The Sky Hasn’t Fallen Yet.
I started my artistic journey again around when I became a Christian, and by the time I was ready for my first art show, I was amazed at my work because I didn’t see the bigger picture when I began. The changes in my mind and my heart were somehow visible in my art — and that’s what I call a stroke of creativity!
Describe how your art reflects your Asian identity.
My online alias is Sabaitide. Sabai is the Thai word for happiness, peace, or bliss — and Sabaitide means to me that everything will be alright no matter the lows and highs. Sabai sabai. Sabaitide is me making something from my mental health challenges — the lows of depression, the highs of anxiety, the inadvertent tides of being bipolar — and if anything, I’d like to make the best of it.
I’ve been able to reflect creatively on my Asian identity through other side projects besides just my art, namely, Overachiever Magazine. At first, OM was a great place for me to share my art and poetry and other written pieces, but over time, it became a community where I could contribute my other creative and technical skills as the Development Director. I am now the Editor in Chief of OM, which still amazes me because of all the other Overachievers on the planet, it’s crazy to think that Rehana trusted me with her magazine.
My experience with Overachiever Magazine on my creative journey makes me passionate about creating opportunities for other Overachievers to explore, discover, and share their own creative talents. We created new sections and features on the website, including Creator’s Club, a community for talented AANHPI creatives to share their work and stories. The current issue is called the New Era Issue, and I’d love for you to participate in how we create the new era of Overachiever Magazine.
What is one piece of creative advice you’d like to share?
Don’t obsess about how you want people to see you or your art because social media is pretty shitty for your mental health and self-confidence. I feel like people talk a lot about mental health, but emotional and spiritual health is very important too. Seek your healing first, and I guarantee that your art will improve when your heart does first.
About the Artist
Sabaitide (she/her) is a serial creative project starter from Santa Barbara, CA who enjoys discovering new ways to utilize her media and writing skills in an ongoing list of side projects. She is an emerging Asian American artist and writer who strives to understand her eastern roots in Buddhism and her western perspective as a Christian to get through the motions of an extra ordinary life.
She always had a strong creative side and began to focus more on painting through her young adulthood. During her college studies, she explored other crafts like screen printing and ceramics, but she would always return to a room filled with paintings and works in progress no matter how busy her daily twenty-something life got.
Sabaitide is continuing to expand her art and writing portfolio as she captures the ups and downs of the creative process on her blog where the plotline of her life is that she will write a book someday. Her creative side projects include: oil painting, writing poetry, and occasionally podcasting or making videos about her ongoing creative side projects.
She is also the current Editor-in-Chief of Overachiever Magazine, an online platform for AANHPI women, non-binary individuals, and other gender minorities. As a graphic designer and website developer, Sabaitide is passionate about building community and creating opportunities for other Overachievers to pursue their creative callings.
Contact
Instagram: @sabaitide
Website: www.sabaitide.com