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     Photo by John Noonan |
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 Sabrina Ward Harrison makes paintings and drawing installations that are layered with found materials, sewn fabrics, photography, calligraphic markings, and densely rich colors and textures. It is a vision that is expressionistic, yet exuberantly orchestrated. A significant aspect of her studio practice is generating the documentary photographs that are incorporated into the work; she's drawn to this medium for its potential for biographic truth. She also incorporates sewing and stitching into the work and is interested in opening the seams between painting and clothing. In 2000, Harrison exhibited installations of her paintings and drawings on paper board and fabric in San Francisco at the Mill and Short gallery and at Juice, an alternative space. This year, Sabrina had a solo exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia. The National Association of Women in the Arts sponsored a lecture she gave to the California Historical Society in San Francisco. In 1999, her drawing-based journals were published in a book, Spilling Open (Villard, 2000). Two years later, she continued her stories in a second book, Brave on the Rocks (Villard, 2002). Harrison's work has been featured in Artweek, the Washington Post, and USA Today, among other regional and national publications. The confessional quality of her writing has drawn comparisons to May Sarton and Henry Miller, and her aesthetic has been likened to Basquiat and Peter Beard. Sabrina gives lectures and does installations around the country, most recently at Parson School of Design in New York, Salem College in North Carolina, and Whitworth College in Spokane, WA. Harrison was born in Montreal, Canada in 1975 and attended California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA (CCAC). She spent the last two years in New York and recently returned to Northern California, where she is teaching and working on her third book, which will be released Spring 2004. 
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