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Saaba was born in St. Louis, Missouri to an Ethiopian mother and a German-American father. She spent her childhood gleaning lessons in balance and composition from her father’s mathematically inspired geometric sculptures; and in color, vision, and intuition from her mother’s entrepreneurial adventures in food product development.
Saaba’s academic pursuits took her from St. Louis to New York City where she worked as an artists’ assistant; to Tasmania, Australia, where she studied painting; to Kenyon College in Ohio where she completed her BA in studio art, graduating with honors in 1996. For the next four years, while maintaining her own painting career, Saaba co-created three community-based public art projects in St. Louis, earning wide recognition for her work.
In her young career, Saaba has received multiple awards, exhibited works in 14 national and international fine art exhibitions, and sold the majority of her works. She is a member of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, a recipient of the Margaret E. Leslie Prize in drawing, and a former fellow of the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission’s Community Arts Training program. Today, Saaba lives and paints in San Jose, California.
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My pieces are inspired by the nip of autumn in a woman’s blowing scarf or a pair of bright and asymmetrical eyes; by a resigned couple sitting at the bus stop, a child’s curious gaze, or an old lady’s feathery hat.
People – what they wear, how they hold themselves, and whether or not they smile – are a constant source of marvel for me. Painting them is my way of capturing the moods I find most intriguing. Whenever possible, I paint from life, as it allows me to be truer to my inspiration, although I sometimes change colors and alter perspectives to achieve a certain feeling or composition.
Color, expression, line, and pattern are my tools to visually examine how people exist in the world. I use pastel for its immediacy and brilliance, blending with my fingers, or laying colors side by side. Using blunt pastel sticks to render the high detail in my pieces adds a unique level of complexity to both the process and the final product. It is my hope that this final product communicates a slice of human expression and that viewers feel in some way moved by it, if even for a moment.
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