Interview: Lisa Saeboe
Lisa Saeboe is a visual artist based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work synthesizes mysticism, sexuality, and the natural world. Saeboe explores themes of femme power and our divine connection to our ecological sphere, which often express themselves through alchemically-realized depictions of self-transformation. Her works on paper often feel like concretized rituals, as she creates textile backgrounds using watercolor or natural dyes from found plant matter. Ghostly impressions of blossoms and leaves from her lived environment serve as a grounding force beneath her bold and intricate graphite drawings.
Born and raised in Norway, Saeboe graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2015. Currently, she is part of the group exhibition Vapours of Delphi at Whaam! Gallery, on view through June 29th. She has also exhibited at the SVA Flatiron Gallery, All Street Gallery, NADA Art Fair with Paradice Palase, and attended the NES Residency in Iceland.
Read our interview with Lisa below!
install view from Shells For Teeth, a two-person exhibition with Kate Jones & Lisa Saeboe at SVA Flatiron Project Space, 2023
PP: Walk us through a typical day in your studio or generally through your process to make new work.
LS: Usually I’ll get a vague idea or feeling for a series that I'll let simmer for a few months. Recently I’ve been getting a lot of visions for my paintings in my dreams, or right before I fall asleep, in that lucid almost-dream state. When I’ve collected enough visions, I art direct and shoot a reference photograph of each— usually transforming my apartment to a makeshift photo studio. My partner Jake helps me light the scenes. I’ll work from those reference images for months, sometimes years because oil painting takes so damn long for me (I wish I was a faster painter but I’ve accepted that I’ll never be). Then I’ll map out the paintings in the studio and get to them in order of what makes me most excited to explore at that time.
I typically only draw at home in front of the enormous oak tree in my backyard that all the birds like to visit. The crows and grackles love to say hi when I’m drawing and sometimes they tell me secrets. In the fall I walk through my neighborhoods and collect all the leaves I feel a connection with. After pressing them, I’ll use them throughout the winter to create watercolor backgrounds for my drawings. It’s a way for me to stay connected to the natural world during the dark winter months.
Path of Totality, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 inches, 2024
Asymptote, Oil on Canvas, 24 x 30 inches, 2024
PP: What motivates you to make art?
LS: To be honest I don’t feel like I have a choice. If I don’t create, my world starts to feel like it’s caving in. I hate to use the word therapeutic, but it really is for me. It's how I make sense of the world and my emotions. Recently artmaking for me has been a lot about looking inward, trying to understand my own subconscious, spirituality, and relationship to the natural world.
PP: Do you ever work collaboratively and how so? Why or why not?
LS: Yes! Although I value the alone time I get from painting and drawing, collaboration with others is crucial to me (I’m a leo). I love filmmaking in particular because it’s such an inherently collaborative medium.
My friend and fellow artist Kate Jones and I met when we were studying abroad in Rome where we made our first art film together. Since then we made another art film at the NES residency in Iceland based on a local folktale about milk stealing worms created by witches. We had a two-person exhibition together at the SVA Flatiron Gallery last year which was in a way an homage to our 10+ years of collaborating. I also collaborate often with my fiancé Jake Moore who is a director and cinematographer. We co-directed a music video for our friend Rare DM and hope to do more together soon. In the future, I want to take my love of collaborating further by curating an exhibition featuring all the incredible artists I’m fortunate enough to know.
Studio view at PARADICE PALASE’s Oasis Studios in Brooklyn, NY
PP: Who or what has had the biggest impact on your creative practice?
LS: I’ve been blessed with many wonderful humans who have encouraged me and my practice, but I owe a lot to my former professor and visual artist Peter Hristoff. He was one of my instructors during the SVA study abroad program in Rome and really taught me how to love and appreciate painting. He has such a romantic way of speaking about art that was infectious to me. After seeing all the Caravaggios on a school trip to Villa Borghese, I knew I wanted to be a painter. To this day, he still encourages me and gives me helpful insight with regards to my work and I’m so grateful to have him as a mentor and friend.
PP: Name a childhood toy (or memory/cultural reference) you had, that you think relates to your practice today.
LS: It would most definitely be the memories from my grandparents’ cabin in Tunhovd, Norway. When we’d visit, my dad would read me fairytales by Asbjørnsen & Moe, which a lot of the time were terrifying but instilled a lifelong love for folktales and the supernatural. In the summertime in the mountains, I would pick cloudberries with my grandmother and she’d tell me the name of each single wildflower we passed. She was a painter as well and taught me how to see the beauty in the natural world.
To learn more about Lisa’s work, see her Instagram and Website