Interview by Mercedes Arnold

Maine Vibes Magazine: This is so exciting! Can you state your name and your pronouns and talk about what you do?

Sabrina Volante: My name is Sabrina Volante. My pronouns are she/her, but I'm also fine with they/them. I usually describe myself as a graphic designer—because I think sometimes that's easier for people to process—but I also consider myself an artist because I illustrate, and I do some, like, motion/video stuff in my art practice. In terms of graphic design, my specialties are branding, packaging, and web design. I try to be a one-stop-shop type of designer. I feel like if you know the principles of design, you can design anything. So, I like doing it all. 

MVM: And that’s fun, right?

SV: It is really fun. There's a challenge that comes with each new type of project that my brain is addicted to figuring out. I really love being the one that comes up with the solution and it's really satisfying when you can figure it out.

MVM: I saw your Maine Flower Collective branding! That is exciting!

Sabrina Volante: That was really fun. I've been on the edge of my seat waiting until I could post about it. I've been working on the back end of their website for a while now, and the branding has been done. I had so much fun working on it and wanted to share it so bad. I was happy when we went live. 

MVM: That must be a relief and also such a good feeling to send your baby out into the world.

SV: It really is. The first part of doing the identity is always exciting, but I get nervous because I'm still trying to get to know the client(s). With the Maine Flower Collective, it was a little bit different because I was working with a committee of people. I was trying to meet everyone's needs and wants, so it was a little daunting, but everybody was so nice. I feel like I've been really blessed with cool ass clients. It was really fun, and I love drawing flowers, so I'm always down for that. 

MVM: It looks really great! So, how long have you been an artist?

SV: I went to Maine College of Art (MECA), which is now Maine College of Art and Design, and graduated in 2014. After I graduated, I tried to be a freelancer partially because I needed work so I felt like I'm going to do whatever I can. I’d say I’ve been doing it in a professional sense since 2014… that is probably how I'd quantify it. But since I was a kid, I've been drawing and I always had an interest in computers. So back when MySpace was a thing, I used to code free templates or themes for MySpace. I had a page that was pretty popular and I had a website where I posted all those free themes. For a long time, it was like, oh, coding is really cool and I like art.  I always thought maybe that was a way to have a career that's kind of art-adjacent.

MVM: How old were you when you were designing those MySpace templates?

SV: I definitely wasn't old enough to be using MySpace, I think I was probably 13. The Internet was so new and at that age, it felt really fun. It was kind of like the Wild Wild West. My cousin helped us get a new family computer and at the same time he was like, you know, we can make a website. I was probably 11 or 12, and I was like, we can do what?!! That's when he helped me make my first website and I thought it was so cool. 

MVM: That is too cool. Do you have any photos of your first website? 

SV: I think so, I could probably dig up some old embarrassing stuff. The first website I think I did was to host the MySpace templates, I might have a photo I can send you. I remember it was clouds that were dripping rainbow colors or something like that and it was early Photoshop textures and neon colors and all that kind of stuff. It wasn't good, but it was so much fun. There was something about creating in that space, you can do whatever you want, and no one else really knew how to use computers, at least, in my family and my friends. To me, it was the coolest thing that you could make digital art.

MVM: Yeah, that was very exciting. I remember using MySpace and wanting to customize my page, but I got as far as setting up my jam on my page and manipulating my top 10 friends. What types of things were you doing while in school? 

SV: In school, I was an RA, partially because I wanted free housing, and because I'm definitely an extrovert and I love people. It felt natural for me to fall into that role. While I was doing that, I worked at the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA. I learned a lot about running a gallery and installing artwork, it was very interesting. I also started doing design work for the cafe at MECA. While I was there, I was always trying to find a way to get a graphic design job. I think that was because in my mind it was the closest to what I could find to being a working artist. In my head, I was thinking that’s the one path, that’s how I have to do it, so I was always trying to work towards that. 

MVM: When you said becoming a working artist, that made me think about artists in general and how difficult it really is to make your art and that's all that you do. There is so much more happening behind the scenes.

SV: Yeah. I wish I could explain to my younger self how much of an undertaking it really is. There was definitely a part of me who couldn't see myself making a career any other way. In some ways, it's about survival, right? You have to make some compromises. My life could have gone in two different directions. One is the one that I'm on now—I worked for agencies and for a long time thought that I wanted to have my own agency. The other side would have been more of the illustration/artist route, doing custom pieces. Both of those options sounded really appealing to me, but the amount of work that would go into it to make either of them happen is insane. Ultimately, I made it work with the path that I'm on now, and I'm really happy, but it is so much work. 

I wish I could tell my younger self, it's not just about honing your craft, which is what I focused on for a long time. (I really wanted to understand design and understand what I loved about it.) 

You also have to be good with people, you have to be good at presenting, you have to be a good writer, and you have to explain yourself and sell yourself, which is the hardest part for me. I love when someone wants to work with me because they like my style. That’s the best working relationship. 

MVM: That's why I wanted to work with you, I had followed you for a little bit and I was like damn, I love her work. It was really exciting to get to work with you. I’m curious about your perspective on this, what are some of the hard things about becoming a freelancer? 

SV: Yeah, specifically about freelancing, what I've noticed is that it can be really lonely, and that’s been really hard for me to navigate. I'm very much a verbal processor and I loved when I worked in studio environments. I really loved being surrounded by other creative people that I could quickly bounce an idea off of or ask, Hey, can you look at this? Something feels off. Getting that quick feedback was really huge. 

Switching to having my own practice, day in and day out, I'm making all the decisions on my own. By the end of the day, I have decision fatigue and I don't want to think about anything else or do anything else. It feels like when you're a freelancer, you really have to find and create a support system that it's not inherently baked into it. One of the hardest things for me right now is feeling like I'm doing it all on my own. I do miss having someone else to share some of the decision-making with.

MVM: I agree, having decision fatigue is real! It’s a lot to have it all seemingly on your shoulders. Personal assistants let’s go! So what are your favorite things to draw? 

SV: In order of my favorite things; plants, food, then animals. I did a lot of still-life drawings when I was a kid. My dad inspired me to start drawing, he used to draw Disney characters for me and I remember asking him how he learned to draw. He told me that his father used to have him trace over the fruits and vegetables in the grocery flyer so that he could get a sense of the different shapes. So, that’s how I learned to draw, too. 

I’ve always had an affinity for food, flowers, and plants. All of that stuff is really forgiving in terms of being able to get expressive with it, especially with leaves. You can exaggerate things that sometimes are not as easy to do with say, drawing people or architecture, for example. I get bored with the super technical stuff. I like to have fun and not be super exact. 

MVM: I am a big fan of all of those things and love seeing how differently you can draw a certain flower or type of food. I’m curious, what is one of your proudest moments as an illustrator since you've been freelancing?

SV: Can I say this whole first year doing this full-time? Being able to support myself is my proudest moment. I was really fucking scared when I quit my job. I decided, okay, I'm doing it and secretly gave myself six months, that if financially I wasn’t doing great, I was going to start applying to jobs again. That didn't end up happening. I’m amazed that I figured it out. There was definitely a part of me that wasn't sure if I could, so being able to have this first year and to have had any clients at all. I was like, hell yeah. This is awesome.

MVM: I mean, that's so amazing, you’re fucking amazing. Congratulations on year one of freelancing!

SV: Thank you! It’s been great. 

MVM: That is so exciting, and what a good feeling to be able to support yourself with your art! It’s so fucking scary! 

SV: It's so scary. For a long time, I really needed to have the financial security of being at a full-time job, but also really wanted to learn and improve my craft. Figuring this [freelancing] out is very much a leap of faith, which is really fucking hard to do, it’s really scary. Also, at the end of the day, I’m making all the decisions, so if it doesn’t work out, I have no one to blame but myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself but it helps to motivate me to keep getting better and do more. 

MVM: Healthy pressure, right? 

SV: Yeah, absolutely. 

MVM: How do you get in the mood to create and draw? Especially where you probably have deadlines you set for yourself and your clients.

SV: In this first year, it's been a lot of learning to understand what my natural rhythm is throughout the day. What I've noticed is, I have certain times a day when I'm more productive than others. I started scheduling out tasks, based on what needed to get done at what time of day, in order for everything to get done. 

When it comes to deadlines, if I’m doing an illustration for a client, that has to be the first thing I do in the day because otherwise, I’m going to be thinking about it while doing everything else. Then I’m not focusing on the other things that I’m actually doing. It’s a lot of managing my own brain. 

In terms of getting inspired to create, the most helpful thing for me is to look at art, not necessarily other design work or other illustrations, but look at beautiful things. I really love painting and I love sculpture. There's something about looking for colors or textures, or small detail things that can inspire me and gets me excited. A lot of times I’ll get inspired by a cool color palette and start thinking about what I can do from there. My process is very much iterative, most of the time I’m drawing butts, and then a plant, then a flower because I don’t know what to draw. Eventually, I’ll find a word, color, or shape that I’m into and go with it. It’s not a very scientific process but it’s how my brain works. 

MVM: Talking about your natural rhythm and what works for you, I always have to check in with myself on that. I usually have everything I need to do up in my head and wing my day, but that doesn’t work well for me. 

SV: I realized my body’s internal clock, which took me a while to become aware of. My day starts around nine or ten o’clock and I’m really productive between those hours until around 12:30. By one to say, three pm, my brain doesn’t want to do anything, she’s done. She’s like, we’re good, we did so much work already. So now, because I know that about myself, I feel good if I get anything done between 1 - 3, but if not, it’s whatever. It’s not a productive time for me so I don’t force it. It’s been good for me because I tend to be hard on myself, so giving myself permission to fuck around during that time of day feels good. It’s my brain saying, hey, you need a little break. It’s a lot of self-compassion combined with self-discipline. 

MVM: I admire you for realizing when you’re productive and when you need rest, and listening to your body. It’s tough. What do you do outside of your art? 

SV: Most of my time is spent in our home, I do a lot of decorating and my husband’s into gardening, so we’re doing that together. A lot of my time is dedicated to my two dogs, and then I’m also a fan of keeping aquatic shrimp and crabs. It’s a lot of tank maintenance and taking care of them. I like watching them, it’s very zen. It’s something we picked up at the start of the pandemic, so it’s been nice to keep up with it.

MVM: That sounds so zen.

SV: I know, I'm so attached to them too. 

MVM: Can you tell them apart?

SV: Some of them, yes. We have one we call The Painted Lady, which is a different breed of shrimp, so she looks very different from the others. We also have some aquatic snails. 

MVM: I love this. My sister has fish she bought during the pandemic and they are so cute and relaxing to watch them swim around the tank.

SV: It’s funny, I say it's a relaxing hobby, but it can be really stressful. I think it's so fascinating because you're creating your own bioactive environment. I have a couple of nano tanks and it can be harder to make sure everything's balanced and happy in them. There's also a method of planting the tank where the aquatic plants will filter out any of the waste produced by the animals, then you can have a self-sustaining system where the shrimp are eating the debris and the plants are filtering out the toxins. It’s really cool. 

MVM: It’s wild how everything affects everything else like that, everything needs to be in balance for all to be working well. So you talked a little about this earlier, but what is something you wish you’d known prior to becoming a freelancer? 

SV: I would love to tell my younger self, everybody's guessing, try your best because no one really knows what they're doing. It's going to be a lot of trial and error. The other thing I would tell myself is to be an early adopter of new technology and programs. That is something that I’ve been practicing for the last couple of years. Even if it’s not for you, it’s an opportunity to learn and you’ll have a better perspective on what others are doing. If it ends up being new tech or programs that can benefit you or make your life easier, that’s great. Open yourself up to new opportunities. I feel like that’s been my biggest catalyst for growth. 

MVM: What made you recognize that you enjoyed being an early adopter of new programs?

SV: It started when I was at agencies because I would be working on a project and I would think it would be really cool if we could have X, Y, and Z. It’d be something like, I was wishing we could animate a logo or have a prototype that we could click through. I kept having those wouldn’t that’d be nice if we could do that, moments. I realized I could learn Adobe XD or After Effects. I gave myself permission to admit that yes, I don’t know anything about that but I’ll take time to learn it, and eventually it’ll be something I could do more of. 

MVM: Yeah, I think learning is such an important part of growth and sometimes it’s hard to get yourself there because it can be really intimidating. 

SV: It really is. That was something that a lot of times I thought if I take time to do this thing and don’t end up with a valuable end product, was it worth my time? That’s how I used to think about it and it would stop me, but I’m so glad I did put time and effort into that learning. 

MVM: Definitely, so to wrap up is there anyone you want to hype up or that you've enjoyed working with? Would you do a collaboration with another artist? 

SV: I would love to. I’m on the board of AIGA and MADE, so I want to shout out those two organizations. There are a lot of people working really hard to make community events and foster an environment for creative professionals. I love being on the board with them and everyone is really great. 

In terms of collaboration, there are so many people I’d love to work with. Maine has such a cool, creative and artistic community, and everyone is so kind and supportive. Anything I can do to lift other artists up, I absolutely want to do that, which is part of why I am on those two boards. I love connecting people, and also love being connected and collaborating with others, I am very open to that! 

MVM: Thank you so much, Sabrina! This has been awesome. 

Thank you to Sabrina Volante for taking the time to talk with Maine Vibes Magazine!

Web: https://www.sabrinavolante.com

Instagram: @sabrinavolante

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