Creation is time travel. Taking the time Right Now and making it into something new moves us forward into the next moment. The process of forming physical objects allows me to represent multiple points in time simultaneously: to draw stories from the past, to describe our present experience, and to visualize possibilities for the future.

Agnes Barton-Sabo

Barton-Sabo continues, “I came to papier-mâché in a bit of an apocalyptic panic at the beginning of Quarantimes, wondering what kind of art practice would be sustainable if I had no money to spend and needed to use up materials accumulating in my house. Dialogue with my communities about longing to cook and eat together gave me a lot of expansive inspiration about examining all the ways in which we feed and nourish each other, and the power we can generate from radical interconnectedness. As this pile of objects accumulated in my studio, I saw it from the distant future as a fascinating archaeological find to uncover which would describe this moment in time.”

ARTIST BIO

Agnes Barton-Sabo (aka Betty Turbo) is an artist and illustrator committed to using storytelling, humor, and relentless enthusiasm to uplift, inspire, and reveal human connections. Bold colors and use of hand lettering are recurring features of her work, from studio practice to commercial projects. Food motifs and inspirations drawn from popular culture are frequently employed to invite discussions of identity, community, and the necessity of joy for building resilience. 

Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Agnes spent a year studying in Portugal, and went on to earn a BFA in Fine Art Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. She worked at historic Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee as a letterpress designer and printer before moving to Oregon, where she currently resides. Clients include Facebook and Rolling Stone Magazine, and her recent papier-mâché work appeared in “The best art created by Washington Post readers during the pandemic.”