Abigail Sage

Double Bass

I have always had a passion for the arts. I started drawing from a very young age, using step-by-step guides to teach myself how to transfer to paper the beauty I was seeing all around me. I come from a musical family, so meanwhile I had picked up the violin and was playing in school orchestras, community groups, and solo recitals. When I began high school, I became more serious in each of these pursuits. I was fascinated by both art and music, and in 2019 I ended up getting a bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance at Southeast Missouri State University. Unfortunately, an overuse injury in my arms forced me to turn my career in a different direction. Now I am looking forward to earning a Master of Science in Information so I can use my creativity to become a youth services librarian.

My piece “Double Bass” is a graphite drawing of the scroll of a five-string double bass. I like how the piece shows the strengths of the medium—for example, I decided not to blend the individual pencil strokes. I never blend in graphite, because to me, it destroys the personal nature of the hand-drawn strokes. Also, if you look closely, you are able to see the ghosts of erased lines I have made. At first, I would consider this a disadvantage to the paper format, but some part of me does like seeing this part of the process immortalized on the page.

This drawing is special to me because the subject is my partner’s double bass that was customized to have five strings rather than four. I thought that the gears that had been put onto his bass were gorgeous and perfect for an art piece. Music is a very special thing to both my partner and me, especially because it was the thing that brought us together in college. Also, I am proud of these for the amount of time and dedication I put into it during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. I spent 30+ hours sitting on the floor to draw because there wasn’t enough table space for the huge sheet of paper. My pencils are down to nubs now! And the commitment paid off—I consider this some of my best artwork.