Feel the fragility of life through Larassa Kabel’s fantastic drawings. While all of these works are comprised of black colored pencil only, the application process is different than you might think. “Colored pencil can be dissolved in rubbing alcohol, so I use the stick form of Prismacolor’s black to paint on the first couple of layers of tone,” she tells us. “After that, I draw with the pencil form that people generally associate with colored pencil.”
When asked what falling horses represent, here is what she said, “I’m a horse girl from way back and have a lot of powerful associations with them, but they are also really iconic animals. They’re speed, beauty and power, but they are also incredibly fragile. A broken leg or a twisted gut and they’re done. You can’t do anything for them except put them down.
“As for why they’re falling, all I can say is that the image of a falling horse came to me in a flash of insight. I don’t get that a lot as an artist, but this was powerful. And I knew that they needed to be life-size so that the viewer could really feel the impending impact and the emotion of that loss of control. I think of it as poetic disaster, and even though they are horses, I think they translate to mean a generalized feeling of helplessness and panic.”
Typically it will take Kabel anywhere between 4 to 6 weeks to complete one drawing. “Everyone wants to know how long the work takes, but I just can’t bear to keep track. It would probably depress me,” she says.
Kabel will be showing these works and more at the Peel Gallery in Houston, Texas from March 25th to April 30th. If you’re in the area, make sure to check it out!