Artists make the world go round, and never cease to amaze us with their talent, tenacity, and tendency to know the future trends before we do. Class of The Future is a series of interviews with eight absolutely astronomical talents from Sydney, who are the up-and-comers ready to change the game.
Sara “don’t you dare spell my name with an H” Hirner always loved drawing from a young age, whether it be in pastels or ink or on the computer, her skills in the creative arts know no bounds.
“I’m pretty bad at concentrating so I would just draw on everything and get in trouble. After doing art for HSC, I just really loved movies and drawing, so took the route of Animation,” she says.
“Everyone had an idea of what animation was and I went into it totally blind. I didn’t even know how to draw frame by frame.”
And from those beginnings has sparked an incredibly unique artist with a style that is absolutely inimitable. Having drawn for The Brag Magazine in the past, Hirner is never afraid to take up any challenge and make it her very own. I mean, when we said the drawing brief was ‘Quitting Porn’, we did not expect such excellence to come back our way.
You can check out Sara’s artwork for The Brag Mag HERE.
Drawing as a skill stemmed from Hirner’s love of movies and doodling as simple hobbies, and simply elevated themselves during the course of her Bachelor of Design and Animation. Now, while still undergoing her uni course, she’s doing freelance jobs around Sydney, spreading her creative wings wherever they so take her, and doing a marvelous job at it in the meantime.
For the Class of the Future series, Hirner wanted to elevate the game, as she usually does so well, submitting not one, but three separate pieces that are all inextricably linked.
Witness them below in all their garish glory.
Oddities and ends in shining black, with a powerful message behind it all. Hirner’s style comes through in spades on these pieces, where the unexpected comes up from black tar where it lies, to offer up a slimy, smudgy handshake.
I sat down with Sara for a chat about the woes of sharing personal art online, her love of movies and drawing, and the importance of putting a message behind what you do, as she joins the ranks as a member of our Class of the Future series.
Interview with Sara Hirner:
How did you get started as an artist?
I’m pretty bad at concentrating so I would just draw on everything and get in trouble. After doing art for HSC, I just really loved movies and drawing, so took the route of Animation because I didn’t want to study after school. I’m happy I did it now, but when I started it was incredibly hard. Everyone had an idea of what animation was and I went into it totally blind. I did not even know how to draw frame by frame. I didn’t know how to do a single thing. I didn’t even have background knowledge in animation, I was just like, yeah I have a thing for movies and drawing, and this seems like both of them in one. But now I really love it.
Have you ever used your artwork for a specific message?
I’m usually pretty private with my artwork, most of my artwork is for myself, but in terms of having a message, whenever I put something out there I always plan for it to have a message. Or at least be humourous. I just like doing that, and I think everyone likes watching something funny. It’s the only way to hook people, to shock them or to humour them, and that’s why I find it entertaining. I am overly conscious of the fact that when you share something, other people are going to see it, and I think that that feeling isn’t necessarily a good thing.
It must be especially worse thanks to Instagram.
Yeah. Well, I don’t think it’s good to be overly conscious. I wish I could be one of those people who just put a whole lot of shit out there and was just like “this is what I like to draw.” But I think a lot of the time that I do make an artwork it is personal or emotional, and I don’t feel like it’s very entertaining. And I don’t feel like that’s something I always want to share, which is not great.
It actually makes a lot of sense though, if you make something that’s very much for yourself, sometimes you don’t want to share it with the world.
It’s an expression of your own emotions, which are sometimes very painful.
And I guess it must be difficult being vulnerable all the time with your art.
Yeah, but at the same time that’s a lot of the time what makes me like an artist, when they can be vulnerable. But then again I’m also only graduating, so that’s something that you learn.
The Class of the Future, Sydney’s rising artists you need to keep an eye on.
Top Row left to right: Erin Sutherland, Sara Hirner, Jimmy Nevell, Nancy Li.
Bot Row left to right: Olivia Serrao, Rosemary Vasquez Brown, Connor Xia.
(*missing from group photo: Anne-Simone El Sokkary)
