Artist Spotlight: Jade Cabrera
- thepaper6
- Dec 22, 2025
- 3 min read
By Kendra Corona
Artist Jade Cabrera is an art history major who had previously majored in cartoon history in high school. Her artist name is Jincent, which is a combination of “Jade” and “Vincent,” referring to Vincent van Gogh. Jade has been pursuing art professionally and continues to do so. Jade shares an art piece, Santa Moderna, which explores her questioning of religion.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
With this particular piece, is there a story or message behind it?
I was heavily inspired by Picasso, Francisco Goya, and the general unease of our political climate. I grew up as an evangelical, and often I would hear about how the end of the world is upon us. As an evangelical, I was raised to be almost excited for it because it meant I would be one with God. However, I always found the narrative unsettling and always asked God why everything is going down so hard. So, this painting is an extension of that question. It's called Santa Moderna, which just means “modern saint” because saints are the people who are meant to have the greatest relationship with God.
There is the use of colors such as red, yellow, and white. What inspired you to use these colors?
I really enjoy limited color palettes; most of my work as a cartoonist is in black and white. I wanted to go for a foreboding, sickly kind of feeling. Sorta like Scream by Edvard Munch. I was also thinking about dreams I would have as a child about the rapture. In my dreams, the sky would be all red, and the hand of God would reach down and pluck out his favorite humans. The yellows are there for visual interest. I wanted something that was still gross but not that intense red.
What are the white figures supposed to represent?
Both of the white figures are technically me. I have a style of drawing myself where I make myself sort of sad and goopy. Overall, they represent despair, feelings of otherness, and melancholy. They are sort of inspired by Michelangelo's paintings of himself in the Sistine Chapel. The hands are both reaching up to God and create a feeling of suffocation. I was thinking about the women I would go to church with and how they would raise their hands to the heavens in hopes of getting closer to Him.
What was your thinking process while you were creating this piece?
I was being melancholic. The world is scary, and it seems that there's always some sort of war going on or something, and it's hard to find your place in the overall grand scheme of things. This painting is also based on a prayer that I prayed, which went "Father God, we are your young and your old, your sick and your poor, please protect us."
Would you say creating this piece felt more challenging or more rewarding—and why?
I think it was more cathartic than anything. I always find drawing to be my form of escapism, and I don't usually paint exactly what I am feeling. I also planned this painting with several renditions, which made it enjoyable to create.
Santa Moderna is an exploration of Jade’s personal upbringing and experiences as an evangelical. The work grapples with the question of why life seems to bring suffering and difficulty. Through the use of dark colors, Jade captures intensity, and the white figures embody sadness, which seems to showcase uncertainty about whether things will get better regarding today's political unease.
Kendra Corona is a first-year studying political science at City College. She's always curious about what’s going on in the world. She's a huge music lover and enjoys going to museums and reading about complex female characters.
Comments