Meet Sonya Saturday | Cartoonist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sonya Saturday and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sonya, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
There’s something inside of me that forces me to create. I have this desire to interpret the world around me through my art and my humor and my individual sensibilities. I have this need to put work out into the world, and for me to see it, to help me make sense of what’s around me. The world is such a complicated place, and I find it so overwhelming that I just need to make sense of it in my own peculiar ways. And that leads me to look for ways I can use to interpret what’s happening and then put that work out in a way for people to see, and hopefully understand, and ideally get something out of it for themselves.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is a reflection of my heart and my state of mind at any given time. I have this ability to reach inside of myself and pull out the dark feelings and the humor and the joy and sometimes the confusion and the sadness, and all of the emotions that I go through from day to day. And then I find a way to put that work out there.
I believe in being honest in my work. It’s a reflection of myself. I am a combination of humor and vulgarity and sweetness and love and vivid color and darkness all at once. And all of that goes into my work. I do this because I want people to know that there’s people like me out there. Maybe they can look at my work and see something of themselves in it, maybe they can relate somehow. And if I can do that for someone through my work, then maybe they can feel like they’re less alone. The world can be such a scary place, and I just want to bring a little bit of light and honesty to it. It’s not easy but it’s fun.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is my favorite museum, so we’d definitely go there.
Tea at the Getty Villa. A show at the Hollywood Bowl or the Greek Theatre. I love the planetarium at the Griffith Observatory. Anything on display at LACMA. Dinner at El Compadre in Hollywood. Dancing at Doom & Boom at Beetlehouse LA.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many people who have encouraged me, taught me, and mentored me over the years that I couldn’t possibly list them all. So right now, I’ll just highlight one organization and two people. I want to shoutout the nonprofit organization Prism Comics for giving me spaces to promote myself and opportunities to meet friends and colleagues over the past seventeen years. Ted Abenheim has been the President of Prism for most of that time, and I wouldn’t have had all those opportunities without his hard work. His dedication to promoting the LGBTQ+ comics community is unparalleled. Through Ted, I met Tara Madison Avery. Tara is the publisher of Stacked Deck Press and one of my closest friends. She publishes work by incredible artists (including me!) and she’s always there when I need her encouragement and wisdom.

Website: https://sonyasaturday.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sonyasaturdayart

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonyasaturday/

Other: https://sonyasaturday,substack.com
https://linktr.ee/sonyasaturday