Warm hat on her head and paintbrush in hand, Sabrina Rupprecht is working on the map of Pentagon City. If it gets too cold in the tunnel she adds layers. “I’m from Germany so I’m used to the cold.” 

She is brushing acrylic paint on the last image on the wall of the tunnel that she has been filling with important scenes of Arlington for the last six weeks. She gets to know some of the people who walk by every day. The tunnel connects the lower level of the Pentagon City shopping mall with the street on the other side. 

Sabrina Rupprecht with the image of a plane representing Reagan National Airport. 

 

Rupprecht says Simon Property Management, who owns Pentagon City and other malls nationwide, commissioned the work. The portrayal of two women with shopping bags is followed by large letters spelling Pentagon City which stretch 120 feet down the long wall. Each letter is filled with an image of something important in the area. The first image is the Ritz Carlton at the Pentagon City Mall. Other letters are filled with images such as a soaring airplane to represent Reagan National Airport, a man in an Army uniform to represent the presence of the military in the area. Bicyclists remind us that Arlington is rated the fittest location and her favorite, the dog picture.

“People here love their dogs. They have their dog parks and their doggie day care. In general people love to see animals in art.” Rupprecht says she used to paint endangered wildlife pictures for a living when she lived in S. Africa. She also painted portraits and started a business 10 years ago focusing on portraits of people. “In a time of Instagram, which was hip, I posted pencil drawings and got commissions from all over the world.”

During these years she was coming to Florida every year for a large art show and decided she wanted to move to the United States. “I applied for an 01 Visa for exceptional talent in 2019.” She came to America, met her future husband in 2019 and moved to Crystal City in 2020 but then Covid hit and there was limited work. “There were no shows.” She says she couldn’t exhibit in galleries to show her art which is how she got her visa. So in January 2021 she sent an inquiry to National Landing, and they told her Valentine’s Day was coming up and asked her to submit ideas. She came up with a drawing of a pink VW Love bug which was a hit, and then things just happened.

She had been painting a 12-foot-high, 10-foot-wide wall at Commonwealth Joe Coffee Shop for four years changing it with the seasons. “Amazon found me outside painting. They had emailed me two years prior to do some cherry blossom painting but I couldn’t do it at the time. They came back a year later in 2024 and said ‘We still want you to do the cherry blossoms,’” and this time she was able to do it. 

Rupprecht explains that when she lived in South Africa she was painting portraits and wildlife pictures while working part time as a customer service agent for Amazon. Amazon hired her because she had German language skills. But she says that job didn’t work well for her since she didn’t like to be in an office and when they offered her a chance to work her way up, she said, “No, I’m an artist.” She says when she came to the U.S. and Amazon recently asked her to do painting for them she felt like she had come full circle.

Rupprecht has been doing art since she could hold a crayon. “But I didn’t ever think it would be a career. I’ve never studied art; I studied fashion design.” When she moved to South Africa her first design was leather handbags. “But I sketched for fun. I was fascinated drawing faces.” 

She remembers a friend came by and saw one of her portraits and wanted to buy it. “But I would only sell a copy.” She only sold copies for a long time until “some guy came to me and wanted me to draw his girlfriend. But he wanted the original thing. He paid way more than I was going to charge so I realized maybe selling the original was the thing to do.”

Now Rupprecht deals only with corporate clients such as businesses and restaurants. “I have learned it is not necessarily all about how good your work is but about customer service. I always meet with the client to have them tell me their story, who are they trying to reach, and what is their target group.” She says, “You have to deliver what they ask for, avoid disappointments. I always meet my deadlines.”