BY LYNNE MEREDITH SCHREIBER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGIE BAAN .A C arole Kabrin's hands are tinged gray from decades of drawing with charcoal. She is one of the last few courtroom artists whose creative abilities are slowly being rendered unnecessary in an age of accessibility. On retainer at ABC News and before that, local WXYZ, she covered famous trials — former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Berry, Timothy McVeigh, Mike Tyson, even the Supreme Court once or twice. Once, she got her wish to draw a trial related to the president, and she personally handed Bill Clinton one of her renditions. A born-and-bred Detroiter who is a longtime member of Temple Israel, Kabrin is turning to her love of portraiture and landscapes, and teaching, to make a living as the need for courtroom sketches subsides. She is working on a portrait of "her" rabbi, Harold Loss (shown in the photos, left). "I'm about creating your own dreams," says Kabrin, who began drawing at the age of 3. Her influences include Michelangelo and Edgar Degas, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and Walt Disney, who, "through their art, made a difference." In 1975, Kabrin came to court as a way into the world of TV. She sketched prominent players of courtroom drama and spent days practicing speed-drawing in the Wayne State University cafeteria. Courtroom drawings have long been a way to give visual images to news audiences when no cameras are allowed in court. Artists must draw quickly, capturing attorneys, defendants, judges and overall views. They are never even guaranteed a close-enough seat. Kabrin can draw on 19x25-inch paper "hard- ly looking down at pen and paper. I feel the edge of what I'm doing, gauge the depth." She draws first in charcoal pencil, then adds color. She tries to capture subjects in action. "Courtroom art is going away," says Kabrin. "They are letting cameras in the lower courts. News organizations are enamored with video." Nowadays, she works amid the grit and noise of industry in a red-brick Detroit building that houses artists' studios. Kabrin wears broken-in jeans over long underwear, to bear the drafty casement win- dows. Black sneakers pair with a black sweater and leopard-print and turquoise necklace. Boxes upon boxes hold hundreds of drawings. A major Star Trek devotee, Kabrin has suggested characters to make-up artist Michael Westmore. "I'm about doing fun things with whatever talents you have," she says. 24 • JUNE 2003 • STYLE AT THE JN