Author: cosimo

By Zoë Goetzmann 

Interview with Lorelei Linklater – Journey and Creativity

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we are bringing you a special interview with artist Lorelei Linklater. The episode was recorded and filmed at and with the help of the Motion Media Arts Centre (@austinschoolofilm) in Austin, Texas.

You can listen to the full interview here. 

Lorelei Linklater is a fine and digital artist. Her work focuses on realism. Lorelei’s practice stems from traditional painting, exploring cartoon-inspired drawings and illustrations, ‘GIFs’, textured collage, feminist influence, and experimental found sculpture. She received a B.F.A. from California College of the Arts and is working towards her M.F.A. at ArtCenter College of Design. Her solo exhibitions include ‘Chaotic Duality’ at the Motion Media Arts Center, ‘I Can Feel Her Staring’ at ALT Gallery, Eikasia at College Avenue Galleries in Oakland, California. In 2021, Lorelei exhibited her work in a group show, ‘Museum of the Future Present’ in Austin, Texas.

In this interview, we speak about Lorelei’s fine and digital artistic practices, how she expresses herself through her artwork, identity, her role as a female artist as well as the need for transparency in the art world. 

Zoe: So we’re here in Austin, Texas, at the Cosimo studio tours with artist Lorelei Linklater. 

We’re interviewing her from the Motion Media Center. Thank you, Lorelei, for being here. This setup is different from what we usually do, but it’s fun! 

Let’s dive into the first question. As an artist, everyone has their own journey and story. Can you share your artist story with us? How did you become an artist?

Lorelei: Well, I’ve been involved in art for as long as I can remember. I started as a child, and at some point, art became a way for me to capture things that couldn’t be expressed in words.

It became a therapeutic outlet for me.

Zoe: So, when did you realize that art was something you wanted to pursue more seriously? Was there a turning point in your life?

Lorelei: I think around the age of 13, I felt a strong connection to art. It was something I wanted to do, something I had confidence in, and something I felt was my calling and career path.

Zoe: Do you remember the first piece of art you ever created when you were younger? What was your main focus or subject?

Lorelei: There were many different pieces I created, and I’m not very good at describing them. Describing my work is perhaps a weakness of mine because I have always been better at communicating through visual means.

When I started painting as a child, I focused on a lot of animals, both real and imaginary. I experimented with collage and large words.

I wish I could show you some of my old pieces because I feel a bit shy talking about them.

Zoe: That’s actually helpful because it leads into your current art practice. Can you tell us more about your practice as both a fine artist and a digital artist? What mediums and themes do you explore?

Lorelei: I primarily identify as a painter, illustrator, and draftsman. The themes I explore involve coming to terms with death, the mystery of what happens after death, my own personal mythology, alternate worlds within worlds, and the concept of the multiverse theory.

I’m intrigued by the strangeness of reality and the interactions between beings. Additionally, aesthetics play a significant role for me. Painting has always been a visceral experience, and layering paint is an integral part of my process.

I often build up layers, but sometimes it diverges from my original intention. I end up sanding down a layer, adding another, erasing or getting frustrated.

For every successful painting, there are many more that I worked on for hours, days, or even years, but they never reached fruition because I overworked them.

It’s a process of trial and error, and sometimes I find myself oversaturating with grays or making too many changes that deviate from my initial vision.

Zoe: Okay, let’s focus on your realism paintings. What do you enjoy the most about creating realistic landscapes and urban landscapes? Can you share your process for those?

Lorelei: I see my realism paintings as a more calculated part of my art. They come from a different part of my brain, a more planned and geometric approach.

In a way, there is a right and wrong answer as I aim to achieve a specific outcome and mimic a certain reality, often based on photographs.

It’s a technique I have developed and honed over time through practice. I am drawn to buildings because I enjoy building up textures.

For these paintings, I usually work from photographs and strive to get everything right on the first try.

Zoe: Where do you find inspiration for your realism paintings? Are they based on your travels? I never asked about the actual locations.

Lorelei: They are inspired by various locations. Most of them are based on photos I have taken. I take a lot of photos, like anyone in the modern world with smartphones.

But I choose specific ones that have qualities fitting into the themes of my series. I take them everywhere I go, whether it’s during my travels in Europe, different places in Texas, California (especially LA and the Bay Area), or other locations. So yes, they are based on photos.

The process usually involves me looking at the photo, rendering it, and then painting it. The painting itself takes on a life of its own.

Zoe: Moving on to your abstract pieces, which are both paintings and digital works, including animation.

Lorelei: The process for my abstract pieces comes from a completely different place. It’s more of a right-brain approach.

When it comes to my digital work, I don’t think at all. I just let myself do it. I enter a state of zoning out, and something takes over. It’s almost like being possessed.

Part of me loves it, but part of me also hates it. It feels like I’m in a trance when I create digital art.

Zoe: Is that because the abstract nature of it allows you to let go and express yourself freely?

Lorelei: Yes, that’s part of it. With my digital work, I go into a sort of trance. As for my abstract paintings, it’s a different experience.

For them, the process itself is more important than the final result. I enjoy mixing different mediums that wouldn’t typically go together, such as inks, dyes, wall paint, and drippy acrylic paints.

I like observing the chemical reactions and how the paintings come together. Sometimes I lose myself in the process, and it becomes about the transient nature of what it looks like, even if it’s only seen by me.

Zoe: It’s interesting to hear about your creative flow. Other artists have described painting as a mood. For you, it seems like digital art is what triggers that manic trance-like state.

Lorelei: Yes, it’s a sort of manic trance, a different experience altogether.

Zoe: What do you love most about being an artist? If you could pick one thing, or it can be many things?

Lorelei: There are many things I love about being an artist. One thing that comes to mind is having something that is entirely my own in a world of uncertain outcomes.

In many aspects of life, we don’t have control and are dependent on various factors. But as an artist, I have complete control over what I create.

I can build my own world and bring something into existence that has never existed before. Some people say that everything has already been done, even with the advancements of AI.

While AI can produce things that may resemble art, there’s something unique and irreplaceable about human artistry. I believe there are aspects of art that AI will never be able to replicate. I hope that makes sense.

Zoe: I really appreciate hearing different artists’ perspectives on this question. It’s interesting to hear your thoughtful response.

Lorelei: Thank you. I’ve actually thought about this quite a bit, as I’m writing my thesis on it.

Zoe: Does that perspective align with your digital art, especially when you delve into abstract themes? Your body of work is extensive, so it’s challenging to narrow it down. But it seems to relate to the concept of existence and the infinite nature of digital art.

Lorelei: Yes, that’s a great observation. In my digital art, I do explore abstract themes and the infinite possibilities of the digital medium.

It allows me to explore and understand the concept of existence in unique ways.

Zoe: Finally, do you have any major artistic influences? I know you have many, but feel free to mention a few.

Lorelei: I have numerous artistic influences. One of my favorites is the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch.

His work was ahead of its time, surreal, and intricately detailed, creating worlds within worlds.

While not all of my paintings are directly influenced by him, I appreciate capturing the complexity and abundance of detail in certain types of my artwork.

Images from Lorelei’s website

By Zoë Goetzmann

Interview with Anya Mokhova – A Glimpse into Creativity

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we head to West London to the studio of Anya Mokhova (@anya_mokhova). Anya is an artist who creates artwork from tallow, bee’s wax, soap, gold, and brass. With a passion for art history and media experimentation, her work draws on the traditions of fantasy and mythology, seeking to question the boundaries of the notion of existence: and exploring a narrative between the real and the metaphysical.

In this interview, we have a thought-provoking discussion about Anya’s work, her inspirations, authenticity, art world barriers, and its ‘snobbish elitism’ as well as how we can strive to create more of a community in the art world.

Anya Mokhova holds a Graduate Diploma from Chelsea College of Art & Design. She also holds a Master of Arts Degree from Chelsea College of Art & Design. Some of her most notable art exhibitions include: New Japan (exhibited by Solyanka VPA), The Impossible is Inevitable (exhibited at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Centre), MYTHS (shown at the 6th Moscow International Biennale For Young Art Parallel Programme) and How Can one Tell the Artist from Her Art (shown at the 7th Moscow International Biennale For Young Art Parallel Programme). Her solo exhibitions include The Intimacy of Vision (exhibited by CUT CUT Gallery) and In the Depths of Reflection (exhibited at the Regency Town House, Brighton). Her works have also been exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Student Show in 2017.

Currently, she is working on artwork for 4BYSIX –  an organisation which, according to their mission seeks “to bring new life” to “retired London buses.” Through this initiative, 4BYSIX looks for artists to create pieces of art using this recycled material.

Listen to the interview in full via our podcast.

Zoe: Thank you for being here. As always, could you start by telling us your artist’s story? How did you become an artist?

Anya: Thank you for inviting me! So the first thing we’re going to talk about is probably my creative path and how I happened to become an artist.

And as it happens, sometimes with some people, I was just drawing, like from the age of three or four, I was drawing every day.

And that’s what I was enjoying.

Basically, art was my favorite subject in school and kindergarten. So, at some point, as an additional, you know, like courses that you get after school, I applied for an arts school for children. So I was doing that for a few years.

And then at some point, I had to decide on my career path. So as art, at that point in time, seemed very intricate as a profession, so I had to choose something a bit more stable, which was design and architecture.

So that’s how I got my first BA degree, a very classical one from academia. But then I decided that I really wanted to get the contemporary approach to that. So I decided to move to London to study at Chelsea College.

And the first thing I did, I applied for an interior design course. And the director of the course was Peter Stickland.

And he had this particular methodology when you would not design the space with all the layouts and visualizations and images, you would actually create a book with a journey through that space. So everyone was really excited about the conceptual side of that course.

And I decided to go for a master’s. And then during the master’s, with all the fantastic workshops at Chelsea, I really returned to making things by hand, sculpting by hand, working with materials.

And at that point, I just decided that I love to speak and explore ideas about people and the spaces they’re in. But I decided that’s something I want to do through sculpting, through making objects. And that’s how I became an artist.

Zoë: Okay, perfect. And can you walk us through your practice? What is your artistic practice, and what media do you work with?

Anya:

So, yeah, like 12 years ago, I started working with wax. And I found it absolutely fascinating. The way it works with temperature, the way it bends when it’s hot, the way you can actually shape and form it with your hands, especially if you put it in hot water.

I was so excited about that material. And at the same time, I was working with metal, so I started working with brass.

And so 12 years ago, these two materials, which I merged together in one sculpture, became probably the foundation of my practice.

So my practice is very much about having a rigid structure. And for that, I would normally use brass sheets or brass rods.

One thing that I love about being an artist is the ability to create fantastical worlds and immerse myself in another reality.

I enjoy working with materials that can transform and appear as something they are not, like soap resembling marble or tallow resembling marble. It allows me to tell stories that are metaphysical, fantastical, and mysterious.

I often draw inspiration from personal events in my life and connect them to mythology and mythical thinking, where people associated themselves with the forces of nature.

For example, in my current project, I explore the mythological ways animals were mummified or connected to mythical creatures or gods. I mix various cultures in my research, not just European mythology.

As for my upbringing, I was influenced by the close connection to myth in the region I come from, where beliefs in creatures from the forest, fields, mountains, and lakes were still present.

It felt like a complete reality to me as a child. Being an artist allows me to embody different narratives and stories, living out my fantasies through my work.

Zoë: That’s wonderful. It really shows how artists have a unique connection to stories and narratives, allowing them to bring their personal experiences and imagination to life. 

Now, let’s discuss your experience in art school. Were there any positive lessons or aspects you gained from attending art school? And on the flip side, were there any challenges or negative aspects you encountered?

Anya: I thoroughly enjoyed learning and had a great time in art school. The availability of resources like workshops and libraries was fantastic.

I relished the opportunity to dive into them, sometimes waking up at six in the morning to visit the library or spending hours in the workshop.

Another positive aspect was the sense of community. Surrounding myself with like-minded individuals who share a passion for art and creativity was inspiring. It provided a supportive environment where I could explore my thoughts and ideas.

On the negative side, I found my experience with obtaining an academic degree a bit tedious. The focus was mostly on technical aspects, and there were limited opportunities to explore and express creative ideas.

Originality and authenticity were not actively encouraged. However, I still value having that academic foundation and the ability to draw proficiently.

Despite the limitations, art school allowed me to expand my mind and experiment, which I believe is a fundamental aspect of the artistic journey.

Zoë: If you could pick one thing that you like about being an artist – that can be several – what is one thing that you love about being an artist?

Anya: I think it’s about the freedom to be authentic. You don’t have to conform or fit into a certain mold. You can truly be yourself and explore your true self. I find that really cool, and it’s something that’s hard to achieve in other professions, to be honest.

Zoë: It is very hard. Well, I love that you said that. You’re the second person who mentioned that authenticity is key for artists. 

When it comes to your work, how do you find that authenticity?

Anya: I believe it comes through constant experience, just by doing it consistently. Finding your own style, the way you look, the way your work looks, and even the methods you use.

It takes a lot of time and can only be discovered through experimentation. You can’t just sit down and declare, “This is my style.” It evolves through the journey that an artist goes through. In my experience, it has taken many years.

When I started, I used an unusual mix of wax and brass, but as my projects developed, I had to explore and experiment with more materials and techniques.

Over the years, through all these projects, I’ve refined and defined my style. But it’s always a constant process of growth and change.

Zoë: Definitely. And, what is one thing you with people knew about what it was like to be an artist about your the experience of being an artist? 

Anya: What I think I think people should really understand is that artists do need support. I’m not talking about just financial things, you know, but actually, sometimes hearing a good word about your work, not being criticized… being supported.

I mean, it’s really nice to hear that what you’re doing – somebody likes that.

And of course, artists, we work from our hearts.

So it’s very sad to hear when somebody’s criticizing your work.

Zoë: Do you have any insights or advice for other emerging artists or people just starting out, about how to navigate the different levels?

Anya: I definitely have some advice for young, emerging artists. To be honest, I always want to emphasize the importance of staying true to yourself.

Building a career as an artist takes time, it’s impossible to become a famous, popular artist who exhibits in galleries and art fairs in just one or two years. You need time to find your own artistic language.

Zoë: And as for your day-to-day practice, because you also work as an educator, how do you balance the artistic and business aspects of your work? How do you manage your day-to-day activities?

Anya: Well, what I do is I try to plan everything out. But the majority of my day is actually spent on communication rather than making art.

I spend time finding projects, applying for grants, competitions, and opportunities. The best part is when I get those opportunities.

I also enjoy working out the logistics, calculating how much I need to spend on materials and organizing everything. I love planning, drawing on my wall, and putting things in order.

But when it comes to the actual creation process, I don’t do everything by hand.

I rely on communication with production sites and places where I can order materials or get work done for me.

So, the majority of my day is spent on the phone or on my laptop. That’s the reality of the job.

Zoë: Is there any other advice that you would give to an artist just starting out and embarking aside from staying true to yourself? 

Anya: Experiment. I think that I did find my artistic voice simply because people easily recognize when the work is mine.

Even if it’s made from different materials, they start knowing easily that this is done as work.

So I think this is something that tells me that probably found my voice.

By Zoë Goetzmann 

Artist Spotlight – Interview with James Robert Morrison

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we head down to James Robert Morrison’s studio in southeast London. Born in Elgin, Scotland, James is an artist whose artwork stems from personal experience. 

The artist aims to reflect on the pivotal experience of discovering an individual’s sexuality and the journey that they must take when it comes to understanding, accepting, and valuing it. 

His pencil and cigarette paper, or ‘Fag Series’, entitled ‘There’s Never More Than a Fag Paper Between Them’, engages directly with the subject matter through which he depicts and captures LGBTQ plus couples and intimate yet tender moments. 

In this interview, we speak all about his process, his delicate drawn creations, representation, queer artistic perspective,  working in the commercial gallery and government art sectors, as well as how emerging artists can build and shape their professional careers.

You can listen to the full interview on our podcast here.

Zoë: Thank you, James, for being here and taking the time to speak with me.

James: Yeah, thanks. No problem. It’s nice to have you.

Zoë: I’m so excited because we’ve known each other through art world events, and I really admire your work. I got to see your previous work, so I’m excited to speak about where you are now. 

So, to delve in, I like to start each interview by asking about an artist’s story. Essentially, how did you get into this career? How did you choose to become an artist? 

James: So both my sister and I are kind of the creative people in our family. She’s two years older than me, and we’re also very close. I think growing up, she kind of encouraged me to be creative.

Then in primary school, an art teacher must have said to me, “You know, you’re good at drawing or something.” When someone tells you that you’re good at something that you actually like doing, it kind of makes it even better.

So then in secondary school, I studied art. I chose to do Scotland standard grade, which is like GCSE, and I also did higher, which is like A-level, which I really enjoyed.

They were also really encouraging. I knew I wanted to go to university, and I knew it was art school I wanted to go to, but I don’t think I ever said out loud to anyone that I wanted to be an artist.

I probably said graphic designer because there were more job opportunities and my mom would have been less concerned about me being a graphic designer than an artist.

Then I went off to study straight from high school and did my degree in Fine Art at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen. In Scotland, it’s slightly different than London.

So your first year, you do kind of everything: painting, sculpture, printmaking, graphic design, textiles, and product design.

Then at the end of the first year, you specialize in something for the next three years. For me, I’d always wanted to do painting. The painting course is the most popular, and you might not get it, but luckily, I got it. I did painting for three years.

When I finished, I knew I wanted to do an MA in London at one of the big schools. So I had a difficult final year; I couldn’t really make what I wanted to make in my head. Even on the last day of the final show, I was still making a painting, which ended up being the most popular one. I got the 2:1 I needed to do the MA, and in the summer, I basically phoned around to ask if anyone had spaces.

Central Saint Martins did, so I went there, did my MA for a year, had a great time. When that finished and I graduated, I just came back to the studio.

I don’t come from a wealthy family that could help me or support me to be an artist. Within a month of completing my MA, I was basically signing on the dole here because I had no money. Then I just had to find a job basically.

For the next 17 years, I worked in the museums and galleries sector. It was only in 2019 that I was in a position where I could go part-time and go back into the studio and start my practice again. It’s been a long and difficult journey.

I would have loved to have been an artist straight out, but it just wasn’t possible for me then.

I had to pay debts and I couldn’t find a way to do it, really. And maybe I was too young anyway.

And you know, I just wanted to have fun really, I don’t think I would have taken it so seriously. But you know, but 44 this year and I think coming back to this in later life, I take it much more seriously and try harder.

Zoë: Okay, can you talk about your artistic practice? It can be how it’s changed or progressed… Maybe your influences?

James: I’ll maybe go broad because there are two key elements in my work.

The first is personal experiences and subject matter, and the second is the referencing and reappropriation of a personal archive of gay pornography that I collected during my teenage years. I knew I was gay at the time (13-14 years old), but I didn’t come out until 2021.

Back then, things weren’t as acceptable, and there was little representation of being gay in mainstream media. Most of it was negative, like the AIDS pandemic.

These magazines were the only place I could see representations of intimacy between two men, which I craved to see. I started making work about my sexuality in my final year of university, but I didn’t have much to say other than “I am gay.”

Going back to it 17 years later, I want to normalize non-heteronormative identities and make work that has a nostalgic narrative to it. I’m working with material from my teenage years, and I want to fill that void of positive queer representation that I and many others didn’t have in our formative years. I do this through three series: “Never More Than a Cigarette Paper Between Them,” which is drawings of male gay couples being intimate in domestic settings, taken from and referenced from pornography. It has been ongoing for a while now.

I also do a series called “Ghosts Within Me,” which uses pages from pornography magazines. I discovered that I could erase the image of the model with a Mars eraser and embroider the figure from the other side.

It’s playing on the idea of what a person conceals or reveals, and the images look like ghosts. This series is about how I concealed my true sexuality growing up, and my true self was like a ghost living within me.

The third series is paintings that haven’t been exhibited yet, which marries imagery from paper clothes patterns and porn magazines. I’m deconstructing my past decision to protect and cover myself by not being open about my sexuality.

Embroidery plays a significant role in my work, like masturbation or sex. It’s repetitive, emotional, and physically enduring. You’re going in and out of the canvas or linen. Embroidery also has a link to clothes because you can stitch clothes.

Zoë: Okay, well, I’m going to the next question. So, if you could tell me, what is the least favorite part of being an artist or of the art world, and you can try to be as careful as you can or not. 

James: I struggle with art speak. When I was studying and we had contextual studies and things in theory and stuff that I was like way out of my depth, and I had no idea what it meant. I really struggled.

You know, I went to art school thinking, I’m just going to be doing art, not writing and dissertations are quite difficult.

I also find it quite hard to write about my work. It’s taken me a long time to get my artist statement where I wanted it to be, but I persevered and got there, but it took a long time.

So yeah, I find exhibition descriptions and even artwork descriptions sometimes are written in such a way that it’s just above my head, and it must be above many other people’s heads. And I don’t know why they do that. It’s kind of strange.

They like to make it sound more intellectual than it is, or I think. If I’m going to see a show, if I can find a curator talk or an artist talk about the show, I will go to that.

Because I always get so much more from that if it’s the artist or the curator talking about the work to me, rather than reading it on a panel. And it’s just, I think people speak differently than how they write sometimes.

I’ve been told that before that, you know, if you didn’t find an application, speak it out yourself and write it down. Because I’ve been told sometimes that when I speak about something, it’s much more exciting than when I write about it.

So, I think yeah, just it puts people off a bit and yeah, people that are already afraid of contemporary art because they don’t understand it. And then if you try and read a label to understand it, and it’s not written in a language that you kind of understand.

Zoë: Okay, but maybe going into that what advice – artist-to-artist – what advice would you give to up-and-coming artists? 

James: Yeah. I think the main thing is, I don’t think there are many artists out there who make a living just from their artwork, so you’re probably going to have to have a part-time job.

If it’s related to the art world, it might help with pay, as well as definitely help. So you’re probably going to be splitting two, which is good, but difficult as well.

I have found that difficult for the past few years because, you know, that’s not my studio days. Monday, Tuesday, I’ve been in the studio that weekend as well. And, you know, by Tuesday, I’m getting really into what I’m doing, and then I have to stop and then I have to become Government Art Collection James and then do that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, then I got really into that, and then I have to stop that and then have to go back to the Norris gym.

So it feels a bit like you’re kind of leading two different lives, and you try not to let them overlap. But sometimes it does.

You know, sometimes I have to swap days if there’s something big happening at the art collection. I might have to go in on a Monday or Tuesday to be part of it. And other times, sometimes I have to deliver stuff from exhibitions or pick stuff up on a Friday or a Wednesday or Thursday, and then I have to try and swap stuff around.

So yeah, that’s quite difficult. But then you get used to it as well.

Zoë: How do you balance between these two lives? And do you have any other advice for artists?

James: I think it depends on what you want. You know, I mean, what do you want? Do you want this to be your main career? Are you just making some work and selling it on the side or so it really depends on what you want.

But you have to work hard you know, you get back what you put in. I think even with materials, and it’s not always easy, but always buy the best materials you can afford.

And if you work on paper, always get the best frames you could afford. And get them done by a proper framer, don’t just go to IKEA and buy an Ikea frame. Get your work professionally photographed.

If you can’t do it yourself, find someone, ask around your studio, there’s usually someone that does. I think you have to present it the best way possible and use the the best kind of materials you can I think you have to be confident in your work as well.

Because if you’re not that confident in what you’re doing, I think it’s a big ask to ask other people to be confident in what you’re doing. And talk to other artists. You know, I’ve always been a bit afraid to do that.

But over this past kind of year or so, I’ve put myself out there and just asked people something I want to ask them, and I’ve never had a negative reaction, or been ignored, you know, so I think other artists are supportive of each other as just maybe how you approach in covering understanding, you know, someone might be busy doing work and make them work for a new show or something, but they’ll probably tell you that anyway.

And they might find a time to speak to them. But you can always ask people, you know, if someone asks me anything, I’ll try and help if I can. You know, we’re all in the same boat, and we should kind of be supportive of each other.

I think if you want don’t sit in your studio waiting to kind of be discovered because it’s not going to happen.

Go and see shows that other artists are making, it’s good to see what other people are doing. Network.

You know, this is if you’re like me, I’m quite awkward, that kind of thing. And I don’t like to. But, you know, a lot of the time that seems to be who you know, and not what you know.

So it is probably worthwhile getting out there and talking to people and getting to know people and you know, trying to find common ground, but it’s time as well.

You know, sometimes you don’t have time to go out to these things. But apparently, it helps. And, and this is a good one, which like I never really thought of this like but it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint, you know, most artists are in it for the long term.

Zoë: I think I think those are perfect. Thank you so much, James for taking the time, it’s been such an in-depth discussion. 

By Zoë Goetzmann 

Interview with Mia Hawk – Pop Art Illustrative Artist

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we stopped by artist Mia Hawk’s (@miaskyhawk) studio in South London.

Mia is a full-time artist who works in a variety of mediums and artistic disciplines, from hyper-realist paintings to surrealist, pop-art illustrative works and designs.

In this interview, we delve into many different topics, including social media, the art world of Instagram, the female vs. male gaze, how Mia balances both the entrepreneurial and creative sides of her artistic business and career, mental health, as well as, her multi-disciplinary approach to creating her bold, expressive, imaginative (often funny and/or humorous) works whether they be fine art, digital prints, or silk-screened creations.

You can find (and see) Mia, her artwork, and her designs in person at Canopy Market in London, where she will be showing her artworks in an exhibition in October 2023. She will also exhibit her works at Ruby’s Rooms in Hastings next month.

Zoë: Thank you so much, Mia, for being here with us today.

Mia: Thank you, it’s really exciting!

Zoë: So, the first question we’ll delve into is your artist story. Can you tell us how you became an artist, the journey that you took to get to this profession or just your art career?

Mia: I think I always knew I wanted to be some sort of creative when I was growing up. That was never a question.

However, I never thought I would end up as an artist or a painter. When I was a kid, I used to draw just for fun. My best friend and I used to draw Pokemons and watch Disney films when it rained, which was quite often since it rains a lot where I’m from.

My first choice was actually to become an actor because I had watched so many films growing up, and I was completely lost in the amazing worlds that people had created.

So, I pursued the Norwegian equivalent to acting A-levels and then got into a UK drama school that focused on actor-musicianship. I went there for three years, graduated, and then worked as an actor.

However, while I was in between acting jobs, I was doing a soul-destroying market research job where I had to take down verbatim what the client was saying. I started doodling in my notepad in between because it was so boring.

I realised it was kind of fun, and I used to draw, so I started making these little characters that would look really cool on a t-shirt. I taught myself how to screen print t-shirts, and that became a bit of a hobby.

I started doing more illustrations and thought to myself, “why don’t I sell this to the market? Maybe I can do a side hustle doing this.” So that’s kind of how it started, and then I started selling at markets for about five to six years.

Around 2014, I was doing some quite long, big acting jobs, and I realized that I was putting every penny I earned into this art business. By that point, I had probably been drawing again for four or five years, and I had started painting more figurative art.

My painting journey was really evolving, and it wasn’t just small, fun animal drawings anymore. It was big figurative pieces, and I started moving into my hyperrealism.

I was like, “Wow, it’s kind of a lot having two careers. Why don’t I just go into the art thing and see how that is? I can always pick up acting if I don’t want to do it anymore.”

So, I went full-time artist, mainly going through an independent route.

All the commission work and all the stuff that I do mainly comes through social media, people that have met me at markets. It’s kind of just evolved since then.

During the pandemic, I delved into animal art, and I got loads of commission work doing bird art pieces, and that became a thing. Then I started Patreon for that. Last year, I had a big shift, moving away from the hyperreal animal stuff into more of what I’m doing now.

Now, my business is doing craft fairs, having a couple of big commission works on the go, selling through social media, and doing art fairs every so often.

But, my journey has been independent… And I’d also add I’m an introvert, but I’ve got a very extroverted energy, so when I’m passionate about something, it just explodes outwards.

Zoë: So, you are a full-time artist. Before we go into your art practice, did you go to art school?

Mia: No, I didn’t go to art school.

Zoë: That’s interesting. So, how did you practice? What was your routine when you first started drawing or painting? Aside from when you were a child, how did that work? Or when you decided to make this jump into art, how did you set up your learning practice?

Mia: I think it was very much interest-driven. So, at first, it was about getting together stuff for a business. And then, it was very much interest-driven. Like, “Oh, I really want to create something specific.”

When I was learning how to do portraits, for example, it was very much like, “Oh, I have this idea for a portrait. I don’t know how to paint hair. I need to learn how to paint hair.”

Then, I had to buy lots of books. In terms of having a practice, I grew up playing music, and I learned how to be disciplined. It gave me a really good understanding of how to get good at something. It’s basically practice and learning, having a good basis of understanding.

Actually, I would say one of my biggest weaknesses is that I’m not that great at drawing. I’m not as good as I want to be. It takes me a long time to do a good drawing, but I’m very good at painting. It’s very funny.

Like, painting, I really get along with it. Drawing can be difficult for me, and it takes me a long time to get my head around it.

But because I played in brass bands growing up, and they were very good, there was an understanding that if you want to get good, you’ve got to practice every day, and you’ve got to do your scales, you’ve got to do your warm-up.

So you’ve got to do everything. You can’t just wish that you’re good at something; you’ve got to put in the work. I think I applied quite a lot of the same mentalities that I learned from playing an instrument.

Yes, it does take a long time. For me, it takes about five years to consistently practice something to get intermediate to very good at it.

You’ve got to put in the 10,000 hours or whatever it is, but that also gave me the understanding of if I really want to learn this, then I’ll be able to do it.

It’s not a matter of necessarily having a specific talent. I would say my talent lies more in having vision, being a good visionary person, and composing and storytelling.

Zoë: Can you say what you love most about being an artist, if you could pick one thing?

Mia: It’s definitely like you feel like there’s an overload of inspiration. So, it’s just the feeling of possibility, like, “Oh my God, wouldn’t it be cool if we’re like, ‘Oh, that would be really fun!'” Or, seeing things that you have as an idea in your head coming to real life can be quite an amazing experience.

The creative process can be very frustrating, but it can also be incredibly pleasurable. When you have one of those paintings where everything just flows, it’s a really amazing experience.

So, I think that’s a very positive thing about the practice. The second thing I would say – you said one, but I’ll give you two – is when you find someone who loves your paintings, or when you’re doing commissioned work, and they just love it because you connect with people on what they love. If they really connect with your painting or what you

Zoë: I think that’s great, though. I mean, that’s what Cosimo is, it’s a little bit more independent. We’re making our own bridges. That’s why.

Mia: That’s fantastic. I love that. I guess I’ve never really felt like I connect with the art world in the same way that maybe other people do.

Because I didn’t go the art school route, it feels a bit foreign to me. It can feel unapproachable at times. I try to network by going to openings at least once or twice a month, but that’s not a lot. It takes a lot of time running your own business – so, it can be difficult.

For me, the art world can feel a bit unapproachable at times. I find it difficult because, like it does take a lot of time running your own business.

So, you know, things like things that I need to be better at, for example, like networking, like I try and go to like openings and stuff and I try to go out and see at least like once or twice a month.

That’s not a lot… But you know, it’s it’s kind of like what I can manage on top of my already like huge workload and I also need to actually have a life!

And I think I think I maybe lack a bit of knowledge, because I’m perhaps like a lot of artists…we’re good at the creating, and it’s perhaps more difficult to relate to some of the galleries.

I find it difficult but haven’t really put that much effort into it either, to find where I fit into it, because if I can do things myself, I will try and go that way. I just want to show my work to people. And it was really that simple.

Zoë: I think that’s great. That’s the freedom of doing it yourself, which is the benefit of being independent… Do you have any advice for other people who are starting out as artists or who might be thinking about it as an option?

Mia: Like, don’t do it unless you can do it. Like, it’s not an easy journey. It’s not an easy life, and you sacrifice a lot of things. So, don’t do it unless you can’t not do it. Unless that drive is there.

Zoë: Okay. Do you have any advice for emerging artists going into this career path with the hope of becoming a full-time artist?

Mia: My advice is to read up on business, and understand that running your own business takes a lot of work. Sacrifices have to be made, but if you have the drive and the passion for it, it’s worth it.

Zoë: I think that’s good. Yeah. No, I thought it was more like don’t do it. I thought you were talking about like a part-time job, like a half-time job. I thought it was like an economic also an economic thing. Probably, whoa, I like Okay, so this, I always have this need to create, create because you love it. Yeah. And…

Mia: Then. So it’s that, I mean, the thing is, there isn’t a straight-up answer because everyone has, like, probably the best advice is to understand that you are going to have to find your own way through this.

And, and it’s going to be a combination of things. So obviously, what your style is, where does that fit in? Where’s your audience?

Like what business model works best for you? Like some people don’t like selling in person. I find it exhausting. But I also like it, for example, I like being on social media, I like talking to people, sharing, you know, so that really works really well for me.

Some people it might be art licensing, and that works really well for their style and their business. And they’re gonna get, you know, some people it might be selling stickers online, or whatever, you know, because they know how to hack that.

And they’ve got that. And so it is really and some people it’s going to be getting into a gallery, some people it’s going to be doing a lot of commissions because that’s what they love to do. So it is really like kind of exploring things, seeing what you are comfortable with.

And kind of for me that like a lot of this with the new style was me also realizing that, you know, I’ve got to work with my own energy, which isn’t actually to sit still and do a lot of detail work.

And I need to actually create art that more reflects how I work as a person. Also, like, yeah, consistency, probably be consistent in the things that you do.

When you try things, try it a few times, not just once, because you never know, especially with markets, you might have a good day, you might have a bad day, you never know until you’ve done a few how it’s going to be.

I would say don’t be afraid to try something else if one thing isn’t working. Like, don’t get so stuck up on one idea that that’s how it’s going to go through that you know that it that you’re afraid to give up almost like I’ve changed styles, I’ve changed tactics so many times.

Sometimes maybe that was a bad idea. Sometimes it was definitely a good idea… Just have integrity I would say.

Zoë: That’s helpful. Is there anything specific that you would like to highlight or focus on?

Mia: Yeah, I mean, I now, as many people do after the pandemic, suspect that I might be neurodivergent. I don’t know because obviously, I don’t have a diagnosis and it’s a very long waiting list to see.

But I’ve always had certain issues with my mental health that have been very perplexing to me that are now falling into place.

And now that I understand myself better, I’m creating ways of doing things that are making my life so much easier. For example, changing my art style into something that goes with my energy more, so that I don’t have to sit still for five hours to do one painting, for example, has been massive for me.

That’s been really, really positive. I know, for example, that I need to keep exploring and always pushing things forward. So that’s one reason why I created this style, to accommodate my need to keep exploring.

So, my advice would be – and this is what I’m working on at the moment and which I think, if I understood this a bit further a lot before, probably would have made my life a lot easier – try not to focus your practice on outcomes.

I don’t wait like, “Oh, my life is going to be solved when I get that big exhibition” or “when that big exhibition happens, that’s all I’m working towards” or “that acclaim” or “that whatever it is”.

It’s like put your effort into keeping the system going, if that makes sense?

Whether that means, okay, have I had my daily or weekly website checkup? How’s my social media doing?

And also scheduling in things like, “Remember to have fun. Have you painted anything fun recently?”

It’s very much like creating a system that supports you is what I’m working on. And instead of working towards a big show, it’s like I’m creating habits where the byproduct will be a big show, or where the byproduct will be having enough paintings for an art fair or where the byproduct will be networking enough to…

Like that’s where I’m putting my focus, rather than achieving things, if that makes sense.

Zoë: That’s such great advice, well thank you, Mia. This has been a really good in-depth conversation.

Mia: You’re so welcome. Thank you!

By Zoë Goetzmann

Interview with Fiona G Roberts – Inspiring Art Journey

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we visit artist Fiona G Roberts’ studio located in Bank at The Koppel Project in London.

In this interview (which you can listen to in full here) we delve into a variety of topics ranging from her latest body of work, women artists, as well as gender inequality in the art world (running through the statistics as well as the stagnant two percent of top-tier female artists who sell at art auction).

Fiona G. Roberts holds an MA in Painting from Wimbledon College of Arts – University of the Arts London where she received the Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship.

She completed two years at the Turps Banana Painting School (2019-2021). She has participated in multiple group shows in London and in the U.K., including Dentons Art Prize Exhibition, 2018, Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize Exhibition, 2018-2019 (Runner-up and Winner of Staff Prize), ING Discerning Eye, 2020, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, 2021, ‘We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On’ at Aleph Contemporary, London, 2021, ‘Two Doors’ at Tart Gallery, Winners: Award Winning Artists, Mall Galleries, London, 2022.

She was also shortlisted for the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize 2021 and the 2021 Figurative Art Now Exhibition where she was awarded a Mentorship Prize.

Zoë: Thank you so much for being here, Fiona. I was excited to delve into your work. I love sitting in the studios and looking at everyone’s paintings.

To kick things off, can you tell me about your artist story? Essentially, what was the journey that led you to becoming an artist?

Fiona: I think the honest answer is, I’ve probably always been an artist. I think if you’re an artist, you’re just compelled to make things and to do things and to make art.

And so I’ve always done that, really. And it was the thing that made me happiest as a kid or even throughout my whole life, really.

But my parents thought that going to art school wasn’t a great idea. So I did other things first.

My first degree was from the London School of Economics, and I did another degree after that.

From there, I went to Goldsmiths, actually. And then I was a research fellow and academic research fellow and a teacher. So I’ve done lots of things.

But all the time, I was building up my art practice. I never stopped doing art. I was always making art. And eventually, I did my MA in painting at Wimbledon, University of the Arts, London.

That was in 2016. I got a scholarship to do that, which was really brilliant. And I graduated in 2016. Then I launched myself as an artist after that.

Zoë: Can you tell me a little bit about your paintings and your practice?

Fiona: Sure. So, I’ll tell you about the practical aspects first. I work in quite a broad variety of mediums, mainly oils on board or canvas, sometimes on perspex.

I also use acrylics sometimes. And I also use inks quite a bit. And whatever I’m doing, whether it’s with across all those mediums, I’m doing the similar thing, really, which is sanding down the medium and using lots of layers.

So I’m building up layers, and yeah, lots of watery layers. Although the medium is quite different, I’m doing the same thing.

Zoë: Where did that thinking and process go from that this intention to do that sort of technique?

Fiona: I think it’s just something, if I’m honest, that has developed over the years. You know, a lot of art is about trial and error. In fact, so much of it is trial and error.

And actually, a lot of the breakthroughs that I’ve had in my art practice have come through errors. What you might see as errors, but they’ve actually been something that I want to keep because I think, “Oh, actually, that’s a breakthrough. It’s really worked.

It’s really good, but it was unintentional.” So I think it came from just years of doing things, and I realized that’s what I liked the best. So from that really.

Zoë: Can you tell us a bit about your artistic journey? Were you always interested in painting and were there any particular styles or mediums that you experimented with?

Fiona: Yes, I’ve been interested in drawings and paintings my whole life. I experimented with different styles and mediums, but a lot of it depended on practicalities.

For example, when I became a mom, I couldn’t use oil paints anymore because of the toxicity of the thinners and other chemicals. So, I switched to acrylics, which are much less toxic.

And when I didn’t have a studio, I went back to my drawings or worked on smaller pieces. As a woman artist, you have to be flexible and adapt to your circumstances.

Zoë: Speaking of women, can you talk about the subject matter of your work? I’m looking at the piece behind me, which reminds me of the title “Start Here”. Can you describe any of your works and the themes behind them?

Fiona: Well, as you can see, some of them aren’t gender-specific. That’s true, but a lot of them are women. And I’m fascinated by the human condition, by how the world is navigated and negotiated through emotions, and by what it’s like to be a woman in the world.

I often work in series, and in this latest one, most of the subjects have red hair. This is because my mother and brother-in-law both died recently, and they both had red hair.

Since their deaths, I’ve been compulsively making paintings of people with red hair, without even realizing it until my husband pointed it out to me. I think a lot of artists work subconsciously like that, with a compulsion to create.

It’s only afterward that you realize what you were doing. I think sometimes I’m conveying emotions or working through them, sharing them.

The latest series is about that, but they’re not specific portraits of my mother or brother-in-law. They could be seen as portraits of emotions or, as the arts writer Paul Carey-Kent wrote about my recent show, “non-portraits of real people.”

They’re about loss, grief, remembering, and emotions. Does that make sense?

Zoë: When you look at figurative painting, it’s not so much a trend, but it’s what I’ve found with artists. They really understand that it’s an extension of the self.

It’s a perfect expression, drawing somebody else, but even if you’re drawing someone else, it has your own sense of identity because it’s your interpretation of that person.

But it’s also in your memory, so it does make sense. It’s not coined your own phrase, but it’s an observation of humanity.

Fiona: That’s right. And the other thing is, well, that’s just made me think about Oscar Wilde, who said that every portrait painted with feeling is really a portrait of the artist.

And also, although they’re about individual feelings and emotions, because those emotions are universal, we all go through them, like grief.

So there’s a kind of universality to it that I hope people will recognize and relate to. It’s not just about me and from me, but it’s something that’s universal that others can relate to as well.

Zoë: For the bonus questions that we do for Cosimo, it’s all about making art accessible, reaching out to emerging artists, and we like to have artists’ insights for any artists listening, or for patrons or collectors as well.

What do you love most about being an artist? If you can pick one, it can be several, but if you can pick one.

Fiona: Just making the art, just making the work. I love it. I’m compelled to do it. And when it goes well, it’s the best feeling in the world.

But when it goes badly, which happens a lot, it’s the opposite. So just making the work, solving those problems and seeing what emerges on the canvas.

Zoë: Has art always been a form of therapy for you, or is it just more recent with this recent work?

We’ve done a lot of things about memory and nostalgia, and it’s interesting. It really is like this sense of a symbiotic relationship that one artist wants to impart between artist and viewer, that they have their own subjective ideas about what the story of the painting is and what trauma or nostalgia it invokes.

Fiona: As an artist, I don’t think I ever for a minute thought of it like that. It was just something I liked doing. There’s something so meditative about it, and it takes you into a different space of thinking.

And when you’re making the work, you can’t think of all those other things. So, in a way, there’s something a bit Zen, a bit meditative about it.

But I never thought, “This is therapy.” I just feel compelled to make it. If there’s some sort of therapy there, then that’s great, but it was never my intention.

However, we know that art therapy exists for a reason, so maybe it comes together somehow.

Zoë: Yeah. And with artistic influences. This goes back to still art making, or we can go with what you love about them.

Do you draw from any? It’s okay, don’t worry about it. Yeah. I’m trying to draw from any artistic influences, or do you have any? Did you have any inspiration?

Fiona: Yeah, I mean, obviously, as an artist, I’m fascinated by our history. I mean, my daughter when she was little, she said, ‘Please, mommy, no more art galleries.’

We were constantly looking at art. I suppose, off the top of my head, Marlene Dumas. Love her work, especially her inks, but also her oils as well. I mean, she’s an amazing female artist.

Alice Neel. Fantastic. I mean, just beautiful. And again, a female artists – both doing similar subjects to me… Chantal Joffe, I mean, I adore her work. She’s just amazing.

Zoë: Why did you focus on women as subjects, or do you have any other things that really make you compelled to be, and not just because you’re a woman?

Fiona: Again, it’s because it’s so instinctive, it’s really difficult to answer that. But I think that’s a good thing. We maybe already answered it in that I just feel compelled to do that as what I want to do.

I don’t really, you know, to keep kind of in touch with like to be authentic, I almost don’t want to analyze it too much. I just want to do it. You’ve got to kind of be in touch with yourself and just do what you want to. I found a book that I made when I was 12, and it was kind of similar things.

I was doing it then. I mean, I have done other, I’ve done landscapes, and I’ve done, you know, I’ve done all sorts of things over the years. But I come back to this. It’s just, it’s what I want to do mostly. And that’s it. It’s sort of as simple as that, I think.

I really believe that. You’ve got to be authentic. The best art, I think, is the most relatable art when you are authentic and you’re just in touch with what you want to do, and you’re doing it because you want to do it.

Yeah. And that’s it. You shut everything else out because nothing else matters. So this is where I want to be doing this if I was with a gallery or not with a gallery, if I was paid or not paid.

I would be doing this.” I honestly think it’s pointless unless you’re going to be authentic. That’s what I feel, that’s true. It’s taken me a while to acknowledge that and realize that, but I think it’s absolutely vital.

Zoë: Did you find, as you’ve gone through your career as an artist, that the best thing to do is to make work that you love?

Did you ever fall into trends that you said, “I have to sell?” Or do I have to be pressured by people to do that? Certainly, that’s part of the journey.

Fiona: It’s very easy to say, but it’s not always easy to stay authentic. Yeah, it’s all part of the journey, and at various times, you have to be flexible and do things that maybe you wouldn’t want to do, really, but you might be part of a course you’re doing, might be part of what a gallery wants you to do, or you might be influenced by what other people are doing.

And all those things are fairly valid parts of your artistic journey. You have to do them sometimes. But at the end of the day, the best work comes when it’s just from the heart.

Zoë: And so however you would like, what would maybe be your least favorite thing about, let’s say, the art world? If you can, you can take care of a few.

Fiona: I think we touched on it already. And I think it’s the sexism, you know, the inequality. When I was doing my Masters, part of that was to do a project and give a presentation about sexism in the art world.

As someone who is quite switched on about things like that, because I went to LSE and I’ve done research, I was even shocked at how bad it is. You know, there have been some inroads, but there are some terrible statistics about how bad it is in the art world.

Even now, I’m not talking about 50 years ago. In art schools, women make up 60 or 70% of art students, way outnumbering men. So they’re quite happy to take our money for that. But when we’re out in the world, our participation is hugely reduced.

We’re only in far fewer shows and have far less representation in galleries. I was looking at some figures the other day. The National Gallery, which has 2,000 works, has only 21 by women.

Yeah. In all the top galleries, those with the big owners, we make up only 7% of art in top galleries. And there are just some horrific figures, really.

For example, when we have artists represented by commercial galleries, in Europe and North America, only 13.7% of living artists are women. This isn’t the past; this was from last year.

Zoë: I think it’s still 2% that make up the top tier art market. Yeah, I don’t think that statistic…

Fiona: Yes, 2%… We know sexism is everywhere but I would honestly say it’s worse in the arts than in all the other things that I’ve done.

And I tried to work that out. I tried to kind of think, why would that be? And I think it’s because in the arts, we’re not used to quantifying things and counting things.

Yeah, if you worked in a bank, you could say, there are X number of women in this bank and X number on the board, and we need to change that. It’s not fair. You can count them. It’s very specific. It’s very easy to do. And in fact, it’s done in the banking world.

They probably haven’t achieved parity, but they try to. In the arts, they can get away with saying, “Well, it’s a meritocracy. It’s, you know, they’re just not good enough. It’s all subjective.” It’s like, “I don’t like their work”. There’s no objective measure.

And that system is open to abuse. And indeed, it is abused. Otherwise, why are we making up 60 or 70% of the art schools and then getting just crumbs when we come out?

The system is very difficult to police because it’s so open. Of course, you can argue that it needs to be open; it’s about creativity.

Yes, of course, we need to be open, but I think we could take it seriously. We could put measures in place to make it better for women.

It’s not just about sexism, but there’s racism, and we should be trying to achieve parity, thinking about it and working towards it. I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m not saying we’re going to do it overnight.

Zoë: Is there any advice that you can impart on any aspiring or emerging artists who are making this decision to choose this career path?

Fiona: On a practical level, I’d probably say you’re probably going to need a day job unless you have family money. Seriously, you need to have a roof over your head and food to eat.

So, having a day job is a good idea. Then the advice I think, be true to yourself. It takes time. You’re in it for the long haul. It’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon, and you’re going to change along the way.

Try to be true to yourself. Don’t be too hard on yourself, try to have self-confidence in your work, at least, if nothing else, just believe in your work.

It’s your work, it’s come from your heart. So, have confidence in what you’re making. Don’t think too much about whether your work will get into a particular gallery or show.

If you do that, you’ll lose your authenticity, and that’s really important to make meaningful work for yourself and others. Just believe in yourself and don’t give up.

Zoë: Okay, great. That’s encouraging to know. Is that all for this project?

Fiona: Yes, just for the next few months. More to come. Thank you so much, Zoë, for having this discussion. It’s been great.

Zoë: Super, thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.

By Zoë Goetzmann

Interview with Caitlin Flood Molyneux – Pop Art

 

This week on Cosimo Studio Tours, we are incredibly excited to present a special podcast episode and interview with artist Caitlin Flood-Molyneux (@floodmolyneuxart) which we recorded after the artist’s first solo show in London, Suspended in Time (April 3 – April 9) at Fitzrovia Gallery. 

In this interview, we speak about Caitlin’s ‘Artist Story,’ the artist’s process, the curation of the show, Pop Art and DADA inspirations as well as the healing power of art. 

Caitlin was included in our list of “Highly Commended Artists” for the Cosimo Art Competition in 2022. The artist is a contemporary Welsh Artist residing in South Wales. Their practice delves into the relationship between pop culture imagery, memory, and nostalgia. Through Caitlin’s work, it is important to the artist that audiences develop their own subjective opinions: forming their own symbiotic relationships with the artwork. In this way, audiences establish a sense of personal self-reflection: reconciling with past trauma and hardships.

Caitlin Flood-Molyneux holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts Degree from Cardiff Metropolitan University (also Bergen Academy of Art and Design). The artist also holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from Cardiff Metropolitan University. Flood-Molyneux has exhibited in group exhibitions in the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, and Japan. 

Zoe: So, we’re sitting in Fitzrovia Gallery after the launch of your first solo show in London. Congratulations! It’s such a lovely show, and we’re sitting with all your works as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.

Caitlin: Thank you for inviting me!

Zoe: You’ve been a great support with Cosimo – we’ve loved showing your work and everything. And we had your work also in the highly commended list of artists for our competition last year.

Caitlin: Which was fantastic, and I was really honored to be featured on that. So thank you as well!

Zoe: So, there are going to be some questions about the show from last night… but we’re interested also in your artist’s story. So can you kind of delve into what your artist’s story is? Tell me about that journey.

Caitlin: So my story is, when I was younger, I always painted. My mum was always encouraging me to paint as a young child, and I hated school. It was really hard for me to even be in school; I just hated it. And she saw something in me and she loved art herself.

And she said, “You know, go to art college.” She pushed me; she was like, “Go to college.” And that’s where things really kicked off. I started to delve deep into graphic design and then exploring printmaking and screen printing.

I carried on to do a foundation degree in art and design, which I really enjoyed. And I then went on to do an artist designed to make a course. But it was so, it was more products and making tables, stuff like that, and ceramics.

And at the time, I thought maybe it would be more of a job opportunity-wise; it would be a better course. But then in my second year, I figured out that, no, I want to be a fine artist.

I was very ambitious when I was in my foundation degree, making these really large, abstract pieces. And then I went into my second year and went to Norway for Erasmus.

And I did my second year out in Norway, where I then expressed myself through more collage-based work. I met artist Dexter Dalwood, who was just really inspiring.

And he gave me the confidence then to say, “No, just do what you want to do, paint what you want to paint.” And then I went back into my third year, then did my masters, and yeah, here I am!

Zoe: Yeah, there’s so much travel as well, but always the best and always good influences. That makes sense. What kind of work did your mum do when she was doing art?

Caitlin: Very bright, abstract work, very landscape-based. So, I was very landscape-based when I first started painting. And she used a lot of textiles in her work and collage.

So I think that’s where that influence came from. And that’s where I learned how to use all the different materials. She was actually a staff nurse.

She didn’t carry on doing a fine art degree, and she went back to it years later but then had to stop again. But she was always a nurse. So it was nice then because she was teaching me all these techniques.

That’s where I really learned how to paint, especially use oil paints.

She taught me how to do that. And I had no clue. So she was teaching me how to mix paints.

And she was like, “Don’t use the whole tube! And, you know, you only need to use a little bit.”

Zoe: So, she was your beginning… The idea of time is especially interesting, particularly in the context of the pandemic. Did the past three or four years have an effect on the title? With everyone talking about the concept of time and identifying this as a topic?

Caitlin: It definitely seeped in. But my stuff was going on before the pandemic. When the pandemic hit, it was more like, “Right, I’m going to make work that I enjoy doing because I’m stuck at home, and I can’t get to the studio.” I lost my studio at the time.

So I was painting in my garden. I was making work then that I wanted to just make, instead of just making work to sell or show. So I definitely think that impacted things because it made me look more into myself and my work.

What do I want to get from painting? Why do I paint? I definitely think maybe that time element was kind of pointing back at me where I was thinking, “Time isn’t what it seems, and what do I want to do with my life? And what do I want to do with my art?”

And I definitely knew I wanted to be an artist, so the pandemic kind of helped me to focus on my work. I wasn’t showing work; everything was online.

So it was based on me having a real kind of talk with myself.

Zoe: That’s great. You mentioned you want to create, which is a very important thing. I fully support artists selling because you need to make money – but you’ve got to identify that passion because that’s why you make art. It comes from this passionate place, you know?

Caitlin: Yeah, definitely. In the pandemic, I actually sold a lot of pieces because I was just exploring making paper works. And I was selling those and people enjoyed it.

And it was refreshing because I didn’t really have the space to paint massively.

Zoe: So, with the show, because we’re studying your work, can you talk to me about the curation and how you put everything together?

Caitlin: So I got a studio in an industrial unit where they’re so supportive, and I kind of turned up to this big storage unit, and I said, “Look, can I paint here?” And they were like, “Yeah, that’s great.” And they let me.

I’ve got this big container where I work in, and they let me take work out. And I have people come to visit, and they let me kind of spread out all over this giant unit. And it’s great. It contrasts well with the work.

So I was kind of spreading things out before where I was thinking, “How do I want the show to look?” And then it was a different ballgame when I got into the show and got into the space.

Yeah, I just kind of set out things first and thought, “Right, I don’t want to overcrowd, but I don’t want things to look too blank.” And obviously, I’ve got a lot of work.

And I wanted to have the frames contrasting with the canvas pieces so that things were kind of contrasting with that.

But yeah, I kind of just looked at colors and what went well, what was contrasting well. I think that’s something I do in my work anyway – I kind of look at contrasts and what kind of goes well or things that blend well.

So it kind of came naturally to me. Putting it all together now, I’ve only ever done a show for small areas, but this was a completely different ballgame.

But it was quite natural how it all came together, which was really nice.

Zoe: And you got it how you wanted it to look, so because it’s your own work that you’re putting together in the show, I’m always curious when you’re working on a piece and you want to exhibit it, does that ever enter your mind? Like, how is this going to look in the gallery space… Do you ever think about it?

Caitlin: Do you know what? It’s weird because I used to think like that, where I’d be thinking, “Right, what’s this going to look like? Is a gallery going to like it?”

And now I just think about the painting. Whenever I’m making work, it’s never planned out. It’s all in the subconscious – things come out. I let things come naturally.

Zoe: Did you have any influences growing up in art school, like artistic influences that you looked towards? I don’t want to compare you to any pop artists or any of the people that are, you know, the movements that were conducted, but did you have any specific ones that you were inspired by?

Caitlin: It’s funny because I wasn’t really into pop art that much. I mean, I liked it, but it wasn’t something I wanted to recreate.

So, it’s quite funny when people say about pop art because people always think of pop art when they think of screen printing and stuff like that.

But for me, when I was growing up, it was sort of Gillian Ayrs, where she’s just a big abstract painter, and she would make these really big works, but more her attitude towards paint in this kind of, “I don’t care, I’m just going to paint what I want to paint.”

And those influences because I still think that abstract presence is there… Peter Lanyon who was, you know, doing aerial views of St. Ives.

But it’s funny because all these influences were just abstract people, okay? But I think it’s one of those things where I was influenced by those people, but I can definitely see sort of presence of that abstract mess in my work.

I mean, if you took away the figures or even just broke down the figures, it would be purely abstract. It’s just recently that I’ve started to play with figures and people, but there are still very big, heavily abstract influences in the work.

Zoe: Yeah, definitely. And what made you gravitate toward the collage aspect of your work?

Caitlin: I always really enjoyed collage when I was a kid. And I was always using the Argos catalogs and making collages and stuff like that.

And I just always really loved it. And it’s something that I would do with my mum. And yeah, I just always did, especially in graphic design, we learned more about collage and the Dada movement, and you know, how people used the color orange to express themselves.

So kind of using all that was something that I was really inspired by. And yeah, I just kind of was like, “right, I’m going to start putting all these things together.”

And what happens when all these different things align and they meet.

So that’s kind of where the work is kind of gone now where the collage is meeting the painting. And what happens if I paint from the collage and all these different elements?

Zoe: What do you love most about being an artist? 

Caitlin: I just love being able to say I’m an artist and to be able to wake up and do what I love and spread that joy to other people.

My work involves doing workshops with communities and in hospitals.

So, to be able to do that and share these skills with people and give them skills that they can use to help themselves is just fantastic. And I’m really grateful every day that I wake up.

I’m grateful that I’m still doing this, and I’m still being an artist because there was a long time ago when I thought maybe I couldn’t make it. For years, I just never thought I would get to a moment where I could actually do art full-time, but now I do, which is amazing.

To hear more about Caitlin’s work, you can listen to the interview in full over on our podcast.

By Zoë Goetzmann (@byzoesera)

Interview with Phillip Reeves – Spotlight on Artistry

 

In this week’s edition of Cosimo Studio Tours, we headed to Bethnal Green to visit artist Phillip Reeves (@phillipreeves_). 

Reeves holds a BA in Fine Art Printmaking and Painting from London Metropolitan University. He also holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths.

In this interview, we speak in-depth about his ‘Paper Clothes’ series. The series combines the art of clothing with the art of clothing-making. Inspired by the concept of uniforms, Reeves creates ‘paper clothes’ via oil painting and dress-makers’ paper. His works draw on Colour Field Theory and the Colour Field Movement. 

When creating his ‘paper clothes’ designs, Reeves draws inspiration from artists such as Joseph Albers and Agnes Martin for their uses of colour, line, and form. He also shares some amazing, (juicy even) behind-the-scenes anecdotes about the art world, auction houses, and his life as a painter in our podcast interview. 

Reeves has participated in residencies, and solo and group exhibitions in London and New York (he was also an Artist in Residence at the Embassy of Foreign Artists in Geneva). Most recently, he took part in a group residency show at 13 Soho Square for The Earth Vision Charity Exhibition. 

He has been nominated for The Jealous Gallery Art Prize, shortlisted for The Dentons Art Prize in 2017 (Curated by Niamh White), and received the Husk Studio Residency Aware in 2018-2019.

Zoë: Hello everyone. I’m here sitting with artist Phillip Reeves in his studio near Bethnal Green. Thanks so much, Phillip, for being here. 

We’re going to dive into some questions. I like to start out every interview with what I call an “Artist’s Story.” 

Could you tell me a little bit about your artist story and how you became an artist and chose this career path?

Phillip: I guess I realized I had an affinity for art when I was quite young. When we had ‘wet break’ at school, it was raining so we couldn’t go outside and play.

I used to get a queue of other children formed up in front of a desk and I’d make drawings of owls. I enjoyed the attention this created, as none of the children could quite draw an owl as well as me [or as I could draw an owl].

I realized there was some kind of currency in this: it was a bit like showing off, and I quite enjoyed it. So, I guess from age six in wet playtime [is when I discovered my passion for Art and for being an artist].

Zoë: I like [that] very specific artist story because most people say [or answer], “I’ve always creative,” but I like that you had this very specific moment.

Phillip: Yeah, it was a watershed moment for me, being able to show off but not getting into trouble for it.

So, it was something in my head, [that] perhaps, ‘clicked.’ And then I liked that I could, in some ways, please people without getting into trouble – which I think is a fine line – which I think one should dally sometimes.

Zoë: So, your currency was your talent: it [Art and being an artist] became your niche.

Phillip: Exactly! So, drawing birds like kingfishers and owls, making paper airplanes. I was really good at making paper airplanes.

So, these two things I could do very, very well. [But] I guess there wasn’t a career in making paper airplanes.

Zoë: Well, we’ll get to your practice later [when we discuss your ‘Paper Clothes’ series]

Then from six years old, how did the rest of your artistic career continue and transpire after that?

Phillip Reeves: Well going through school, art was the only subject I really kind of tried at or did the homework for. Then when I came to choose [my] A-level subjects – [as] we call them in the UK – I kind of flunked a few, and Art was the only one I aced.

I’ve always believed that people should do what they’re good at, if they can. I think it’s a shame to have a talent and tamp it down.

Also, I’m quite stubborn. So, it was kind of art or nothing after that.

Zoë: Can you say where did you do your training?

Phillip Reeves: I did a year and a half Foundation at Reading College – which was really fun – and then I did three years at London Met doing painting and printmaking.

I left my BA and moved to a squat in East London and Hackney Wick for years. We had a studio program, an art gallery, and a lot of squat parties.

So, this was kind of my lifestyle for three or four years, just squatting and making art and making a mess. [Then] that [period of my life and career] ended and I moved to New York for a while, came back, went to Goldsmith’s – did an MA there.

Then more recently, I did a studio program at Turps in Elephant and Castle run by Marcus Harvey, and I finished that last year. So, I’ve kind of done bits and pieces of education, and here I am today.

Zoë: In your studio! But you’ve had two studios, right? Because you’ve done a couple of other residencies.

Phillip Reeves: That’s right. We met at a show in Soho which I’ve just finished. The show is still on, but the residency programme is finished.

So, that was a really nice building in Soho Square. Quite a fancy place to have a studio, but sadly, that has come to an end. So, I’m back in my freezing cold garret in Bethnal Green.

Zoë: What about art school? You said it was ‘art or nothing’… Was there a reason why you wanted that formal education? 

Phillip Reeves: Yeah, in some ways times have changed, but when I was 18, an affordable way to leave home was to go and study.

The fees weren’t anything like they are today, and there were government loans. It was £3,000 a year at the time, rather than I don’t know what now, but they are at least triple that. I know to do an MA at the Royal College at the moment, it’s £16,000 per year.

In a way, a lot of people in my generation did BA’s, just because it was the thing you did to leave home. You could have a nice time for three years, and the government would kind of pay for you. So, it was in a way, a rite of passage.

I’m not sure if it is so much nowadays. But in terms of the formal training, you speak about, you don’t really get that at art school in the UK. It’s quite critical study-based, theory-based, and conceptual-based.

You’re not going to get a life drawing lesson or a lesson in mixing colors or this kind of formal painting techniques.

So yeah, it was more a means to an end in terms of being able to move away, being able to go to London, which I always wanted to do. So perhaps it was more that than wanting formal art training.

Zoë: So, going into your practice… what do you work on now [or worked on previously]? At art school, what were you most fascinated by? Can you delve into what your current practice looks like today?

Phillip Reeves: I’m gonna say that I can’t remember much [about] my BA… but my MA, I can, thankfully. So, at Goldsmiths, we did an MFA in Fine Art.

We split the year [working] in sculpture, painting, printmaking, photography. So actually going in there as a painter was useless. But what was really good about it was I was able to learn about all kinds of theory that wasn’t involved in painting […]

So, it was a very broad education. And we looked at all kinds of topical concerns at the time. So [it was during] that 2015-2018, we did [studied the idea of] ‘Fake News…,’ all kinds of stuff around the Trump election and all these kinds of things that were very topical. Which I wouldn’t have got if I went to a painting school.

So that was good. But I did feel that my quench for painting was unslaked. So, I did then enroll in Turps afterwards, which is a painting school […]

So, I mean, what was I making? I was making figurative works based on costumes. It’s kind of been a theme for my kind of practice for a number of years now.

Zoë: I’m looking at two of them [your ‘Paper Clothes’ works] right now! Tell us about your current practice.

Phillip: I’ve been a figurative painter for about 15 years now.

I gradually realized I was becoming less and less interested in the actual kind of figure itself, the person and the flesh, if you like, and I was getting far more interested in the clothes they were wearing, and what they could signify.

So, uniforms in the workplace – hierarchies of uniforms, things that denote rank or denote importance, and I quite like subverting these ideas or kind of poking fun at them… antiquated ideas of uniforms and what they mean in society.

So, I kind of removed the flesh to look to the costume itself. And I was painting costumes on a traditional format of, you know, ‘square a rectangle’ on stretcher bars – like a canvas or a sheet of aluminum. [However], I felt this [practice] still kind of felt insincere.

I wanted to really break the clothing shapes away from the confines of the canvas. So, I started thinking about other ways to present clothing and uniforms.

[One day], I was stood one day on Savile Row and I was looking down at the tailors with all their tailor tools, you know, leather-cutting tools, dress-makers cloths, dress-makers papers, special rulers for cutting curves [etc.] and I thought: “I’d love to have a go at that.”

My mum’s side of the family has a history of being tailors in Central London. I thought it was something I could explore in light of that as well.

So, I started making work out of dressmaker’s paper.

Zoë: Could you describe dressmaker’s paper for people who don’t know what it is? 

Phillip: Often it has dots, or grids, or scores on it, and essentially, it’s a way of tracing a design over and over again for [a] single garment.

There’s a really great haberdashers in town (I don’t think I should do this interview without saying haberdashers… it’s one of my favourite words to say) you can buy a plain version of dressmaker’s paper without the squares or dots.

So I did a lot of testing with it and found this one was the best [medium] for holding oil paint. So, they’re quite fragile works, very delicate, but they were initially an easy and quick way of making artwork.

[However], the more time I spent with them the more detailed they [became]. Now, sometimes, [it can] take me months to finish a piece.

In the show, you saw, there was a piece I made using concrete stain as well – so the idea was to make Brutalist clothing using [this] concrete stain.

So, there’s a concept to the materiality of them as well – using the dressmaker’s paper to make clothes and then concrete to make brutalist, plain clothing.

Zoë: Clothing is an expression of the self, isn’t it? And that’s why I like this project and this idea. 

Also, what’s interesting is with the time and process it takes you to make something – like this shirt that I’m looking at right now. – it’s quite detailed, so there’s an art to clothing [and designing and clothing-making]. 

And behind every piece of clothing, just like art, there’s a story – so for this one, for example, why did you choose that specific shirt?

Phillip: This is actually a self-portrait because I own this shirt – it’s a carpenter’s shirt from the 70’s. I don’t often make work about myself, or put myself in my work so obviously, but I thought I’d make something that was synonymous with myself and my own style.

It’s something I’ve had since about 2014. I don’t wear it very often. But when I do wear it, people will comment on it. I’m not a very bold or bright dresser.

I normally dress like a Victorian street urchin. But so, this is a blue striped shirt. It’s not particularly loud, but it gets attention.

I own two of them, but occasionally they come up in vintage shops or online and I’ll buy them, and a couple of my friends now have them, and so it’s something I can pass on [to] somebody.

[But] it seemed like the right thing to make if I was gonna make something on [or of] my own. I’ve also made football shirts; I’ve made sportswear and all sorts of different garbs.

Zoë: What I like about this is it does have this weight and the pattern says so much about the history behind it, about what decades it’s from… 

Phillip: I also think it really reminds me of Joseph Albers and Agnes Martin

Zoë: I see Agnes Martin, because of the linear pattern!

Phillip: Yeah, because while I’m making it, I’m thinking of these ‘big hitters’ in art history, and so it also nods to them as well.

Zoë: Do you have any advice when it comes to ‘being an artist?’ What would be your insight about creating? For you: Is it all just about creating art, or is it exploring your craft? Having fun? [Which] do you get the most joy from?

Phillip: I’ve always tried to create conditions [which] mean I am enjoying my time in the studio.

 That’s really important to me. I feel like if it becomes a chore, then that’s when I have to stop.

And obviously, there’s certain parts of doing a painting that can be tedious and boring – that take too long, but the overall experience in the studio has to be fun because it’s how I’m spending a lot of time in my life.

So, yeah, I’d say try and create conditions yourself where you’re doing stuff you want to do because otherwise it just becomes a bit of a folly.

Zoë: When you’re in your studio, do you have any like do you listen to music or do you work in silence? How do you get inspiration?

Phillip: Yeah, I listen to music, or I listen to podcasts or I listen to either twaddle on the radio.

Zoë: How do you get ‘in the zone?’

Phillip: What is that Philip Guston quote? I’ll paraphrase it [badly]… but it’s basically him saying ‘you can’t start making work until all your heroes have left the room.’

So, what he’s trying to say is you can’t think about, all your influences and great painters and art history [when you’re creating an artwork] [you have to ‘get out of your head’ when working on your artwork].

I actually think he’s playing a joke on people [when he says or said this quote]. I think he’s trying to make people think about him as the final person to leave the room (but that’s just my opinion).

But the idea of just kind of closing off, shutting out but… I’m here a lot and I’m here on my own. So, I do. I do kind of like listening to more and more audiobooks, for company really!

But there are times when you know you’re doing something like tidying up or something a bit more physically aggressive, like stretching canvases or throwing stuff about where you do want to listen to the Ramones.

Zoë: As far as when you say artistic greats… Who [or what] have been [some of] your other influences? Do you have any great artistic influences?

Phillip: I mean, I love reading about the kind of ‘downtrodden’ – maybe that’s the wrong word to use – but these like really kind of strong characters. People like [artist] Leonora Carrington: I love reading [about her work]. [I also love] reading her written work.

She wrote some really amazing novels and short stories. [I love reading about this] the era that she lived in and all the weird lives these people led.

There are so many examples of artists who have these amazing histories and lives and yeah, I could reel off so many.

Zoë: I like that, I think Leonora Carrington, she’s now coming back into the art world. 

Phillip: Yeah, very topical! Helma af Klimt, as well.

She was really interesting, and into séances and all these ritual things and I love reading about that kind of life, which is so far removed from our [daily life] experience.

Zoë: It’s the escapism too. Thank you so much, Phillip, for being here this has been a really great discussion! 

 

By Zoë Goetzmann (@byzoesera)

Interview with Joanna Pilarczyk – Contemporary Artist

 

This week we visited Joanna Pilarczyk’s (@joannapilarczyk) studio in North London – a colorful neon oasis. 

Joanna is a contemporary figurative painter. She works predominately in oils, as well as in acrylics and in spray paint. Joanna was born in Poland. She studied at the Art University in Zielona Gora where she holds a degree in Visual Arts and in Art Education.

She has exhibited her work internationally in group and solo shows in London and in the United States. Joanna has displayed her work at Saatchi Gallery’s Start Art Fair and The Other Art Fair. 

She recently had a solo show with Oink Gallery,  and Joanna also won the Boynes Monthly Artist Award and was a Women United Art Prize finalist in 2021 and 2022.  She has been featured in art publications such as All She Makes, Art Seen, Create! Magazine and Women United Art Magazine (to name and to list a few).

Her work explores subjects related to nature and intimacy. In this interview, we talk all about her process, and how she works with her subjects: exploring topics such as diversity, representation, and racism when it comes to telling the stories behind the figures in her works. 

We also speak about her artistic inspirations (how this changed pre and post-pandemic) and advice that she would give to other emerging artists embarking on their creative journeys.

You can listen to the unabridged version of the interview via our podcast.

Zoë: So, thank you Joanna, for taking part in this interview. I’m excited to talk to you about your ‘Artist’s Journey,’ and your career, so far. 

So, to begin with, I like to start every interview with I call an ‘Artist Story’… Instead of saying: “How did you become an artist? How did you get here?” 

Could you kind of tell us your ‘Artist Story’ and what led you to become an artist from art school, or, you know, from [your] training? 

Joanna: Okay. It was a pretty easy decision. Like most of us, I knew I would be an artist as I was very creative from an early age.

I should mention that in fact, I have a twin sister. For us both, it was very easy to communicate with other children through art.

I mean, with people generally, as we both were very shy. From the very beginning, when we were around four years old, our uncle taught us how to draw and paint our favourite characters from children’s animations.

And when we were in kindergarten, we were the best in art. Every kid asked us to draw for them and wanted to learn from us.

Zoë: That’s so early [laughs]. It started that early as well.

Joanna: My parents knew immediately that it was worth it to sign us into some after-school art classes. We were lucky to know a lovely person – an artist – in our hometown.

She worked at the local community centre. So, we started from five years old and took those classes for around 15 years. Even in primary school, I was lucky to have excellent teachers. At that point, I was preparing with my sister for the Art College exams.

In the summertime, we took the opportunity to go to Art Planners, which was organised through the community centre. It was cool to meet other artists from Germany, France, and Poland and practice with them.

Most of the attendants were older and more advanced. So, it was even better for us to learn a bit more about painting techniques or some other different stuff.

We started Art College when we were both 15 in a different city, so we had to move out from our home […] It was fun.

Zoë: So you and your sister both went to the same Art College? Oh, wow. And you’re [both] identical?

Joanna: Yes. We’re both identical.

Zoë: Okay, so both of you were gifted in the arts. Is she still an artist? 

Joanna: She’s still an artist but now works as a tattoo artist. She always was more interested in realistic, almost hyper-realistic, drawing and painting.

And my way of artistic expression was more impressionistic and expressionistic [that kind of style].

Zoë: I was wondering if your styles ever differed [or differ]?

Joanna: When we were teenagers and students at Art College, the teachers at the beginning, especially in the first year, had difficulty recognising whether [my twin sister] or I painted one of the paintings or drawings or whatever.

So at the start, our styles were very similar for a long time. And then we started taking directions when we were older.

Zoë: So what happened and/or where did you go after college [career-wise]? 

Joanna: After art college, I had a two-year break. And I went to work briefly in Warsaw and wanted to work as a video game designer. I was into designing video game characters.

And at that time, I was in a relationship. I thought living in a bigger city would be a good idea. But after two years, I realized I needed to study.

I wanted to learn more about art generally. So I returned to West Poland and moved to Zielona Gora, where I continued my further art education. My friend studied his art education at the same University. He started two years before.

He told me that it would be a better opportunity for me to learn more about – for example, printmaking, sculpture, photography, multimedia, not only painting or drawing. This would be a better chance for me to try everything.

Through those five years, I was happy to work with excellent professors. But at the end of these five years, I decided to graduate with a diploma in Figurative Painting, specifically portraiture.

Zoë: Were you always a painter? 

Joanna: Yes. I think painting was the most important medium for me, because I love to express myself in colour.

Zoë: Can you tell me a little bit about your practice (as we sit with all of your paintings). There’s so much colour surrounding us in this studio. 

Joanna: About my artistic practice, I think it is a pretty important fact to point out that I grew up in the ’80s in Poland when the country was controlled by the Soviet Union.

As a child, everything was kind of ‘grey’ for me in our country. I couldn’t obtain colourful crayons or markers or paints. So we had minimal supplies.

And I remember, around the ’90s, when I was around 15, I started watching American movies and TV shows. I really loved Miami Vice, which was all about neon’s, as you can imagine.

I was so fascinated by this American world. It was so different from Poland. But still, for a long time, I couldn’t achieve this colourful aesthetic in my paintings because of the limitation of materials. It was a problem for me.

When I moved here to London 12 years ago, I was suddenly surrounded by people from all over the world, with different personalities and skin colours.

I also could discover other materials to work with and achieve my creative vision. I created my own visual style.

Zoë: What mediums do you work with predominantly?

Joanna: Primarily, it’s always oil paint because I like how the oils mix. I love the smell. The texture of oils. I liked the fact that I can paint in oils, almost like in watercolours. When I realized I needed a more vivid colour palette, I started experimenting with adding acrylics to oils, which is quite unusual.

Everyone is saying: “You can’t mix oils with acrylics…” But if the acrylics are of good quality, it is possible.

Zoë: I love that you said you love the smell of oils. I also do love the smell as well … 

Joanna: I love it. The smell. The oily texture. The brushes. They are so different. I teach watercolour techniques, and I still like to paint with inks on paper, but the oils’ vibrance and texture are the best for producing colourful paintings.

That’s the most important for me and my artistic practice.

Zoë: What do you like most about figurative painting? And how do you choose the subjects that you paint?

Joanna: When I was at University, I usually painted my friends, which was the obvious choice. I like to get to know someone more and tell the story behind their faces. With my friends, we would discuss their lives, problems, achievements, etc.

When I moved to London, I was overwhelmed with this vast multicultural environment: different people and skin tones (etc.). It was very inspiring for me. Fashion became another form of inspiration. My partner is a fan of video games.

And as a motion graphic designer, he works with animation a lot. It gave me the idea of incorporating these pictures into my paintings. Especially the neon colours and the various textures. I should mention ‘the pandemic time’ because it was slightly different.

I couldn’t work with people. So I started focusing for the first time on myself and my husband as the subjects of my paintings. It was terrifying at the beginning. I really didn’t like the idea of painting myself.

But after a few self-portraits, I’ve become used to it. I distanced myself from who I am. Mainly if I painted my body, I felt more like I was painting some other woman who wasn’t me. It was a different story when I painted my husband or my cats.

Zoë: What’s your least favorite thing maybe about the art world [about being an artist or about being in the art world]? 

Joanna: I think it’s all about – unfortunately – money. Like in every business. I don’t like this. [I] probably wasn’t aware when I was in Poland, how important is to pay for everything.

It’s not for free: the exhibitions, the open calls. Everyone has to realise [these facts]. People who don’t appreciate artists [should realize that it is a] 24-hour job: doing business, paying for everything, planning everything, and being [staying] mentally sane.

There [are a lot of] dark areas, which I don’t like, but we kind of deal with it.

Zoë: Is there anything that you wish that people knew about being an artist? 

Joanna: I think they should just know that from the early hours when we wake up, it’s all about thinking about art. And the reason why we wake up is to create.

It’s not [just] a hobby. It’s not like: “Oh, I’m leaving and doing this job, but from time to time, I’m going to paint this and I want $10,000 for this or whatever.”

It’s very hard work, and a learning process […] that should be appreciated.

Zoë: Definitely. I think that’s important to know. And then: from ‘Artist-to-Artist,’ is there any advice that you would give to emerging artists embarking on their creative journeys?

Joanna: Be honest. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid to take part in [art] competitions, even if [you might] fail, it is worth it.

Because people: [i.e. curators] see those paintings or sculptures, so [artists] have to push [through] the door and do everything [they can] to show our work.

Zoë: Is there any advice you’d give to artists about confidence [from pricing artwork to submitting or exhibiting artwork]? 

Joanna: Everyone has different spectrums [in terms of how they] think about the creative process.

[With] pricing, I [tend to] think about how long it [took] me to learn about art: 10 years of study plus some other expenses […], doing workshops, courses, coaching with art curators. Of course, the time [it takes] creating [a] painting, which for me takes few weeks [or] usually [a] few hours every day. The pricing of materials [should also be included in the artwork price].

I was in the situation when [a] gallery from Colorado [in the early part of my career], they told me [they were going to sell my painting] for 4000 pounds. And at that point, my pricing was much lower. It was about 2000, I guess.

Then, in [this] situation, when they [displayed it] in [the] gallery space, I had to raise the prices everywhere and it was a problem because for a long time, I wasn’t able to sell.

I felt like it was a bit too quick, too high, you know, so [artists] have to be careful about [these pricing level changes].

And [I’ve] had this conversation a lot with Daniel Freaker (@freakerstudio) whose point of view is completely different: he suggests starting from a much lower price, because it’s better when the potential [first] collectors have your painting[s] in their home already for [a] cheaper price, because they will be back later for more. It’s better to build up the price slowly, in his opinion. It’s very easy to make mistake[s] about [this process].

I felt like I did something which I shouldn’t, I lower the prices after the situation and wait.

Zoë: What’s the best thing about actually being an artist in London? About this community here?

Joanna: I think that the best part is that we have so many opportunities here and even if starting from the local cafe, showing everywhere and just build[ing] up the visibility, building up [your Artist] CV [it] is so important. Definitely in London, I’m happy to connect with more people, especially after the art fairs. For example, [after The Other Art Fair], I was invited [to participate in a] solo show with Oink Gallery.

So, it is important to be in [places] like London or Paris probably where [these opportunities are] possible.

Zoë: How much networking do you [per] via in-person and on instagram? 

Joanna: Once the artist starts to exhibit and [participate in] art fairs, it’s important to [participate] regularly. Instagram, of course, is very important: posting (not like [a] crazy amount), because I’m not that kind of person, but maybe twice a week or three times a week (doing some IG Stories). I usually promote my post[s] also on Instagram to get more followers.

This is the way how it works and [it’s] worth it.

Zoë: And for artists who are just starting in the art fair circuit and landscape, what’s the best way to maximize your time there? What’s the best strategy, because it’s quite costly for some young, emerging artists? 

Joanna: I think, first of all post about it [the art fair] a few weeks earlier and show [a few] new works, which [you] are going to exhibit and I think just talking to people.

It’s so important to talk face-to-face with everyone at [art fairs] […] It’s so important to talk to everyone and be very open and very honest about what you do […]

Zoë: Looking back, what advice would you give to younger Joanna (five-year-old or Art School Joanna) on your artistic career? 

Joanna: The advice to myself when I finished that university [is that] I should have moved out earlier, or if not, if I [were to have stayed] in Poland, I should connect with people via social media much earlier: [with] other artists, art curators, do research, connect with platforms for my art could be promoted.

I’m talking now to Polish artists who are [still] in Poland: take your time, learn English, and connect with other worlds online. Make sure to have [you work featured in] publications [i.e. in art magazines], so people can learn about you [and] your art.

Zoë: Be written about and grow your community now [at this moment]. Thank you so much Joanna for taking part in this interview. This has been really great. We’ve had a nice, literal sit-down conversation and discussion. 

Joanna: On the carpet in my living room/studio!

Zoë: And there’s so much colour. That’s why it’s such a happy place.

By Zoë Goetzmann (@byzoesera)

Interview with Lucian – Figurative Painting Artist

 

This week, Cosimo Studio Tours visits artist Lucian’s (@thelucianthepainter)’s studio near Primrose Hill.

Lucian is a graduate of the University of the Arts London, Camberwell College. With a professional background in advertising, Lucian works as an oil painter. 

His work alters (and often subverts) the traditions of figurative painting. Lucian’s artistic influences range from Egon Schiele to (even) Damien Hirst for his commercial mindset. 

In this interview, our discussion covers a range of topics from art school, the necessities of art school, art world gatekeeping and ‘art world snobberies,’ the conflicting opinions on Damien Hirst (and his ‘art-selling genius’), art marketing, as well as how artists can begin to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach when it comes to making a living and a career as an artist. 

Lucian exhibited a solo show on Kings Road in Chelsea last fall in 2022. 

This upcoming Spring and Summer 2023, he will exhibit a series of photography, figurative paintings and works in a second solo show in London.

You can listen to the full interview as a podcast here.

Zoë: Thank you so much, Lucian, for taking part in this interview with Cosimo Studio Art Tours. The first question we start out with, [is] I like to call it ‘An Artist’s Story.’

Can you tell us a little bit about your ‘Artist Story?’ How you became an artist, that journey that led you [to that path]?

LUCIAN: Yeah, it’s an interesting one, there was never really a sort of decision. It was – I think – more a compulsion.

But, you know, from early childhood, like lots of kids I liked to draw. But I think, probably the key moment or a critical moment, was when I started taking life drawing lessons around, I think I was 14 or 15.

And I think from then it just became to me like, no doubt in my mind, that was something I really wanted to pursue: ‘being an artist.’

And, you know, from then on, there was no question of me doing anything other than going to art school, I was never gonna go to university and do something else after that. It was clear to me that that was the path that I wanted to follow.

From there, though, you know, having said that, on leaving art school, I had no idea how to be an artist – certainly not professionally… that’s something I’m still figuring out now.

But it occurred to me that I should at least get a job that was similarly creative and had some sort of similarities.

So, I spent the last 15 years working in advertising. And that sort of segue happened, I think when I was writing my dissertation. And you know in art school… you went to art school, right, as well?

Zoë: Sort of. Art Business School… [laugh].

LUCIAN: [Probably similarly then], a lot of people [write] their dissertations [in art school], they write them about like something quite theoretical, maybe like the title might be something like: ‘Exploring the Symbolism of X,Y,Z in post X Y, Z,’ you know, on ‘so and so’s work’ or something.

But I wrote mine on the economics of the art market and to put that in context, at the time, it was when Damien Hirst did his ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ exhibition and sold that golden calf on the night that Lehman Brothers collapsed.

And I was ‘there’ in London and that’s what that’s what was happening in the art world. That was the art world at that moment in time.

And so, it occurred to me that that was the most interesting thing happening and something that just piqued my interest was the intersection really of commerce, art, and creativity.

And so yeah, in writing that, I was researching a lot of branding and advertising… how that stuff works.

And then I thought, hang on, this sounds like a job that I could do that I could enjoy that I could use to fund my art practice and maybe learn a thing or two along the way, that might actually come back into my back into my artwork, which it kind of has, yeah.

Zoë: Before I go into your art practice, because you mentioned Damien Hirst and art school…

Do you have specific artistic influences? Who are they? And did you kind of look to them to model your career off of? Entrepreneurially as well?

LUCIAN: Yeah. Yeah, I think certainly, Damien Hirst. You say what you want about his art, but he’s a phenomenal businessman.

Do we do we need 20,000 different spot paintings? Probably not. But…

Zoë Goetzmann: I hope you meet him one day [laughs]

LUCIAN: I would love to meet him one day. One thing I find really interesting is – he sort of – (at once) ridicules a lot of the people that buy his work, you know, which [he’s] not the first to do that: Warhol did it, you know: [and] ‘Merde d’artiste,’ was like one of the first examples of it. Banksy’s doing it now even…

I think there was a cycle of, you know, particularly with the ‘Diamond Skull.’ In fact, [one of] the leading quote[s] of [my] dissertation – was one of his: “Selling shit to fools and it’s getting worse.”

So, anyway, what is really interesting with him is how he creates a really consistent, distinctive style from which he can continuously execute, sometimes brilliant, sometimes less good, sometimes not that good, but work that keeps growing and growing and growing.

And the stuff that I found most interesting was when he was then fucking with the whole system of auction houses and collectors around that, you know, ‘Beautiful Inside My Head Forever’ and ‘For [the] Love of God,’ ‘The Diamond Skull.’

So, that combined with the fact that I’ve been working in advertising for 15 years, means I do give a lot of thought to how can I structure my work, my exhibitions, my communications in a way that can help me communicate to many people as possible.

Because I think the practice of selling art, I think it’s part of the work. I think it’s interesting. That’s why, on my pictures, there’s the price tags from a pricing gun that you would have at a corner shop.

It’s part of the work – now whether I’ve heard people say: “That’s sort of trying to be provocative” [and] I’ve heard some people say, “[having] the price [on the work] is boring.” I think both of those two things are true at the same time.

But the cost, the value of something is part of it, you know.

I think it’s an interesting part of human nature and art as an interesting part of human nature is one of like commerce, and like that shared value creation of: “I make this thing because I think it has value,” you come to see it, because it might have value you decide to buy it.

Then one day if I’m, you know, if I go: “Oh, that’s my Hirst” on the wall, there’s an ownership, you own a bit of the artist. I find that interesting. And I find that’s part of the work.

Zoë: There’s a quote that I spoke about with one of my artist friends, Sarah Mehoyas who’s a New York artist, she [says]: “To be an artist, you inherently have to be entrepreneurial.” Which is what Cosimo enables.

LUCIAN: I think more and more now, and in a way, that’s a good thing, because, I saw a meme on ‘The White Pube’ thing about [how] artists used to be able to just sit there think about the art and now you have to be like, trying to [do and promote] content and try and sell it and market it, blah, blah, blah.

And on the one hand, I agree, I would love to have just been plucked out at art school by Saatchi and just been allowed to just be an artist and never think about the rest of this. That would have been my dream scenario back then.

And that didn’t happen, needless to say. But equally, it’s interesting that now, pre-social media (essentially the Internet), how were we supposed to do any of that beyond basically, maybe printing some flyers and trying to get some people to show?

You know, Damien Hirst actually, again, was another example where they kind of blagged a space, they were the first one to really take student shows, like, out of just, it’s: ‘your parents and your friends and your tutors’ – I remember reading he created like letterheads [to just] protect [that sort of]: ‘Fake it till you make’ [vibe],’ you know, in the ultimate sense ….

So, I think on the one hand, it’s sort of stressful having to do more than just the art and [it’s a] lot of work.

On the other hand, it sort of has opened up to a degree, you know, the art market for people who, rather than gallerists being sole gatekeepers, which they are still in a really big way, but at least you’ve got another way of being noticed that it’s slightly more in your own hands than just sending a portfolio out and getting their response.

It’s kind of interesting.

The art world is sort of intellectually snobbish, isn’t it? And it wears that as a coat of armour: to be exclusive, basically.

What’s interesting is that they can’t stop… you know, they sort of, they still have to dance to Damien Hirst tunes, do you know what I mean?

So, you know, I think I think you can be intellectually snobby about anything. I don’t love all of his work to be clear. I think some of it is just a bit tacky.

In, Ways of Seeing by John Berger, he talks about exactly that, you know, that once artworks were no longer physically exclusive (i.e., we can see them in galleries, rather than just being in churches and homes of rich people), then there had to be another way to keep them exclusive.

And that became one of you know, making them as obtuse intellectually as possible. But going back to the question about artistic influence, there’s a lot of classical Western [and] classical Western art was my sort of art history education and broadly speaking, my sort of ‘lived experience,’ what I’ve gone to see.

And within that, I think sort of probably my earliest and most sort of driving influence was Egon Schiele, who is Austrian like me.

I think it was the first time I saw some art that really just grabbed me by the heart and the bollocks at the same time, and just shook me and I remember the first time I went round, a big exhibition of his in Austria, Vienna, and it was like, my heart was racing by the end, you know, and it’s like that – so for me – he’s always sort of remained a core influence, particularly his line work, you know, we talked about, I started in life drawing (his life drawings).

I don’t think anyone’s ever drawn hands as well as him ever. And the sort of raw emotion that comes through his work is phenomenal, obviously.

And then the sort of classical canon of you know, Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, Lucien Freud, [Francis] Bacon, you know, ‘big British artists.’  So, what’s interesting is, the art history that I learned was basically, you know, classical art – you know: Roman Greek through to Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, blah, blah, blah, mainly Western European.

I think our history and those senses were quite localized geographically, and went in quite linear ways. At least that’s how you learn them in art history.

And then with the internet, essentially you’ve had this explosion of like much more like pan global art that our learning is tied quite so much to place necessarily.

I love that painter Amoako Boafo. This is such a sort of [a] telling thing about art history being very, particularly from where I grew up in the UK in London, very male dominated – very western dominated, very white dominated.

I only recently, discovered Amrita Sher-Gil, the Indian Hungarian painter.

She was classically trained in Paris in the early 1900s. She was half Indian, half Hungarian, and had a very bohemian mother. She was at the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris in the ’20s. She won [an] art competition really young and exhibited in the salons there – they’re really amazing – but it was when she went back to India, and then applied what she had learned in sort of classical Western French painting and applied that back to her identity (she was a bisexual woman, very liberal woman in India and she’s mixed race) and the work [was] unbelievable.

And yet, me, as a 34-year-old person who went to school in London, did Art History for A Level [and] didn’t discover her until a year ago.

And I mean, that’s obviously quite indicative about, you know, how patriarchal [the art world] still is – art [and] art history – so it’s not a surprise that like a woman of colour, who’s also gay or bisexual, gets written out [of] history to a degree.

A lot of people would say, she’s India’s greatest ever painter and [she] should sit [with or alongside] Frida Kahlo […] [who is also] one of the all-time [great female artists].

I mean, I’m finding things all the time, even people [who are] long gone, from a century ago, but her work is so contemporary, it’s ridiculous.

The main thing I use Instagram for […] it’s like flicking through a magazine of art – like an art magazine, basically – and you go down rabbit holes and you discover artists that you’ve never heard of before.

They might be really famous and you’ve never heard of them or they’re recently graduated. So, in terms of artistic influences, there’s a lot of classical Western ones.

And then, there’ll be a million more. Gary Hume… I always love. All of the YBA – particularly the painters – they just [have this] bold, strong use of colour. I really like art that is ‘immediate.’ That slaps you in the face that drags you in […].

Zoë: Is there anything else you love most about being an artist?

LUCIAN: I think every artist will know this feeling of being: ‘in flow.’ A psychologist called Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined that state.

But it was basically when you’re, you know, that feeling when you’re working, and you should be expending loads of mental energy, but you can seemingly go on for hours and hours and hours, because you’re – some people call it ‘in the zone’ or ‘in the flow’ and you’re doing stuff that requires a lot of brain energy, but you’re not getting tired at all, you’re just smashing away through stuff.

And that psychological state was described as ‘flow,’ and there’s this chart that basically maps out when your talent for something and the difficulty of it matches to a certain point.

Then your brain kind of ‘clicks in’ and you kind of get this like limitless energy to work. I’m sure every artist knows that feeling.

That feeling alone, when you’re when you’re making work is amazing.

Zoë: From a business side, is there any advice you’d give about: 1) Staying focused (not everyone – or not every artist –  [can] keep deadlines). Is there any advice you give about how to stay focused, how to stay motivated?

Are there any useful business tips, especially to art students [that you could share with us at Cosimo Art]?

LUCIAN: Set yourself a goal, I’m trying to set myself a goal of going to an exhibition every week (now that doesn’t sound like it should be that difficult, but it actually really is).

If you’re lucky enough to live in London, or a city where there’s lots of stuff on, I think nothing will motivate you like other people’s artwork being on show.  And for me, I’m thinking: “I wish my work was up in this show.”

So, going to see art exhibitions, big and small, I think has a dual effect of you might learn something new or you might hate something, or whatever, as an artist, and you will respond to the work somehow.

And that will either inspire you because you think that was really amazing. I’ve learned something there and I can include that into my practice, or you might just have loved it so much that it reminds you of your own ambitions to be that good.

Or you might see something that you hate and you think I should be out there now… that hopefully will motivate you too – so I think it’s got a dual purpose.

Just set yourself actual targets and deadlines, long-term and short term, I’ll do one show this year, or whatever.

Or I’ll apply to this many things this week, and just do them.

Zoë: So, why did you want to go to art school? Was it for the technical [aspects and/or side of art and art instruction]?

LUCIAN: I thought it would be like what it used to be like […] you would do life drawing two times a week. You would be like, ‘formally educated’ in the craft of painting, which we weren’t at all. [It was a] huge disappointment.

Zoë: In my interview with Anna [Kolosova] because she went to a school in Russia, where they teach directly [the traditions of art and artistic techniques], this might be a discrepancy between London art schools and art schools outside of London? […] In Russia, they teach you the tradition[s] [of painting].

They let you experiment, but they’re not so great [at the foundational aspects].

LUCIAN: To its detriment, because it’s more important that you get the foundation right – experimentation can come at any stage after that.

Experimentation without the right foundation, the right technification is, you’re basically going: ‘Let’s stand on the shoulders of the giants, the titans of art history that come before us and stand on their shoulders and see a million miles further because you’ve learned what they’ve learned.’

I’m just gonna start from beginning and basically experiment my way to get there. It’s nonsense, and it results in terrible art.

Zoë: With art schools, is it mostly the benefit of putting it [the accreditation] on your CV?

LUCIAN: I didn’t even know that there was a benefit [with putting it on my CV].

I would have to really question though, whether it’s worth it, and you come out with like, 50 grands worth of debt or whatever it costs to go to art school. That is mental.

Zoë: What was the guiding influence that made you want to attend art school?

LUCIAN: I was told I would get [a] formal education. I went for [a] technical education.

It wasn’t there. It [was] disappointing. But I was very lucky in that I met a couple of people who had brilliant painting educations at [previous] schools they’d gone to and I learnt from them. I think the value of [going to art school is] just being able to say I went to Camberwell.

I’m sure it just makes it slightly harder to sort of validate yourself [if you don’t have a degree].

Zoë: Networking [takes up the] majority [of the process of making it as an artist]. You’re going to learn from your [other] colleagues […] I think it’s a benefit [of] Cosimo [because it’s] mostly made for emerging people [artists] who want to just sell work.

[That’s] important… It’s breaking barriers, breaking the standard gallery system, because that’s like John – our founder who launched Cosimo – this dissatisfaction with the gallery system.

But I think maybe art school gives you that intellectual edge…

This was a great discussion. It definitely touches on so many interesting aspects of Art and Art Business. Thank you so much.

LUCIAN: Thank you. I enjoyed it very much!

By Zoë Goetzmann (@byzoesera)

Interview with Anna Kolosova – Contemporary Artist

 

This week we visited contemporary artist Anna Kolosova (@annakolosovaartist) to talk about about her art and painting practice, her synaesthesia (the process of painting based on the senses, one’s surroundings, and this “5-D” world, Kolosova adds), mental health, music, finding one’s confidence, and how she navigates the traditional art and gallery landscapes as a professional artist. 

Anna Kolosova graduated with an MA Degree from Central Saint Martins, and is an internationally exhibited contemporary artist. 

She has shown her work in London, Milan, Düssledorf and Moscow. Her work has been featured in The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and in Vogue. 

At present, Anna Kolosova is working on digital and NFT projects – exploring the depths of her painterly process.    

Zoë: Hi Anna! Thanks so much for taking part in this interview with Cosimo Art Tours? Let’s start out with the first question.. How did you become an artist? What is your artists’ journey?

Anna Kolosova: Well, it’s pretty cliché. In my case, one of the clichés, is that since I was very little, I’ve always been obsessed with drawing and painting, usually drawing with markers and pen – not pencil, in particular – as a child.

So, I like graphical, mark-making graphs. You could call it ‘graphomania’ – you know – it’s a thing.

My parents were both relatively creative. [My] father had his fashion studio. And they were also in education, and they had their own private school. And so, it was kind of like ‘an intellectual elite vibe.’

So, all their friends were artists, or people in the arts, or education or fashion. So that’s why they suggested I go to study art. In the first and last year, it was an evening school to prepare for the exam for a Russian school, named after [Vasily] Surikov.

There I studied Neo-Realism and Architecture, in Moscow.

Then my mother suggested I check out London for a more contemporary approach to Art Education. And of course, I was a teenager, I followed her advice.

And I came here to do some short courses at Central Saint Martins. I did three short courses. Quite a lot, but one was in Fashion Illustration, in Image-Making, just quite broad, different kinds of image production techniques.

And one was painting, I think. So, I liked how they made us think critically about our work and our methodology, and all that, in the UK.

So, I fell in love with everything I did education-wise here. I moved here to study eventually at Central Saint Martins.

Coming from a realism background, then going into collage and abstraction and sometimes more object-based ‘tableau’, painting in the expanded field.

Zoë: What were some of the differences between studying in art school in Russia versus in the UK or London? Was there a vast difference? Like what were the technical things?

Anna Kolosova: Right. Eye roll. As far as Russian art education goes, it’s very conservative and very technique focused. So you learn how to imitate life that you see in front of you – literally in front of you – not from a photograph, but from real life.

And you learn it the same way, more or less how they learned it, being an apprentice of, I don’t know, Leonardo DaVinci or someone. You learn how to measure everything, the proportions of the body of the skull, of the face, how to create depth in an image – physical (three-dimensional depth).

So how the shadow is cast, and you learn physics of colour and how to mix colour and you learn different techniques of painting and drawing with pencil, graphite, not charcoal that much actually, mostly pencil and egg tempera.

Well, because I took the architecture path, so we didn’t learn oil [painting]. We learned egg tempera, acrylic a bit, watercolour and [working with] pencil using just brown or black water colour to create with water basically monochrome, sort of like a black and white image – which is called “Grisaille” which is a French or Italian origin of that style. I did learn oil along the way also, just for my own sake.

It’s very different. I do not like it that much. They [Art Schools in Russia] don’t teach you much of contemporary, actually, at all any contemporary art or modern art history.

They teach you some of the old masters. That kind of history, but not even that much. It is more about just literally the technique, and you sit there for days and days and months and months. To make this image fall out of the paper or canvas, which is that realistic.

That’s why it’s called ‘Neo-Realism.’

Zoë: Was it good to have that foundation looking back?

Anna Kolosova: Yes, I believe so. Because you also learn how to construct the composition as well.

However, it ‘makes you think in space’ – that’s I think a quote from Tracey Emin, if I’m not mistaken, she said something like that. It’s very important to look, to sketch from real life. Because if you think differently about your surroundings, that can transfer into conceptual thinking later on as well.

Especially now that we have all this technology, such as VR [virtual reality] makes you think about it, which I’m now starting to use *spoiler* for my next upcoming project, potentially TBC.

Here in the UK, they teach you how to think and how to reflect, which you don’t get much of in Russia, unfortunately, because their people are very conservative in everything as we can see what’s happening right now.

So they teach you all the techniques, which they don’t teach you here, but then here they teach you how to think, but not the techniques. I’m glad I have a bit of both.

Zoë: It’s good to have a bit of both, honestly. You have the best of both worlds a little bit. When you studied architecture, was that something your family asked you to do and/or suggested? 

Anna Kolosova  Yes, we went with the Architecture path, because this style of realism they had was one I prefer.

There were a few pathways that one could have chosen. The others, they were learning oil and a freer kind of approach to painting. More free and yet very brown-based, [all] the colours. Less exciting, basically, in my opinion.

As far as Realism goes, I really like, you know, [artists such as] Van Eyck and [similar] Old Masters.

Because we used tempera. So [a] very old technique. And I kind of like it. Same as the graphics with markers and when you have to use the brush almost as a pencil to make strokes, almost to construct, you know, I mean, I’d have to show you how would that mean to create that same way as you used pencils for the shadow to add more marks in the same area to concentrate the contrast in that part for where the shadow is?

You do the same with the brush with tempera and it dries straight away and dries in seconds. You can already put new marks on top of it.

The previous marks are very linear and the contrast between the light part of an object, where it touches the darker background, and it’s just something quite fashionable or delicious about it. I don’t know how to explain it.

Zoë: That’s cool. This goes into the next question about your art practice and like the mediums and themes you work with: What made you want to choose painting in the end? 

Because you said you studied three short courses at Central Saint Martins. What made you just pursue painting? 

Anna Kolosova: Well, I pursued contemporary art and not just painting. I did collage. I did a little bit of video and performance, but yes, mostly painting.

So, I think painting is a state of mind. This sounds so cringeworthy. Painting is a state of mind – to me. Painting can be anything: ‘Painterly.’ Even when you look around on the street, like you know that Facebook Group: “Involuntary Painting” which has an art manifesto to it, (I’m an admin of it, I’m involved a lot) – so you can see images on the street that if you’re ‘an alien’ (for example) coming down to this planet, you would think that could be a piece of modern art basing on the algorithm of meanings of what creates a piece of modern art, for example.

And I guess I just have an eye for this for the composition and that’s why I can not not paint or not not not see things as paintings.

But I like to challenge these notions through using different mediums and going into more sculpture or more performance. Now, VR – who knows what will happen? You know? But I see everything as paintings.

Zoë: Would you be able to go into your synaesthesia? Could you talk a little bit about how your synaesthesia affects your [painting process and] how you see your paintings visually and your visual, painting practice? 

 

Anna Kolosova: It’s interesting you asked me this question about synaesthesia in the context of what I was talking about just before, about ‘seeing,’ like a random splash of something on the street and it looks like an image made on purpose but it was not made on purpose.

So, for example, whoever picks out [a] certain compositionally constructed strong image – be it made on purpose or by accident – I don’t know something, like, like a rusty piece of metal that the builders left somewhere and then maybe it looks like the coolest abstract canvas, you know, that you could put on your wall.

But not many people would notice it, the beauty in that, and the value in that. They would walk by. But if someone chooses to see it as beauty, for example, as far as painting, it could be that those people have a different kind of vision [or] inner vision.

Also makes me think of this philosophical concept of Daniel Dennett – a contemporary living philosopher, he talks about this term called: ‘Qualia’.

It’s complex. It’s about images. And it’s about like, for example, if you see an image, he gives an example: ‘it’s an American flag, but all the stripes are green instead of red.

And he goes, “Well, do you do you see the green flag or the red flag?” You see the green one. But in your head, you also see the red one like the way it’s always been, you know? So that’s ‘Qualia.’

So, in synaesthesia, for example, when I see numbers or letters, I see them the way they are, but in my head, they also have a different colour automatically. Always the same.  And the sounds have a colour and shape (sometimes yes, sometimes no shape).

The answer is yes, it has an impact on how I paint. I think I’m trying to paint from reality that is in my head. Because they say, there are some theories that synaesthesia comes from 5D [Fifth Dimension] – they say, you know, all the spirituality that we know of comes from.

Because there’s other dimensions beyond that, but we just don’t have any access to them much yet. And basically, when I see visions for sound, I try to paint something similar to what I see. It’s like painting from life like I used to with Realism.

But the still-life is in my head. Except it’s not ‘still’ it’s ‘moving.’

Zoë: What other themes and mediums do you work with in your painting practice? 

Anna Kolosova: Mental health, spirituality, relationships – kind of romantic relationships. Human nature, but that’s similar to mental health.

Zoë: How do music and spirituality affect your work? How do you bring that into your artistic practice? What music do you tend to listen to when you create? You used to make dancing videos on social media … 

Anna Kolosova: Music? Well, because it’s always been a big part of my life as well. Both literally playing an instrument and recording songs and going to singing school.

But I wasn’t as good at it as I was at painting. I had to choose one to pursue it more deeply. So, I went for this, but I obviously still listen to a lot of different music.

I love discovering new music. I always spent, you know, effort to discover it on SoundCloud and other platforms and going to music events, both classical and electronic, and IDM, which is ‘Intellectual Dance Music.’

I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur.. But ‘a lover of music’ and ‘an explorer.’ And I always date musicians … [both laugh].

Zoë: How does listening to this type of music feed into your creative process? 

Anna Kolosova: It depends. Sometimes I paint to the music and sometimes it’s just on in the background. There are times I don’t use music.

Very rarely. It’s not as pleasurable without music, as it is with. Because music makes it easier, not easier, but just adds a different dimension to ‘zoning out’ whilst I‘m painting.

Zoë: As you said: “Painting is a state of mind.” So, I don’t think that’s cheesy, at all. Artists have to be in the state [of mind] and you just ‘zone out’ and block everything out.

Anna Kolosova: When I said: “Painting is a state of mind,” I meant also the whole lifestyle. And literally: where you go, what you listen to, what you wear, with whom you collaborate. Everything.

Zoë: Onto the bonus questions that we ask everyone: What do you love most about being an artist?

Anna Kolosova: I love the lifestyle. I love that I can professionally ‘create.’

And part of that process is going to look at other people’s work and museums. And, working with other creatives, as well, and getting inspired.

But yeah, I think sometimes my paintings express more of myself than I can even do so myself, without painting. Sometimes I think my paintings are cooler than me!

Zoë: I’m writing that down. That’s also a tee-shirt! [laughs]. 

Anna Kolosova: When I was a kid, I was very shy and socially in-equipped at all. And expressing myself was the only way to escape from that reality.

And I was always expressing myself 24/7 even then. So, I find that, well, I don’t know exactly what it is, but it helps ‘my ego’ I guess.

 

Zoë: As an only child [which I can also relate to], you have to live in your imagination, most of the time … 

Anna Kolosova: So, yeah, I guess sometimes, I was happy to be by myself. And other times, I was also very lonely.

So, depending on the day, I think, because my parents were always very busy and doing very cool things.

No doubt. And other times I was actually not willing to go outside. Like I never went outside. I was always alone by myself drawing, playing with my dolls, whatever else.

And whenever I would have to, you know, perform or something like that, dress up, it would empower me always.

So, I think it’s the same now. Not much has changed… That when I paint I feel most empowered. I feel sexy. I feel most developed as a human being. But I feel sexy not as a woman, but as a human being. Or part alien in this human experience.

Zoë: Anna’s not from this world [laughs]. 

Anna Kolosova: I don’t think any of us are, in the arts! No.

Zoë: Onto the more challenging questions: There’s a lot of things probably in the art world you would change, what is kind of one thing or your least favourite [thing] that you’d want to change in the art world?  

Anna Kolosova: I don’t like to be under pressure, too much, to have to create for money.

That’s the only thing. I like deadlines when it comes to putting on exhibitions. But whenever it concerns any financial aspects of this process.

I do feel the opposite of ’empowered.’ Whenever it doesn’t work out in my favour. When it does, of course, I feel great.

So, it depends. Because creativity shouldn’t be limited to the financial aspects.

Zoë: That’s helpful for us as a platform, because we’re trying to empower artists and help them be able to sell and give them the confidence to do so. 

Does the ability and guarantee to sell work provide you with a sense of stability? Business-wise, is there anything that helps you ease this anxiety?

Anna Kolosova: Anything that pays me every month would give me [that] peace of mind.

So, for example, in Norway or France, they give grants to artists, just because… it doesn’t matter on their merits, I don’t think.

I think there should be companies sourcing money somehow to crowd-fund and/or through donors, just giving out money to anyone – doesn’t have to be large sums of money – just anything that an artist can receive every month, even if it’s 200 pounds, doesn’t matter.

At least you know that you have it every month and you have like a budget for art materials or anything like that.

Because if you don’t know whether you’re gonna receive money the following month, you are less eager to buy new canvases and produce more or something like that.

So, of course, yes, networking opportunities, to meet dealers, collectors, patrons. If I invest in a solo show and then I can’t afford rent next month and end up being, you know, like a squatter, homeless or whatever else.

As most artists are facing these issues, or otherwise they have to commit to a full-time job, but, I mean, I want to enjoy life. I don’t want to be ‘a slave’ to ‘this non-working system’ where creativity is NOT a must, for some reason.

Zoë: I think that’s helpful. That’s what we’re trying to do too. At the same time, bringing two worlds together: the traditional and online space, but then also ‘break the gallery system’ and empower artists who want to sell and so that they can actually sell their work and that people can support them. 

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous question: Is there one thing that you wish that people knew about being an artist? Can be the financials or besides the financial aspects? 

Anna Kolosova: I suppose the one thing is: validation.

An artist shouldn’t feel like they need validation. They should try to be happy with their progress. It’s also very difficult to be happy fully with your results as an artist, because there’s always room for improvement.

No matter how good the piece is. Well, it’s kind of one or two things in one, and when you get multiple rejections from institutions, or you know, gallerists or other artists, if they disapprove of your aesthetic, for example, it hurts.

You shouldn’t be discouraged. That’s the most difficult part. I think for every artist, because eventually you do find your niche(s).

Zoë: That’s me as a writer. You’ll find a publication and/or a gallery that likes you or your work [who wants to print or exhibit your work]. Another woman artist, I know, did note that there’s a pressure for women artists to always have a perfect portfolio. 

And for men, they can – from her experience – submit their portfolios as it is. Men have more of this ‘false confidence,’ where they just say ‘just look at it’ [some male artists, not all male artists].

What advice would you give to emerging artists who want to choose this pathway or is there any advice that you would give, creative-wise and/or business-wise?

Anna Kolosova: So, at art school they don’t teach you anything about sales. When you leave school, you might need to become a receptionist or unless you have a trust fund then you’re fine.

But if you don’t have a trust fund, you need to like ‘hustle.’ You need to have a plan of action, which I still don’t have much, but I do things differently myself. I try to kind of go with the flow. And eventually I kind of get there, but it’s a longer road.

I could have reached what I wanted, by now. had I been more strategic about things, and they don’t teach you this strategy at University.

Unless you’re studying art business. So, this should be taken into account that they need to find that info by themselves from books, articles, courses, workshops, talking to other artists, curators.

Have a strategy in place by the end of their University if they decide to take the path of art education, because otherwise, you stumble upon a lot of difficulties.

You don’t get the desired result in your life, or you get surprised, because you were told it’s ‘like this and like that’.

Actually, no… It’s very hypocritical, the whole system. If you go by the textbook, it doesn’t guarantee you anything.

And a lot of people who succeed academically, they end up not becoming artists. Actually, I’ve noticed from my personal experience, they ended up doing something else.

Zoë: That’s why I always ask people what their ‘Artists’ Story’ is because usually everyone who’s in the Arts did something creative. Everyone did that. 

People ask, “are you an artist?” And my response is always: “I think everyone started out as an artist, at one point in their life [or earlier on in their life].” 

Anna Kolosova: I guess my advice would be: to just know that it’s not going to be an easy road. Most likely, unless sometimes, I guess.

So, because you always have to balance between: ‘what your heart wants and what this three-dimensional matrix wants.’

Zoë: What is in store for you in the future? Art-wise?

Anna Kolosova: Exploring the digital realm, NFT’s – we [Anna and her collaborator] are planning to launch a collection that we already made last year, but there was a dip in the [crypto] market. So we’re waiting for a better time to actually sell it.

And now we’re working on another project which will combine elements of video and digital graphical elements TBC.

Zoë: What do you like about NFT’s? 

Anna Kolosova: I like that it has an element of freedom. Creative freedom. So with something I can’t do with physical painting,

I can do there [in the digital landscape]. Because it can encompass ‘text floating around an object with sound’ that the painting cannot do.

Zoë: And then, looking back, what advice would you give to your younger self, aside from ‘having a plan [or strategy]?’ Is there any other specific advice you’d give to your younger artists self? 

Anna Kolosova: Be more confident. I missed out on so many opportunities. They were throwing themselves at me. I could be really famous right now.

 

Zoë: With galleries or with making other art world connections? 

Anna Kolosova  Both. I would send an email, or receive a reply, and [someone would write back]: “Oh, contact my office, set up something with my PA.”

I would email the information, [sometimes receive] no response and then I would get insecure [and think], “they probably don’t want me. I’m not going to bother them again. And that’s it.”

Zoë: What would help with your confidence? Is it just internal? 

Anna Kolosova: Yes. Like my artwork was good already then, but I didn’t think I was good enough. So, nothing happened.

Zoë: That goes with what you said about the validation. 

The validation should come from within you. I know how difficult art school is. They put you through a lot of stress to become ‘the best.’ 

And I think that’s like a positive and like a negative, a little bit. In that traditional sphere, they put a lot of pressure on artists, when we’re supposed to celebrate art. 

It’s hard for artists to handle that stress. They’re not always built for it, so artists have people [like gallerists, agents, dealers] to handle it. 

Anna Kolosova: Even when you get a big opportunity, and if you’re still quite young, it’s you against the world suddenly. You don’t know your limits, your boundaries, your skills, your advantages, [your] disadvantages.

You don’t know yet who you are. So, even if other people think your work is good, or that – you as “a professional” are good, you might still find that you get paranoid and insecure.

Zoë: The reason why it’s hard for artists to ‘think business-wise’ is just because to make art, there’s a lot of emotions that go into it. 

Emotions don’t really translate into business. It’s a little bit hard to be vulnerable, which is a benefit for you [as an artist]. 

For you as an artist, you have assets that people in the gallery world don’t have. They don’t understand.

Anna Kolosova: Yeah, and the fear of rejection is just insane but I’m trying to overcome it with therapy and coaching and self-work and everything, but it is very difficult.