Interview by Jimon
1-Where do you currently reside and work? I live and work in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
2-Did you study art or is it inherent? I didn't go to Art school and studied drama at university. However, my older sister had formal art training and so I was exposed to her work at a young age, which I think had a strong impact on what I do currently. I saw her practice her techniques. My dad also painted in the 60's and managed to sell a heap of paintings to a restaurant in California, raising the deposit for his first home, so maybe it’s in the blood.
3-You have many drawings with a basic pen and paper, the simplicity is inspiring. What is the reason behind the simplicity?
The drawings are automatic with no planning, the themes come in waves and I tend to stay with them for a period of time before change happens. The practice is closer to my study and experience of dramatic improvisation. Its the only way I can approach this medium as I am not formally trained and the use of basic pen and paper brings me pleasure and enables me to conjure an expression or humor in how I may be feeling in the moment.
4-Why only black ink? I take comfort in the color black, it is my favorite color. It allows for failure within my process as it either works or it doesn’t and that gives me a sense of freedom.
5-Are the characters in your paintings based on real life people or totally imagined? The characters are not directly people I know, but rather manifestations of experiences and feelings both conscious and subconscious that emerge as characters. They are a form of parallel existence for me that have different functions, sometimes therapeutic other times challenging. The important thing seems to be that they keep coming.
6-Have you ever asked a buyer, why my art? What is it about your work that interests them? People have commented on the simplicity of the line, humor and the female body in my work.
7-How do you define success? On different levels. For me there is personal success which is more like being fulfilled, interested, engaged and learning from what you are doing and then there is social economic success which is probably more of a practical type of success and something that you hope is a byproduct of personal success.
8-What kind of art hangs on the walls of your home? I think you would find this rather amusing, at the moment I am living in an apartment with traditional fruit basket still life, medieval Italian court scenes and rococo cabinetry. My studio though has bare walls and rising damp. I am in a world of contradictions, enjoying adapting to the spaces that have arisen in my life.
9-What’s the best advice you’ve gotten about being an artist? Stay in the studio, keep doing things, keep going.
10-What influences you as an artist? What doesn't influence me as an artist.... But if you are asking about specific things or genres I would say – The body, gender roles, frustration, the subconscious and love.
11- How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now? I try to concentrate on how I see and not concern myself with how I am seen. Thats up to other people to decide. Maybe I am not ready for this question yet.
12- If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Henri Matisse, Jenny Saville and Louise Bourgeois.
13- Three things you can't live without in your studio? Music, Light ( the windows are two small holes), black paint.
14- Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? What I do is more cathartic than inspiration based. Perhaps the inspiration is being in the studio itself.
15- How would someone find you on social media?
Instagram @themoonandtheidiot