Hello, happy first tuesday of September... I know, I know three quarters through the year month eek!! I feel like I've run around the first three days of this month constantly shouting 'how did that happen?! how did that happen?!' Geez, you think 2013 would give us some courtesy to catch our breath, just a little...but no! Anyhoo, it is tuesday so YAY it's artist interview time, eeeeeenjoy =)
Tell us a little bit about yourself & what kind of artist you are.
I go by many names, but the names I've been using now are Miss Coconut (which has become more the name of my business or business-side rather than just me recently) and Eny or Eny Space Captain. I love sciences and numbers (though I wouldn't actually proclaim to be very good at math). I like to do all sorts of different art: Drawing, painting (mostly watercolours), or mixed media are probably my favourites.
What is the biggest challenge you personally face as an artist and how do you overcome it?
My biggest challenge is probably procrastination. When I need to begin big projects or end them, I tend to procrastinate most. I get overwhelmed with either having to start somewhere or ending and realising I will need to start something again. I can't think of any methods I have to overcome this, except to just observe that I am procrastinating and sit down and do what I need to do. I will sometimes make lists to help myself get organised and find a place to start. (Though I end up losing them sometimes and have to make them over again...)
What is your greatest personal achievement either in your art, or because of it?
I have more confidence now. Selling my art requires contact with, you know, -- actual human beings! What! -- And that, through the experience of selling my artwork, has given me more confidence in talking to people and being straight-forward with decisions. In addition to selling my artwork, I've been 'doing art' for many years now, and I'm at a place where I can really say I enjoy the outcome of my artwork more often than not. This has provided me with confidence as well (or did I get more confidence which inspired better work/a different outlook? Both?).
I've also seen things I like about working on art. I really value boldness in art. When I see someone creating and they are bold about it, confident, -- they know they can make it even if it doesn't seem that way at that time, or they have an idea and go for it boldly instead of deliberating every little thing, -- that's when I think, 'That person really knows what they're doing!' I'd like to be able to do that, not just in my art, but elsewhere in life too.
What do you most wish your art to achieve? / What messages do you try to portray in your work and do you feel you achieve it?
These questions, for me, are very close and difficult to separate. Art is about the execution of an idea, not the idea itself, -- so, sometimes I just want to make pretty things with no real message behind it. But my brain is always going (well, I certainly hope it is!), and many times, even if I just wanted to make a pretty picture, I had some message lingering in that purgatory between sub-consciousness and consciousness that I may vaguely register. Though, it perhaps isn't a message I'm intending to share, but rather an idea I want to use because I personally enjoy it.
Generally, I try to have at least slightly ambiguous emotions, because I like the idea of people viewing the piece and putting some emotions to the picture so they can relate to it, creating more of an interactive experience between the viewer and artwork. I hope this helps people feel less lonely, seeing a piece that, in some way, reflects their own feelings, at least a little bit. Of course, my own feelings are in them too. I 'think too much', so my ideas, beliefs, thoughts, interests, &c are present as well. People may not see it all the time; and I have a difficult time talking about them sometimes, so I may not point them out directly. I'm sure some are more obvious, though.
Thank you for sharing Eny =) what I've taken from your interview is that I am beginning to register the 'message lingering in that purgatory between sub-consciousness and consciousness that I may vaguely register' in my own work too. I remember reading something in a creative writing course once, about how we can only ever produce work that will clearly show the traces of our own minds in them, even if we are unaware of it. In arts case I think we sometimes think it won't because we are just 'playing'. But it has made me occasionally not so much analyse, well yeah may be a little, what I have created in a new light...allowing my conscious to give space and focus what is going on in my subconscious.
I think if we all just concentrated a little more ~ listened to what we were telling ourselves a little more ~ we (well, I, for one) would be filled with so much more wisdom. I intend to make more of a conscious effect because it's always there, available in abundance when we give advice to our best friends, but rarely registered in reference to ourselves...but as artists we are lucky; if we look, it's often right there, in our art.
You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.
George Bernard Shaw
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