interview BSO: Sigur Ros – Hoppípolla

I’m 30 years old since few days ago, and the first word that my Boss said me was: “Well, now you have an adult age, do you start to behave as an adult?”. To be acepted as an equal at work is necessary to lose your illusion, buy a car, don’t make jokes and don’t dream. Nothing further from my intention to dilute in mediocrity, I love to dream.

Kate, or her nickname Hoppipoppi, leave us to glimpse a dreamy and illusionary world, in her paintings. Each one is a polaroid of this world in which one I would like to live and I fight for it.

All days I ask me about the artist behind the art. How is he/she? Kate have been real sweet and we have exchanged mails that I resume on the following interview. Thanks for all Kate!

Continuar leyendo…

Jose: My girlfriend shows me your account on flickr and DevianArt. She reads that some of your illustrator are inspired on the Sigur Rós Music. I love them! Their music as your illustrations transmits a ‘travel on dreams’ feeling.  Why this oniric atmosphere? All your art follow this pattern?

Kate: thank you for comparing my art to sigur ros (: , the oniric atmosphere you say about (oniric is such a wonderful word, i never knew it existed!) is just the way i convey my imagination onto a piece of wood or paper! i can’t really explain it, its just like its part of my personality to make things as whimsical and hopeful as that. maybe its because i long to be as simple and content and free as the little people and places i create! all of the art that i do outside school is dreamy; when i go to school i have to do more lifelike work, yet i am still told that it has a misty atmosphere. i think doing work from real life and bringing it into ‘dream-pictures’ make the dream pictures seem more real and believable.

Jose: After all day on Art School, when you leave home, do you have the need to continue painting? What is your daily route? Maybe you only paint on special days or when you have a new idea to a painting. Each person has a different start point to work on his art. I feel the needed to create all time, but only some days, I get it. How many time  do you need to each paint? Is always the same?

Kate: I don’t actually go to art school yet, i’m going next year! i usually have at least one art class a day though, and i paint when i have free time at school too. i paint very nearly every day, otherwise i feel really lost. sometimes, i don’t feel like producing anything really major, so i just draw little ideas in a sketchbook. that way, when i have a day of no inspiration and i want to paint something big, i can go back to my sketchbook for ideas i had before but didn’t paint. every once in a while, though, i have a day where i don’t paint or draw at all, and it doesn’t alarm me because it feels like i am recharging my batteries! i’m not a very organised ‘routine’ sort of person, so i just tend to drop everything i’m doing and run for the nearest piece of paper when i have a good idea, before i forget what i was thinking of (:

Jose: How do you start an scketch? Some people uses lots of time to make it, with lots of details and when They has a definitive idea starts to paint on the final paper, wood, etc…

Kate: Most of my pieces start`as a sketch straight onto the final wood and paper. i never really plan a piece progressively on paper, unless its for school, though i do plan them in my imagination, if that makes sense! do.

Jose: Well, tell me more about your initial steps, why do you start to paint? Not is a very popular activity on schools.. and, when do you make decision to go to Art School? Will be a hard decision? All parent wants that children study to be engineer, doctor, etc…

Kate: I’ve always drawn since i was little i suppose, but i started to take it more seriously when i saw japanese cartoons, and i started to make pictures like that! then i realised that everybody draws anime pictures, so i embarked on developing my own style. i wonder if you can see the japanese influence in my pictures still? i made the descision to go to art school when i was about sixteen, and spent about a year convincing my parents that it was the right thing for me to do (:

Jose: Well, why wood and gouche in your paints? How you start to work with wood? is easy? Do you use another materials to create paints?

Kate: like painting on wood because of the surface, and because the finished piece always looks more professional. i started working on wood and experimenting with surfaces after seeing amy sol’s work! i thought that it was a wonderful idea to work with the material that you’re painting on, instead of just painting over it. i like using gouache because i can control the thickness of the paint i use, and because i can rework it. i use acrylics sometimes too, but they’re a little less versatile. sometimes paintings are easy to finish, especially if i am not distracted by school or other commitments, and sometimes they are more difficult to do.

Jose: I love the colored foggy on your paints, do you share your technique with me(us)?

Kate: hm, my art teacher warned me about saying too much about my techniques, i don’t know how much to say hehe! i think if i tell you, it might take some of the magic away (:

Jose: When you decide to sell your art? Needs money? Don’t you feel sadness when you sell your paints?

Kate: I started to sell my paintings because lots of people had suggested to me that i could. so, one christmas, i had this really horrible temporary job in a supermarket, and i couldn’t take it, so i stopped, and thought ‘okay, i’m not going to have a real job, i’ll make my pennies doing what i love’, and i started my shop again and gradually sold more paintings!

I feel a little bit sad every time i send one away, but then i think of the happiness i hope it gives someone, and the adventure the painting has in the post. also, if a painting ends up too personal, then i won’t sell it. its not all about the money, more about sharing something i love with people.

Jose: Don’t worry about don’t answer all of my incisive (sometimes) questions (:, I understand it ((:. I’m too curious, and I don’t worry to ask all I don’t undestand or what I want to know, I’m like a two year boy hehe. Be careful with the magic, is very important (: , at least for me. What do you say to all people loves your art and will read this interview?

Kate: oh! um. to everyone who loves my art: thank you! it makes me happy and surprised every time someone says something lovely about my paintings!

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