It's great to meet talented artists from around the world, and I'm glad to say my idea to share artists through interviews has been followed by other European Etsy artists!
My May interview takes me to Greece, where I meet one of my favorite artists, Cristina aka Pixel Wild Child. I had already featured some of her wonderful and powerful illustrations in my post of March 30. Cristina is a talented artist who works under her own brand Pixel Wild Child. She is a fellow Libra and thus very eclectic, she loves experimenting with different techniques and materials, but she especially creates wonderful illustrations. I really love her illustrations and the great positive message that stands behind them! To me they are a celebration of life, and of the beauty and strength in each woman. Here she shares her artistic journey and inspiration with us!
- You live in Athens, Greece. Where are you originally from?
I am originally from Barcelona, Spain, a city that I adore and consider amazingly inspiring and captivating however... the love of a Greek man brought me to Greece!
When I first opened my Etsy shop back in March 2009 I was offering custom photo art from portrait photos and with this idea in mind I chose my shop name, however my shop has changed and evolved a lot since then! I added my illustrations, and even pendants and earrings and... Who knows what’s next? I can’t help myself exploring new endeavours all the time!
As a child I was not that communicative as I am today, I was a very introvert child that would become the happiest with a piece of paper on her hands drawing and painting in a quiet corner. Since then the need of drawing and creating has been coming and going through different stages of my life, I can spend a very long time without creating nothing and then feel my mind bursting with ideas and creative projects and feeling the imperious need to put them into action...it really depends! . For me drawing or creating stuff is a kind of mind and soul therapy. Everything that surrounds me disappears, it is me and my creation, it is almost like a state of trance that I enjoy like mad.
- When and how did you realize this was your real and greatest passion?
My passion keeps me in peace with my inner me and gives me the opportunity of expressing my ideas and feelings. It relaxes me and it provides me with a feeling of joy that can’t be compared with anything else. Knowing that my illustrations and crafts found a happy new home in other corners of the world just feels amazing!
Basically anything I do I do it in a passionate way because I like to enjoy what life offers me up to the last drop! Call it cooking, travelling, meeting new people, learning a new dance, a new skill, a new creative technique... and so on!
What really changed my world was realizing that there were sites like Etsy.com where you could so easily share with the rest of the world your creations and even put them for sale... and of course, taking part on this amazing creative community and meeting awesome people like you Anna has been fabulous!!!
- What are your main sources of inspiration?
It can be a word, a sentence, the speech of the person sitting next to me in the metro, a melody, a colour combo, a walk in the city centre, a walk in a park... many things really! But if I would have to say which is main source for inspiration I would say is women in general: our worries, our thoughts, our place in society, our dreams, our successes, our frustrations...
Life has affected my art in the most pure sense; there is a piece of my interpretations of life, a part of me and my experience in most of my creations in one or another way.
Art has affected my life in the most positive way... I feel grateful I dispose of this way of escape from everyday’s routine and I have this tool to express myself. It has been a source of joy and pleasure not comparable to anything else.
- Your beautiful illustrations mostly portray women, what is the message you want to convey through them and to give other women?
Yes, I want women to question everything, absolutely everything! I believe we have to break away from the old stereotypes that still asphyxiate us and make us feel miserable for no reason. We shouldn´t expect anyone to save our lives, we should feel empowered, we should keep learning and work in our self-confidence day after day, love ourselves to bits, give our love to those who care about us and accept us as we are, we should respect and value and build true friendship with men and women alike, and above all, we have to understand that us, and only us, have the reins and responsibility of the life we have chose to live.
- How does your home country and in particular Spanish art influence your work?
This is a difficult question! I have lived so many years abroad in different countries that I couldn´t answer this question. I believe my inspiration comes mostly from my personal sense of beauty, harmony and colour and the ideas and feelings I have the need to express.
- Art is about light and color! What are your favourite colors?
I love grey backgrounds in my illustrations, I think anyone can notice that in my art, against grey any colour looks stunning. I love to use colour combos of 2 or 3 colours against a natural and earthy background. Probably blue, greens and pinks are colours I love to include in my artwork.
- Did you have a formal training in the arts or attend art courses?
I wish I had and I wish I will have the chance in the future. Everything I have learnt has been through intuition, through self learning books, from studying the work of artists I admire and definitely from internet sources.
I live with my boyfriend in a tiny Athens city flat. My “studio” is the quite large desk I have placed in the kitchen where I have my computer and my general chaos. Gradually I have taken part of the living room too for my stuff since I started creating jewellery and... I am sincerely starting to have the serious need of having at least a room as my creative corner!!!
Thank you dear Cristina for such a beautiful and inspiring interview and for sharing your artistic journey and inspiration! There is a lot of passion in what you do, and it really shows! I can really feel your passionate love for life and for your artwork! We wish you continued joy, inspiration and success with your life and art.
You can find Cristina's great art in her Etsy shop Pixel Wild Child. And you can get to know more about her art and her colorful world in her lovely blog.
©AnnukCreations
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