IN STUDIO with Lexi Land

   

1) Who is Lexi Land?

That’s a good question.

 

2) Explain your current body of work?

ILLUMINATING DARKNESS ‘Dissected Dreamscapes of a Lunartic’ will be a series of mixed media images and drawings.

I want to get what’s on the inside out; I’m interested in emotion, madness, dreams and the unconscious. The mixed media images have been pieced together using my visual library of body parts, I’ve taken a million self-portraits by candlelight and then spent hours cutting every part of me into piece’s to form surreal dark,  beautiful images. And ‘Dissected Dreamscapes of a Lunartic’ are a series of small pencil drawings. I’m a lunartic, hypnotised by the beauty of the silvery night melon, I go mad…  the drawings are demented erotic figures that exist from that madness.

3) If you can pick one artist as an inspiration, who would it be and why?

At the moment I love the drawings of Hans Bellmer and his dolls, photographs and paintings. Bellmer’s emotive obsession for the erotic and his twisted fragmented figures are a raw, rebellious and bold reminder to remain fearless!

4) With your own art/art practice, where would you like to be in 10 years?

Inspired, smoking cigars, using my long black ponytail like a whip, like a brush, covered in ink, getting my hands dirty, collected, written about, painted, in films, set up in a few different countries, writing poetry, naked, courageous, exhibiting and free!

5) What kind of art training have youn had?

I’m a maverick and a loner, I like to discover things on my own, at my own pace, so no ‘training’ so to speak but my teachers appear everyday in unexpected ways, unplanned and brimming with advice. I am thirsty for knowledge and naturally curious and interested in self-education. I never stop, art is my existence and my work is a personal recording of my experience in this life, it’s raw and instinctive and initiated by a true impulse to create.

6) Can you tell us about your process when creating an artwork?

I begin from a sketch- the sketch begins from a feeling, I see something that looks like something else, I examine it deeply then form an image, then one image leads to another and I develop a body of work. Then the fun part, I get naked, turn all the lights out, play dark mysterious music and light candles, I hang a black drop sheet, I set up my camera on a tripod but the tripod’s broken, so I have to balance it on a book, I choose a heavy book ‘the anatomy of the eye and the orbit’ (I got this book second hand it was owned by a Dr Wong Tze, who bought it in London in 1962 and I think it’s haunted) I set up a mirror behind the camera so I can confirm my figure is in the desired shape and the camera is capturing it. I try to get the light moody and exact, which usually leads to me spilling hot wax on my body…. I put the camera on self timer and move, I look at the image and try to get it like my sketch but I usually go with something completely different, sometimes I flick through old art magazines and replicate the figures form paintings. When I have lots of shapes to work with I upload the images, choose my favourites, cut them up, print them out and draw directly onto the surface, I have a vague idea of what I want but I always find something new.

7) In the arts is social media helpful or not and why?

Yeah it’s good – It’s quick and easy and right at the fingertips.

8) What was the funniest thing you’ve heard someone say about your own work?

X

9) What is on the agenda for the next couple of months?

The opening of my annual Lexi Land exhibition ‘ILLUMINATING DARKNESS’ it opens Wednesday September 25 After the show I want adventure, somewhere gutsy to gather inspiration for my next series.

10) What is your advice to children who want to be artists?

Nurture the world of your imagination, fertilize it, let it grow wild and allow it the  freedom to go wherever it desires. Be true to your vision and impulse and never  stop creating.

11) How are you finding the current art market?

Words on business are valuable but they are ultimately distracting and my inclination, by nature, is to be creative… I am born to imagine and I let the rest  fall in to place.

12) Name four things that you cannot do without in your studio?

Paper, Porn, Pencil,  Poetry.

13) ) If you couldn’t be an artist what would you be?

Wishing I could be and wondering why I wasn’t or questioning what was stopping me.

14) Where can we find more about Lexi Land?

Website http://www.lexilandart.com
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/LexiLandArt
Tumblr http://lexiland.tumblr.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/Lexilandart

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