Global Talent Art Prize
1st Winner
Interview: Margarita Frančeska Ieva Loze
28.08.2023
By The River, embroidery on fabric, lace, 12 x 23 cm, 2023
Can you recall the moment you knew you wanted to be an artist? What made you interested in arts?
I have always felt an attraction towards processes that involve making and creating. As a kid, I was very creative and always had something artistic happening on the side. I remember how immersed I was in making a plasticine giraffe in kindergarten – I was concentrating on the finest detail and spent hours making it. For me, it was not just a plasticine giraffe but a sculptural and personal creation. The necessity to make something was a natural state for me and observing something further seemed intriguing.
Nacreous Dream (fragment), 2023, hand-drawn stop motion on transparent paper, colour, sound, 5 minutes 33 seconds. In collaboration with Melanie Christine Amengual (sound)
Tell us about your artistic process and the way you brainstorm ideas? What do you usually start with when creating? How do ideas become artworks?
I work very intuitively and experientially and consciously put effort into working systematically. I work interdisciplinary, mainly focusing on hand-drawn stop motion and hand embroidery. Both of these practices are time-consuming, therefore it demands being organised.
The ideas mainly come to me through daily life experiences in combination with conversations with my family and close friends. Usually, the creative process starts with a visual image in my head that is stuck. I don’t sketch a lot, at least during the early stage of the process, because the editing happens in my head. When I am happy with the image I have imagined only then I am drawing it on paper. I create my sketchbooks with transparent paper because each book is like a draft of thoughts, and the seen-through paper layers create a movement itself from which I later fragment elements for the stop motion. This process is quite essential because that usually leads me to several drawings and thinking. In parallel, I read books about psychology, philosophy, artist biographies, art movements, dramaturgy, etc. I keep myself in a curious bubble by reading regularly. In my family and close circle of friends, we talk a lot about books that we have read. That stimulates the mind and sometimes leads to unexpected journeys.
If more practically talking, I use 24 drawings per 1 second and use Dragonframe software for my stop motion work. I prefer thinking through making, therefore I don’t work with storyboards for animations.
Photography book, embroidery on fabric, lace, found object, clamshell box, 36 x 50 cm, 2022
Do you have or have had a mentor or other special person to guide you?
My special people and main guides are my family, who are a massive inspiration to me. Also, my peers and friends I work alongside.
That being said, people who I have met as a child, have all left a huge impact on me. Brigita Daudziņa was my first art teacher, and she was the person who laid the foundations for understanding how to look at art. I appreciate that she moved me forward with her loveliness and rigidity. Another person was Patricija Brekte whose enthusiasm and colourful lifestyle made me look at the art in a very delicious way! At a quite young age, attending Peahen studio, I learned about impressionism, pointillism, pop art and other art movements, and that excited me a lot. In 2017, I was working as an intern in the silk-screen studio Luste, run by artist Sabīne Vekmane. This turned out to be one of the best and most memorable years of my life! I feel very lucky that I have crossed paths with these people.
Lastly, I have to mention the Wimbledon College of Art community and tutors. This university was magical and has a very special place in my heart.
How has your style changed over the years? If yes, could you explain why?
As I am becoming older, also the way how I see art is developing and changing alongside me. I hope it has become more honest.
Photography book, embroidery on fabric, lace, found object, clamshell box, 36 x 50 cm, 2022
Your artistic practice is very extensive and includes drawing, textile, stop motion animations, installations and others. What kind of message do you wish to convey in your art?
In a world marked by rapid technological advancements, a modern-day whirlwind of social media and the constant rush of time, I foster the slowness and intimacy in my practice that goes hand-in-hand with nature’s rhythms, meditation and poetry. Working interdisciplinary has been the key to unlocking new dimensions in my work, allowing me to shift in conversations that revolve around questions: where to direct the focus of attention and how to capture the essence of fragility and transformation.
Tell us more about what project you are currently working on?
I am currently working on the ongoing embroidery series From the series: ten stories, where I combine found objects with hand embroidery. Altogether, there will be 10 works in the series.
Photography book, embroidery on fabric, lace, found object, clamshell box, 36 x 50 cm, 2022
What will be your next project?
I want to see how my work looks upscale. The next project will be large-scale embroideries that play with different shapes and forms.
What is your dream project?
I have many dreams, not going to lie. But I will share only a snippet of one: working with a theatre.
There are many descriptions of the ideal state of mind for being creative. What is it like for you?
It is being curious and thrilled.
Nacreous Dream (video still), 2023, hand-drawn stop motion on transparent paper, colour, sound, 5 minutes 33 seconds
What is art for?
Art is for connecting the people in the world and feeling alive.
Thanks for the opportunity to interview you as the 1st Prize Winner of the Global Talent Art Prize (4th edition). Are there any final thoughts, in particular for the ones who would like to follow your way?
Art often occurs on borderlines and I find that to be very exciting! I would encourage everyone to explore what borderline they are at.