Lila de Magalhaes FULL INTERVIEW with StarFish Magazine

 Edited Interview available @star.fish.magazine on Instagram

Eleanor:  Have you had any formal education for your art practices?

Lila: I did my undergraduate degree in Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art from 2004-2008 and my masters in fine arts at the University of Southern California from 2011-2013.

Eleanor:  Are there any ways that your upbringing now influences your art? Like the area you grew up in/ your hobbies/ the adults who were around you/ what you played with as a child.

Lila: I am lucky to have grown up in an environment that valued and encouraged creativity even though "fine art" as such was not really in the picture. My mother was a ceramicist making utilitarian goods in a home studio in Brazil and later became a Waldorf School teacher in Switzerland. That was also my kindergarten to highschool pedagogy which comes with its own particular aesthetics. Gnomes, fairies and animals were often the protagonists of our narrative learning. We were given exclusively large chunky beeswax crayons with which we somehow drew everything for a few years.

Wool and watercolors were also often the mediums we were taught to work with and as much as I tried to get away from these organic materials that lend everything an ethereal softness, I admit that these qualities are still very much present in my work today.

I played outside a lot and used snails as characters to act out little plays together with my friends in the local woods. I feel bad about that now for the animals but we had a muddy fun time projecting on to these creatures. Though going for long hikes with family or the girl scouts seemed terribly boring back then, I am glad for it because today I draw so much from the natural world. Sometimes good things just radiate down into one's foundation even if I didn't understand its value.

My father had an extensive and eclectic collection of music and that definitely expanded the creative part of my brain. 

Eleanor: Who would have been your biggest inspiration/ influence up to this point? 

Lila: My friends and community. Of course there are so many well known artists that move me and that I could list off but the biggest influence on me comes from the people I live alongside and who I get to have intimate conversations with about art and our inner and outer worlds and who support each other. Some of these people are incredible artists like the sculptor Nevine Mahmoud or photographer Barak Zemer but I get just as inspired by my friends who study acupuncture or work as therapists for example.

Eleanor:  How would you describe your creative process? What do you do when you have a creative block?

Lila: I find it one of the most mysterious things, the question of "where do ideas come from?!?". I have started things from all different possible entries and still don't have a solid template format of how I draw an elusive feeling into materialising as an object in the room. I think that is partly what keeps me intrigued, confused and excited about making things. It took me a long time to trust my subconscious to bring up things that I get to sift through and edit over time.

Right now I have the luxury of having the time for a creative block so I am letting my critical mind recover from my last big endeavor. I am currently amusing myself by crafting felted bugs and silk roses for my wedding dress without engaging my intellect for the next exhibition. But when I have to get back into the studio flow, I try out new ideas by drawing a lot. The sketchbook and pen feel like my private little room where nobody is watching and where I dare to show myself unfinished thoughts. Sometimes the cerebral takes the first steps but often my hands and the materials show me the way and the mind tags along. Going on walks seems to generate ideas too, so that's a simple trick and generally trying to crack myself up is a good motivation. I see making art as a digestive system necessary to process the human experience.

Eleanor: What images and themes do you return to in times of peace and happiness, do these change in times of sadness or crisis?

Lila: What I am always drawn to are discords and harmonies that are pushed together to co-exist. Images that draw you in with a sweet smile but are charged by some ominous unrest, something grotesque that also offers opulent beauty, so what I mean is I always want it all and all at once.

Eleanor: How does the symbolism on your pottery come to you? (The one where there is a lady on a dolphin reminds me of Wedgewood pottery where they reference classical urns and imagery where Cupid riding a dolphin would be put on their vases a lot). 

Lila: That is an interesting parallel! I never knew of this “dolphin riding cupid urn”. The way I employ symbolism is less from research and more from my own sense of how an image affects me psychologically and physically. I made that series of vessels inspired by the fantasy of being a potion maker, capturing specific moods or feelings and bottling them. For "Bubble" that you mentioned, I wanted to channel a sexy sense of freedom and fun, and riding a pink dolphin naked in sparkly water just hit those spots for me. Yet "bubble" also suggests delusion and disconnectedness from reality and I like that being mixed in there too. Other bottles are more somber, for example one called "Fertiliser", displaying a pregnant woman surrounded by flowers and giant worms weaving in and out of a molten red surface. The name of the "product" suggests the potent power of making things grow but the combination of a smiling woman and the monstrous worms is confusing since we are not sure what exactly this potion is intended for; Pregnancy? Gardening? For me, these symbols create a tension that activates the piece. Maybe what we find repulsive is essential for the fertility of the earth (worms loosening the soil) and we are at the end of the day not separate but all a part of this earth. I hope this long winded answer demonstrates how I utilise imagery in my work - It is like my personal chemistry set of symbols that when put together in certain combinations, spark certain reactions and thoughts.

Eleanor: Why do you think you are drawn to more pastel/ muted colour palettes? 

Lila: That is something I do subconsciously, but I think it might have to do with my attraction to the sheer, the things that are not actually physically there but that are a felt reality. Though my work is figurative and uses recognizable imagery from the world around us, my intention is to capture internal spaces on a feeling dimension, a representation of a psychological atmosphere. Maybe the immaterial quality of transparent or soft colors aids me in attempting this lense. Ah, and then there is the Waldorf influence I mentioned earlier which I gave up trying to shed.

Eleanor: Are there differences in the process between your 3D, more sculptural pieces and your 2D works? Are there differences in the topics and emotions that each of them deal with? 

Lila: Working three-dimensionally is so much quicker for me, and I enjoy the almost manic quality of my drawings as I scratch them quickly into the clay. The embroidery works that end up reading as paintings are extremely time consuming and charged with a lot of focused energy. I am glad for the back and forth between ways of working which keep me from getting fed up from repetition. I like to think of time as a texture you can recognize in a piece of art. When I create a body of work, I employ these contrasts as a part of the conversation between individual pieces.

Eleanor: How has finding commercial success in your art and being able to sell it changed how you view it ? And who would be some of the well known or influential people who have bought your work? 

Lila: My view of the work has not changed but I do find myself at times pausing and worrying about whether something I have an impulse to make might be received well in a commercial sense, as in, will people want to own this thing I am pulling out from my inner well? When nobody expected anything from me, there was this invisibility that granted me a feeling of total freedom like dancing in the dark. I do not enjoy these considerations and doubts this reality brings to my intimate relationship I have with my work but it is real especially if you have started to rely on the sales for your livelihood. This is an ongoing tension I feel and do my best to overcome with loyalty to myself at my anchor. I want to make work that I mean. Once that changes, I'd rather get another job.

Regarding who the people are who have bought my work are, though I am truly grateful for everyone who supports me, I don't think sharing their identity adds anything to the understanding of my practice.