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Today’s Artist Interview Is With Alanna Blau From Brooklyn, NY

Whopple: How long have you been an artist?
Alanna: I have felt an artist living inside of me since I was very young.

Whopple: Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
Alanna: At age 5 I would work at my art table in our living room, making collages out of paper shapes and drawing with my toes. In 5th grade I started using fashion to stand out. I decorated my white sneakers with colored glue and used barrettes to clip chunks of braided shoelaces and lanyards into my hair. I got mixed responses from my classmates, but I felt great because I was starting to bring that artist out of me.

Whopple:  Do you make a living with your art?
Alanna:  Not yet. But I am starting to sell my work, and that’s really exciting.

Whopple: How many hours a day do you create?
Alanna: Not as many as I’d like to, but I keep an art journal of prospective projects, progress, and response to my work habits, so that when I get into my studio, I don’t waste any time. In more conceptual terms, if an artist’s work is a reflection of how they perceive the world, then I’m creating every minute of every day. I dreamed about this complex optical illusion painting. I woke up amazed by it and ready to recreate it in real life. Then I thought “is this possible to make?”

Whopple:  How did you pick your creative medium?
Alanna: I went through many media growing up, including drawing and wire sculpture. I took my first painting class in college. That one stuck. Paint is a very immediate medium, and for my expressionist style, that works well. It also has a lot of flexibility; different tools, strokes, and speeds will give the painting a very different look and feel. I can change the style to suit the mood or theme of the painting. I collage too, and I combine the two when I am trying to narrate something specific.

Whopple: What are your inspirations?
Alanna:  The layers of color that peeling walls provide, nature, things that are organic, my pet fish, the illustrators Eric Carle and Ezra Jack Keats, different colors or surfaces that are next to each other, sometimes things that are going on in the world. Shattered Houses was a response to a period a couple of months ago when there was an abundance of natural disasters in a short period of time. Spaces and dwellings are meaningful to me as well. It hits me hard when people lose that.

Whopple:  What is your favorite art related book?
Alanna:  Taking the Leap by Cay Lang. It’s about the business side of art, which I knew absolutely nothing about. She is very knowledgeable, and thorough in the information she gives, and keeps the reading interesting by including her own experiences and those of the art students she has taught. I learned art goes way beyond just making it and I feel savvier and more informed about how to be great in documenting, showing, marketing, and selling my work. A must-have for artists at all stages!

Whopple: How do you recharge when your creativity hits the wall?
Alanna:  I just do something else for a while. I don’t worry about that kind of thing. It’s like worrying about not feeling hungry again after a great meal.

Whopple:  What was your first job?
Alanna:  My sister and I babysitting our younger sister. All jobs should be that fun! My first job outside the house was at Sam Goody (remember cds?). I was one of their best promotional sellers, and I asked for a raise after a while. The manager said he pushed really hard to get me my raise (of about 22 cents per hour). It was then that I realized he was pretty low on the corporate ladder. I also realized I don’t very much like corporate ladders.

Whopple:  What are your favorite snacks?
Alanna: Tangerines, Cadbury Milk Chocolate, sandwiches, Bhujia (a very tasty Indian snack), the list goes on.

Whopple:  What gives you hope in the world?
Alanna: A holistic approach to life. I love the idea of using a combination of ideas or actions to make something work, whether it is getting better from a sickness, or achieving a goal. I think that is why I use a lot of sectioning in my pieces. It builds something bigger using different ideas. I also get hope from people like my husband, who are always ready to take the next step, and who deal with problems gracefully.

Whopple:  What Is Your Favorite Art Related Website?
Alanna:  Artnews.com. It keeps me informed of the issues and the artists who are shaping our times.

Whopple:  What do you wish you could do?
Alanna:  Be appointed to fix problems and have new policies implemented right away.

Whopple: What are your artistic goals?
Alanna: To support myself with my art, to have my art help people in some way, to never stop exploring new territory.

Whopple:  What has been your most exciting moment as an artist?
Alanna:  When I can really let go, I end up doing something a little new. When I can take my art in a different direction, it is a great moment for me. It becomes a new path and pushes me forward. I recently finished school and so I am teaching myself these days. These discoveries are crucial, but also special since I stumble upon them myself.

To See More Of Alanna Blau’s Artwork Please Visit Her Online Gallery Here:
Alannablau.lens.ph