@victoriabeehive

Instagram: @victoriabeehive  

1. What's your story? Where are you from?

I’m from the south part of Belgium, where I studied Graphic Design and packaging. Directly after my studies, I left the country and start to look for where I truly belong. For now, I lived in Canada, France, Great Britain and live right now in Berlin, Germany.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

My work is colorful and confuses your eyes, many people are asking « Is it real? Is it made with a computer? is it flat? » and I’m always happy to answer that everything is real and takes some good space in my studio! I try to not make only beautiful images but to create a story around and put my emotions in it, and as a sensitive person who didn’t have the easiest start in life, I have A LOT of emotions to work with!

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I work most of the time with paper as I found that it’s an amazing medium that can be shaped easily in many ways. I manage to create whatever I want with and it’s always fun to found out the next thing I will do, but I really try more and more often now to open my work and technics to new textures to use like fabric, plastic, metal, wood, etc. It’s very important for me to respect the planet and recycle so 100% of my cardboards, for example, are from the street (shops, company dumping boxes) and I try to use as much as I can from every piece. I also keep leftovers of everything as maybe this 5cm piece of paper will be useful for the next sculpture.

4. What is your artistic process like?

When the project is for clients, I talk with them to understand what they expect from me, sketch my ideas and push to go a certain direction to fit my personality/vision. The next important step is to work on the colors, then I start to build directly. I prefer to find out solutions and style while I’m building than being stuck with a precise-and-approved sketch, it’s why my sketches are always basics and small but I give good feedbacks on the process to reassure them. When the project is a personal desire, I sketch roughly my idea and start to build directly on what is in my studio. Often I build an object before finding a way to photograph it as for me it’s more a "sculpture" than props. In this way, I have built a giant lipstick, a shiny "NaÏve", cans of emotions, a thumb stone, … there are even objects I create and have a story but are not photographed yet! They need to be seen in real.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Everyday life objects are inspiring me a lot, and of course, Nature! I see beauty in everything and I want to convince others too that an English key is beautiful, lobsters are precious, that ants are delicate! Making a peacock looks good is easy, but to make worms look beautiful, this is the challenge!

6. What role does art play in your life? How does it change the way you view the world?

I just cannot imagine life in another way, I build and draw since I can hold a tool. It helped me to express, to find energy and motivations to keep going. There are more things to see, to learn, to create. This is my way to interact with the world.

7. Where did you study?

I studied in Belgium until I get my final degree at 21.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years?

In a studio FULL of decorative and oversized objects, with a lot of flowers and life! And maybe it will be more in the south, I didn’t find my final home yet.

9. What about in ten?

I hope in the same place that I found 5 years earlier, but with even more creations and love around, and I think I want kids.

10. What do you hope to achieve with your art?

Right now I feel that I’m still learning and experimenting. In the future I hope to work on very big pieces that will touch the hearts and minds and which will be appreciated in real life, not just photographed and then boxed. I want to release my inner demons and visions in an explosion of colorful creation.

11. Now, tell us a little more about you as a person: what is your favourite food?

I absolutely love desserts, and my very favorites are those Greek baklavas and Kataifi dripping with delicious honey!

12. Favourite book?

I read a lot, but one of my favorite books is « The encyclopedia of absolute and relative knowledge » from Bernard Werber.

13. Favourite genre of music?

I love very cheesy music! Elvis, Andrea Bocelli, and Michael Jackson are my top 3!

14. What are your hobbies?

Reading books and comics, talking with friends, talking with family, talking with strangers, snorkeling in summer, helping people/animals, observing human behaviors, drinking cappuccino, baking cakes and tarts, riding my bike, learning new things. I also run on the evening sometimes, but this is more a need than a hobby.

15. If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

Probably nothing as I would be very unhappy. The truth is it’s a good way to know how I feel, I can create only when I feel good. I can deal with negatives emotions but only after it’s gone.