@eugenia_loli

Instagram: @eugenia_loli  

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

I'm Greek originally, but I've lived all around Europe before I came to California. I was working in the tech industry, until I got sick and I couldn't work anymore. When I finally found my health back, some 10 years later, I became an artist.

2. Tell us about your aesthetic.

Surrealism through-and-through, I think. :)

3. What is your favourite medium and why?

I'm going to surprise you, but my favorite medium is actually film. Movies. In my opinion, static art doesn't hold a candle to moving images. Immersive VR movies might outdate current movies too one day.

4. What is your artistic process like?

I find a picture that I like, and then I simply try various ideas on it. It usually doesn't take me more than an hour to finish a collage.

5. Who and/or what inspires your work?

Other surrealists mostly. In order to do art, you must look at a lot of art. People who say otherwise, they're lying.

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

I don't think that (static) art changes the way I see my world. Instead, my world view has changed by other things (e.g. what some people call spirituality), and then I simply use art to funnel these experiences. The only medium that has had change my world is again, movies. For example, The Matrix.

7. Where did you study?

I studied in Greece, I have a college diploma for computer programming and database analysis. You don't need to study art to do collage. Collage is the medium of the people.

8. Where do you see yourself in five years? Working in an agency?

No, I could never work for anyone else. Even the few commissions I do, they anger me more than anything (because with collage, you can never create exactly what the commissioner is asking for, due to the limited availability of pictures). I can only work for myself, without any boss above me. I hope that I'm in the movie business by then, or just do more illustrations at least.

9. What about in ten?

Retired. Hopefully. Have a bigger vegetable garden.

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

Nothing. It started out as a hobby, and it somehow blew up to become my day job. If people like it, well, that's cool.

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

Whole lamb on a spit. Traditional Greek food for Easter. Lamb ribs are the best. And yes, I did try veganism, it didn't agree with me.

12. Favourite book?

I don't read fiction. I'd say that I like a lot "Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness" by Itzhak Bentov.

13. Favourite genre of music?

Anything with a reverbed human voice, or with a mixed-down human voice. I can't stand at all pop music due to how high the human voice is mixed (because in pop, anything that's authoritative and clearly defined, sells better -- same thing in visual art btw). So I mostly listen to indie music from 2009-2011, which is when the reverb was in fashion. For example, John Maus, Washed Out, Ariel Pink.

14. What are your hobbies?

Collage was my hobby, I haven't had any new one since then, except a bit of illustration.

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

A movie producer, or TV show runner.