Interview with RA
Unanticipated, RA’s ongoing series began as a self-healing process, embarked upon to “move forward and be a little more accepting, forgiving and kind” in how they perceived them-self. Through meticulous attention paid to the initial “doodles” of their body, RA was able to recognise the array of colours and tones in their skin and aims to capture this. Although professed that the intricate quality is a “by-product”, it is maintained nonetheless as central to the unique style of these drawings. This is achieved using a biro that allowed for them to creatively communicate this newly accepted self-image. What started as an introspective project has expanded into a distinctive practice that now engages others as models.
How would you describe your work?
It's hard to place my work in one genre, I'd say it mostly falls into self-portraiture because even if I don't depict my own likeness, everything I choose to draw is a reflection of myself. A single person is a whole universe and to think how we all relate to each other, linking one another in an unbroken rope through history is fascinating. Thematically, I'd say I am most interested in the idea of Oneness, I turn inward in order to be able to turn outward better. I want to keep discovering the colours in the human skin and how those colours interact with each other and their environment.
Your drawings are very intricate, how do you achieve your technique?
Funnily enough, intricacy in my work is a by-product. As I focus to pick up all the colours I work in the faintest of ink layers and by the time I am happy with the colour the details inevitably appear. It's a little like watercolour painting if the layers didn't mix but sat on top of each other. I approach most pieces in the same way, for me the drawing process itself is mostly about hitting the right colours and putting my mind in order while doing so, like completing a puzzle over an important conversation with myself.
Do you draw from a reference?
There's normally an image I realise I want, a certain pose. The next step is usually to take a lot of references when the light is right, pick out the detail and composition that I like and sometimes mix the various references, look in the mirror or add some bits from imagination. Most often I am the model, I think about my body language and poses that I go to in order to feel comfortable. This practice found its way into my work as a natural result of feeling uncertain, a few things came to pass in my life and often I found myself holding my own shoulders so one day I decided to draw that pose and the practice stuck.
Tell us about your background
It's a little hard to be succinct when discussing it, but in a nutshell, my earliest training came from observing my mother and grandmother draw. As I grew up in a town with many artists and old architecture I was naturally drawn to art in that way too and would often draw the old houses I saw there from memory when I'd get home. My first exhibition was there and it was of those beautiful old houses I saw. I was around five years old and it was amazing to communicate through art so I loved it. Later I did attend university, not when I had planned and did study Fine Art, but that was not the subject I wanted to pursue as a degree. I'm not going to shy away from saying I mostly didn't enjoy it, perhaps I went in having the wrong expectations, but that is when I stopped drawing. Life happened and I didn't draw again for around ten years, until I decided to leave my job and pursue Art as a career.
Can you share a little about the body as subject of your artwork?
To be honest, and being somewhat anonymous as my friends and family don't know my work does help, I draw the body and often hands because I am interested in connecting and as I mentioned earlier oneness. Starting from scratch by myself allows me to learn more about communicating through art, I don't have to worry about what I say or present and I didn't want anybody to influence it either. None of this was planned, it just happened, I drew what I needed to draw. As everybody understands the body language depicted it made it easier to connect. I've been lucky enough to hear people's experiences relating to my work, opinions, memories and feelings it triggered and it all makes my life richer and allows me to understand the idea of oneness a little better.
Where do you place your work?
Ideally I'd love for my work to be viewed in person, at galleries, fairs, collections due to its physical nature - it's very delicate and hard to digitise, you guys did a great job, it usually takes me more tries than I'd like to admit to get anything close to the real thing. I've been lucky for people to place their trust in me and order pieces after seeing them on my Instagram account or commission me based on what they've seen on there. For now, I only offer originals because I haven't been able to nail a print that I am happy with but maybe you can help me with that too!
Tell us about your inspiration
It's very hard to pinpoint! Just human nature, seeing people around me and how they are as vague as it sounds and how others have recorded and depicted people, their actions, relations, decisions, history. Just the big, messy, intricate, complex human existence.
What do you do outside creating your art?
Learning and making, I much prefer to make something than to buy it and that takes time, whenever possible I try to do that. I terribly miss a period of my childhood where I spent a lot of time with my grandparents on both sides of my family and could see what life is like when you live in a house you built and literally eat the fruit of your own hands. I could see and work with nature and experience the seasons and lifecycles of their gardens and animals and that gives one a level of confidence mixed with respect and humility, it's very hard to appreciate something you don't know, living in cities has robbed us of a richness we don't know we possess as people, being able to nurture and work with nature.
Tell us about your interests and hobbies which influence or inspire you
Diving into the open seas of knowledge! I can't read while I draw and my eyes are tired in the evenings so these days I listen to documentaries and podcasts, most of all I enjoy learning about all facets of history. Learning about other cultures, past and present, their crafts, social struggles, war, the directions in which the human mind can go.
Do you have any upcoming shows or publications?
Just closed a show with The O Gallery, I still have work with them so check them out if you wish!
See more of RA’s work here.