Featured Artist: Mathiole
Where are you from? I'm from Belo Horizonte, a not-so-famous-but-still-big-city from Brazil!
How would you best describe your art style?
Oh, that's kind of hard, I often think that I don't really have a distinct style because I like to explore a lot of different areas of art/design, so I rarely stick to one particular style, but I guess I am most known for my surreal/positive/playful stuff, usually made with traditional media (mostly watercolors) mixed with digital touches. I also love to play with pop culture/parodies, retro and nostalgic stuff as well. So basically I like everything as you can see haha. I'm much more focused on the concept of the designs over their appearance. I like to think that each idea is best enhanced with a particular style, and that is why I play with all that I can.
Where do you find your inspiration when creating your art?
Like most artists, I find inspiration in the things I like. I'm fascinated by music, all kinds of art, nostalgia, comedy and positive stuff!
When did you know you wanted to make a career in the art world?
It was all by accident, I never had an actual plan on becoming an artist. It started as a fun game of copying spider-man comic covers, and then I realized I was already in college doing graphic design.
What does a day of creating artwork look like for you and how to you start your creative process?
It depends on my mood, but when I'm exited I spend the whole day creating, from the moment I wake up till late night, sometimes I even forget to eat, given how focused I get.
My creative process starts with the ideas, they come all the time...so I have a notepad to write them down so I don't forget. I usually decide which one to do by demand (if it's for a contest, with deadline), or simply the one I would enjoy doing most at the time. It's getting hard because I have limited skills and my designs take form very slowly, but the ideas in my head are popping like crazy! I'm ending up with more concepts than I can actually draw. I guess it's a good problem, right? Haha
What artist (either current or past) do you most admire and why?
Hard to pick one, I have a lot of artists that I deeply admire, but to keep the list short, I would say Vik Muniz, Banksy, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, Takehiko Inoue, James Jean and Ashley Wood (I guess it wasn't that short haha).
Shop all of Mathiole's designs here!
