Overcoming Obstacles, Defining Beauty, and Staying True to the Craft

Interview with Lea Laboy

1. Please tell us something about your background and your art journey so far.

My artistic journey began very early. However, my father, a scientist, was opposed to my artistic career. When I was in elementary school, he took me to a consultation with a professor at the art school to decide about my fate. The professor held an apple in one hand, nibbling on it every now and then, while holding my works in the other hand quickly flipping through like some photos. When she finished, she said ironically, "You probably never learned to paint, did you?" Then she tore up all my works before my eyes and threw it on the ground, saying goodbye. She told the truth. I was just a shy child with big dreams who not only had ever learned to paint but didn't even own paints or a canvas.

My first works I showed her were created on chalk paper with a hard, technical pencil. It wasn't art; it was a struggle with matter, trying to leave a mark on paper. After this consultation, my father firmly opposed to my art education. Secretly from my parents, I spent every free moment in museums, observing every brushstroke of the great masters. I dreamed of colors, of the brushstrokes of Monet and Turner. Timidly I began to make my first brushstrokes. I painted for a whole year with the lights dimmed at night so my parents wouldn't see me pursuing my passion against their will. Then a national painting competition was announced. Without any expectations, I submitted my works. The first person to congratulate me on such a big success was my father, who was overwhelmed with congratulations at the research institute. The names of the winners were broadcast across the country by various media. I, a child who couldn't hold a pencil properly, stood on the podium next to professional, professional artists, and just a year earlier, I had been skinned alive, picking up not pieces of my work from the floor, but pieces of my heart...

2. Describe what a normal day looks like as an artist.

My workday consists of several hours of painting, reading manuals written by ancient experts in painting techniques. Learning about what has been in art, what is currently happening, and what will happen in the future. It's about using this time to learn to be a self-sufficient artist who can create paints, paper, etc., so that I can continue painting before it ultimately ceases to exist in favor of artificial intelligence.

3.  Can you tell us more about the theme in your art and your inspiration?

As for my inspirations, I find them in everyday life. I'm aware that my sense of beauty differs from the standards of universally recognized beauty. What others like often turns me off, like those awful brown bags with letters that so many artists paint today, hoping to sign a contract with a brand. I definitely prefer cardboard packaging for shipping, a simple form, well-arranged letters that maintain the so-called light I learned during my studies at the Department of Lettering. Simplicity — but not the refined kind reduced to extreme distortions, rather the kind shaped by nature or by the functionality of things. I have always believed that all beauty lies in human awareness and in teaching a person how to see. This is often overlooked, and that is a great mistake, because one must develop a certain sensitivity to perceive beauty — even a radio must be tuned in order to receive the broadcast. I have the feeling that fewer and fewer people today are able, or even willing, to learn this. Instead of playing with color for hours, watching how each touch of the canvas creates the truth of the message, one simply squeezes out black, red, without contemplating the beauty of color, which in the end shapes form. For me, my painting process is still, to a large extent, about looking and thinking, and asking myself: “How should I do this?” I remember a time when I didn’t have the awareness I have today. I painted and destroyed my works, and then cried, because I didn’t have the technical means to transfer onto canvas what was in my mind.

4. Tell us about your best experience in the art world so far.

I think I have three happy moments in my life. The first was a national competition that I won, where I stood on the podium alongside professional artists, being just a child who, in one year, had done a tremendous amount of work on my own despite great external obstacles. The second was passing the entrance exams to the Academy of Fine Arts, considering that there were several candidates from all over the country competing for each spot, and the number of people given the chance to continue their education at the academic level did not exceed the fingers on two hands. The third such moment was when I received an email telling me that a prestigious art magazine had chosen my works to be presented in its pages. However, I could not prepare all the required materials within the given deadline because I had a technical failure. I apologized, explaining the whole situation, and said there was another wonderful artist who deserved my place. I gave them her details and recommended her instead of myself. Then I received another email. The editor wrote: We want you and your paintings, not someone else. We will give you more time and extend the deadline. I remember the emotion that overwhelmed me… and I knew then that all the daily work from 6:00 in the morning until late at night had not been in vain.

5. Share your worst experience in the art world.

There are so many bad experiences in the art world that it’s hard for me to say which was the worst… Was it the time I received my diploma with joy, only to have a professor tell me that this was the end of my career as a painter, because women never get far in this field? Or was it when, at a government office, I was asked to create an identical illustration based on the work of a famous artist who had refused because he considered the pay to be more of a “student rate”? Or was it when my painting professor told me that I could have taught painting at a very prestigious university because I had the talent, but my parents were honest and refused to bribe the professors — and the position was given to someone whose parents didn’t have the same moral scruples?

I don’t know; I can’t give you a definitive answer, although lately I often find myself wondering which of these hurt me the most.

Website: https://www.lealaboy.com/