![[Valid RSS]](valid-rss.png "Validate my RSS feed")
« Guerrilla Gardening Video | Main | Activism: The 2nd International Sunflower Guerrilla Day »
Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Wendy Plovmand
By Spraygraphic | April 23, 2008
Spraygraphic’s Chuck b. interviews International Artist Wendy Plovmand about her work as a free lance illustrator for publications like BUST, NYLON, EUROWOMEN, etc, her representation (Friend & Johnson and CIA) , as well as her t-shirt project, I Am Industries.
Spraygraphic Interview with Wendy Plovmand
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
WP: I’m tremendously curious, a bit of a workaholic and I love surprises. When I was 9, I decided to become a fashion designer, because I saw a TV show about the only Haute couture designer Denmark has ever created - Erik Mortensen. I started to create strange pieces of clothes out of old furniture textiles and I arranged fashion shows with my best friends, to show my pieces and which I recorded on videotape - I was very determined. Later on I attended “The School of Danish Design”, the fashion institute, but I found out I hated to sewed and rather preferred to “Tell a story”, draw and stage-manage a project. Then I attended the Visual Communication department instead and got really exited about drawing as a profession. But above all - I always knew I wanted to be an artist!
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
WP: I live and work from Copenhagen (the capital of Denmark). But I travel to Both NYC and London on a regular basis to meet with my agents and potential clients. And of cause for the inspiration and the fun of it!
SG: What mediums do you work with?
WP: I love to develop and experiment with my work, so the more I mix different mediums and styles and influences – the happier me! As I work both as an artist and as an illustrator it depends on the project too. My art is often acrylic based and my commercial work is a mix of hand drawn objects, collage and digital drawings. I draw in Photoshop and until recently I drew everything with the mouse… People thought I was crazy! Now I bought a pen and it’s working brilliantly too.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
WP: It depends on the project. With the commercial work I get a brief and kind of work around the concept while drawing and play with the work during the process. I like that my final artwork surprises me and hate to do “copies” of my old work. When clients refer to older project, I have done, I try to do something slightly different and new. My art projects are often based on an idea, I have had in mind a longer time, and I approach it with sketches, words, photos until I’m ready and not afraid to execute it!
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
WP: I get out of my daily routines, daydream, go to a gallery show, exercise, buy a new book, magazine or a cd. The best inspiration to me is traveling, I appreciate very much to meet new things, people and cultures.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
WP: From many places, I don’t have, like, one main influence. Last week I saw a very inspiring show at Arken Museum with the Germain/Russian artist Andreas Golder and yesterday I bought a new magazine called DAMn, I can recommend both! I’m doing some art direction for a Danish fashion magazine at the moment and I still find fashion very inspiring too.
SG: How did you get into being an freelance artist for publications like Nylon, BUST, and Eurowoman?
WP: Basically I knocked on their doors and showed them my portfolio. And the jobs followed.
SG: What kind of deadlines do you work with when producing this kind of work?
WP: In the magazine industry deadlines are very short. Sometimes I’m lucky to get a week other times the client need sketches later on the same day or the day after and final artwork 2 days after handing over the job. I guess it’s obvious, that I prefer to have longer time to do a job, because it often makes me more satisfied with the result.
SG: Do the companies come back to you and say “change this” or “change that?”
WP: Not always but sometimes. Mostly it’s no problem, just a detail.
SG: How much are you willing to change? Is there some kind of negotiation process you go through?
WP: It’s not been a problem yet, once I had a client who gave me inspiration pics from another artist, and I didn’t do the job. I mean if you want something in that artists style you should hire that artist to do it right?
SG: Can you tell us a little about how your became represented by CIA in the UK and Friend & Johnson in the US.
WP: I did some research in agencies and found the ones I liked the best and thought my work would be well represented by. First I emailed CIA in London with 5 pics of my works and 10 days after they called me and said they would like to represent me! I visited them afterwards to meet them and they turned out to be really cool and professional people. F&J I meet with during a 3 months working stay in NYC last summer. I didn’t know them until 2 weeks before I was leaving for Cph, but I meet with the NYC office and had a wonderful meeting. 4 days before leaving we agreed to work together, and I’m very pleased.
SG: Can you tell us a little about your T-shirt series, “I am Industries“.
WP: That was a just for fun project I did with a friend. We were tired of seeing people wearing the same t-shirts in Cph, so we created this line to give them something new to wear and to throw a comment on the focus on identity in fashion…
SG: Where has your work been seen?
WP: All over Denmark, New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Istanbul, Japan and Korea.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
WP: Hm I don’t know yet, hopefully a lot of places. Maybe NY again, my agent just told me about a show opportunity in NY. I’m also pitching on something for Topshop, so perhaps London or all over the world if it comes out in all stores, but I can’t really tell so many details yet.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
WP: I really want to do a solo show soon. In a nice gallery maybe in Denmark, maybe in London or the US.
Maybe all three places. Besides that I would also love to do an illustrated campaign for Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Nike and Apple.
SG: What is your favorite color?
WP: Neon pink!
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
WP: Many…I love the art of Tracy Emin, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol. I think I like the pureness of their art. They work very conceptual, I like good, simple ideas and I like to get provoked and visually satisfied when I look at art. I also find a lot inspiration in listening to music especially Rufus Wainwright, his lyrics are so beautiful and very true to me somehow.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
WP: DAMn, Art Review and Tokion.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
WP: It’s been many years since I did that, but I think I’m ready to work on a new one soonish.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
WP: That would be outside the street galleries in Vesterbro (Cph) at summertime with a can of beer and friends.
Or in the garden of my boyfriends summer flat near the ocean. And in my new studio off course.
SG: Any final words of advice?
WP: Follow your dreams, (if you have the privilege to do it!), that’s the one thing you are obliged to in life! If everybody could do that, the world would be a very energetic and crazy place with a loving karma, I think.
Art:
Butterflies…an illustration for the cover of fashion magazine Eurowoman. 2008
WealthyWalls…an exclusive wallpaper design for the company Wallcollection. 2007
Catwalk Cover… for Fashion magazine Eurowoman.2007
MoshRoom… Installation view from exhibition MoshRoom in Designstore NormannCopanhagen. 2006
MoshRoom2…Detail view from the exhibition. 2006
GalleryDisplayo1… From Art exhibition in Copenhagen at “Den Fri”, 2006
Topics: Artist Interviews, Fashion, Graphic Design, International-Art, Women Art |
