Heidi Bjork is an international artist from Reykjavik, Iceland. She has been painting all her life and foucusses primarily on black and white watercolour art.
Heidi took time out from her busy schedule to discuss her art, where her ideas come from and other things. I hope you enjoy this.
How old were you when you first began drawing and painting?
I started to draw when I was around 3 and I haven’t stopped since. I started to enjoy working with watercolours about 10 years ago, I find them very natural to work with.
Iceland is a very beautiful country and its history and folklore are well documented. In what way did this aspect of Iceland alongside your country’s artistic traditions have an influence on you?
I have heard that my artwork has a raw energy in it and I like that, Iceland is a country full of energy, with hot springs and very unique landscape. I grew up with folk and fairy tales about ghosts, witchcraft and trolls. Since I was small I have always been drawn to mysterious stories and characters. And with my darkness in the background, I grew up with that. In the winter it gets very dark in Iceland for a few months. When you grow up with that, you just find it cosy and darkness can be very beautiful.
Much of your work explores passion and emotion, where do your ideas come from and do you start working on a piece of art immediately or wait for the ideas to develop further.
They come naturally to me from daily life in many different ways from various places and scenes. Music can also inspire me, I love good music and I work with music in the background most of the time. I am a romantic person, so I see something beautiful in many things around me. I very often have an idea in my mind for a while before I start working on it.
Would you say that good work arises from being emotionally engaged with a piece of art?
Yes I think if you are emotionally engaged, you can express that in your work. I think if I would have never experienced love, it would be hard for me to express those feelings in my paintings.
You enjoy working in black and white, colours considered to be cold yet the themes of your work, the passion and emotions are anything but this. Was this a deliberate juxtaposition and what do you enjoy most about these limited tones?
It started when I was doing portraits a few years ago, I found it challenging to work with just these two colours. I love the black tones and the simplicity of these two colours. It wasn’t an intentional juxtaposition, but sometimes art creates itself.
What would you say is the most rewarding thing about being an artist?
To able to create what you see in your mind and share it. Creating art gives you a voice so you can share your thoughts and feelings with others. It’s very important to me to be able to do that. I love connecting with other artists and see what they are up to, I could spend days just looking at good artwork, it gives me energy.
Who are your most important artistic influences and why?
Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Erro (Icelandic Pop Artist). I love the fact that all these artists have very strong distinctive styles. It has been important to me to find and develop my own unique style through the years.
Authors can suffer from writers block, do you ever get artists block?
Most of the time my head is full of ideas, so I am grateful for that. So it does not happen very often, if it does I find the best thing to do is just to get some fresh air and get back on it a little later.
How hard do you find it balancing your artwork with your social media commitments?
I don’t find it hard at all, I really enjoy social media. I try to give it a little bit of time every day, Social media gets more important every day. I really think it is a big part of being an artist today.
You’ve also written a book The Art of Marketing Art Online Using Twitter. Why did you feel the need to write it and what has the feedback been like?
I was getting all sorts of messages from my Twitter followers asking me lots of questions about Twitter. I wanted to give helpful information to other artists, because Twitter has given me so many new opportunities. The feedback has been very good, I have not seen any other book about this subject specifically helping artists market their art using social media.
Do you also channel your creativity in different directions i.e. photography and video?
I love photography, but it is has always just been a hobby. I like drawing cartoon characters too, so all the children in my family have some cute character drawings from me. Creating Mosaics is also something that I find very interesting and I really enjoy working with tiles.
What are you currently working on and when will you be exhibiting?
My artwork has been selected to published in the upcoming “International Contemporary Masters V” book, due for release in November. This annual art book is filled with art approved by a jury and presents the work and trends of artists from all over the world. I am very excited to get my copy. There is also something else exciting that I can’t reveal at the moment. At the moment I am also working online building my zazzle stores and of course continue to paint.
Do you have any words of wisdom for would be artists out there?
Follow your own vision and be true to yourself.
Where can we all find out more about your work.
That was Heidi Bjork. Thanks for your time Heidi and it was a pleasure to do the interview.
CHRISTMAS SALE
It's nearly that time of year when we'll be celebrating Halloween and I thought I'd do a photography special on this. Halloween, more accurately the old Celtic festival Samhain, was the time of year when the veils of the living and the dead were believed to be at their thinnest. Jack o' Lanterns were lit to ward of malevolent spirits and were originally carved turnips or swedes but are now those more familiar big orange pumpkins. In the USA, UK and elsewhere children go trick-or-treating and there are thousands of fancy dress parties. It is also big business and Planet Retail said the UK spent £235m in 2009 on Halloween-related products compared to just £12m in 2001.
I thought I'd write this blog post to explain my role as a photographic artist and my use of the camera as a tool for expression. The term 'photographic artist' was deliberate but I am equally happy calling myself as a photographer though the former really fits what I do.