Gina Matarazzo, Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory member provides some fascinating insights into her practice and experience as a pop surrealist, as she responds to the questions below:
- What type of art do you create and what motivates you to make it?
- What is your biggest point as an artist? [what is the 1 thing you wish you didn’t have to deal with as an artist]
- Tell us about an important life moment that influenced the direction of your work, and how.
- How has social media changed your practice?
What type of art do you create and what motivates you to make it?
I create whimsical fantasies of the animal world. Animals are my muse because of how much animals enrich our lives. They inspire us to feel true unconditional love — we love for their sake alone and don’t expect anything in return. I think unconditional love is the greatest thing about humanity, so it should be celebrated! Animals by their inherent nature, lead true and honest lives. They don’t have egos that could get them into trouble, and they live short lives, which reminds us of how precious each day on this earth is. Each painting I create is kind of an ode to love, authenticity and honesty. Animals remind us how to live in the moment, which is a universal truth that modern society needs to be reminded of constantly. What does art do, but get someone to stop for a moment, think, take it in, and enjoy it?
What is your biggest pain point as an artist?
I think this would be a common answer from a lot of artists — I don’t like that social media has pretty much dictated that visual artists need to be veritable filmmakers and performance artists. If I wanted to be a film maker or performance artist, I would have gone into that kind of practice. And it’s not that I don’t like to dabble in other areas, but when it feels like it takes valuable time away from creating art, it can be frustrating and stressful. It’s hard to know where to draw the line, when an independent artist only has so much time in a day to dedicate to creation and/or promotion.
Tell us about an important life moment that influenced the direction of your work, and how.
My Dad was a gifted musician and composer. He worked really hard over his career, had many minor successes, but he never achieved the level of success that he felt he wanted. I think he got lost along the way, just trying to make ends meet, dealing with personal issues like depression and anxiety, and I think he always thought he’d have time to create more. Unfortunately, after a certain point, he lost much of his hearing, he had mini-strokes which limited his abilities, and later, dementia wrecked him. When he had moments of clarity, I could see that he struggled with the disappointment that he didn’t accomplish what he wanted in life. He loved his family more than anything, but I think he let fear and lack of confidence keep him away from creating the music that meant the most to him. It kind of tortured him in a way. On one of his good days, he said to me, “Don’t let the things that stopped me, stop you from doing what you want in life…” And although I already knew that he let self-doubt and fear of failure get in the way of his craft many times in his life, and understood that I should not let that happen, watching him struggle so much at the end really drove that home in my mind and heart. I knew, while I watched him exit this life feeling unfulfilled, that I didn’t want my end to be like that if I could help it. I never wanted to let the “music” die inside of me so to speak. So I made that as much of a priority as I was able, making art that is meaningful to me. Every painting I create is partly for him — he taught me how to draw — and it’s one of the reasons why music is a common theme in my art.
How has social media changed your practice?
Social media has guidelines that sort of dictate how we should promote ourselves, so that in itself has changed my practice. Stopping to take photos is definitely a daily habit now. I stick by the general rules and try stuff once in a while if someone recommends something new, but I haven’t seen any substantial growth since my initial growth, so I try not to stress out about social media anymore. I think some artists feel they need to go above and beyond to create one of a kind videos that become viral…which is great if they do…but what happens if the thing you created, you absolutely HATED doing…and then you are left with the pressure of doing that over and over again to get noticed? It will take away from creation time and put you in a place where you’re spending more time doing things you don’t enjoy. So I try not to create anything on social media that I wouldn’t want to do more often. On the positive side, though, social media does get me inspired about art. Seeing art on the daily makes me more productive for sure! I routinely get re-invigorated after a long day when I see wonderful art and just want to get back to creating. Which isn’t great when I’m trying to rest for the weekend, but I store the enthusiasm for another day.
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