DOWNTIME w/ Eugenia Loli

1) Location? Tracy, CA, USA (originally from Greece) 🇺🇸/🇬🇷

2) Years collaging? Since April 2012

3) What do you love and hate about collage? I love the surrealness of it, but I hate the fact that you can never make exactly what you envision since you'd need the right pictures for it -- that usually don't exist.

4) Biggest influences? Cur3es, David Delruelle, Magritte, and musician John Maus.

5) Analog Vs Digital? I prefer to use digital but paper collages are more beautiful in person than prints. The real scissor cuts add to the surrealness. The crafting part of paper collages is more pleasurable, as is everything that is being realized with our own hands. You do get some street cred for it too. Digital collages on the other hand are much faster to work with and digital workflows liberate the artist. You don’t have to deal anymore with limitations of sizes and decisions made in the 1950s by some editorial guy who put together a magazine back then. The decision on the size, direction, flip, colors etc are now yours.

6) How do you spend your downtime? Illustrating. Or watching sci-fi on TV.

7) Three tips for someone starting out in collage? Market your work with the right tags, mostly on Instagram (the other social media are dead regarding artist recognition). Watch a lot of art to get influenced and grow as an artist. Buy your own 13" printer (I'd suggest to low-cost Epson 7610 that sports archival inks), so you can sell your own prints and limited editions at your own store (I use TicTail.com). Don't think you can make a buck by only utilizing third party stores like Etsy, or Zazzle, or even traditional galleries. You can only sell enough if you make the art about you, via your social media, when everyone recognizes your name. Then, you direct them at your own store, where you can set your prices. Exporting for things like tapestries, iphone cases (but at your own prices), helps too.

8) Up and coming shows or projects we should know about?  I don't like working with galleries, most of the time I get ripped off at shows. I just illustrate/painting when I don't do collages. You can have a look at my illustrations here @souliotissa

Links:

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/eugenia_loli
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EugeniasCollages
Website: http://eugenialoli.tictail.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EugeniaLoli
Tumblr: http://eugenialoli.tumblr.com/