| SARAH LARNACH - profile! |
| Written by Sian Haydon | |||||||
| Wednesday, 09 March 2011 16:18 | |||||||
Her watercolour paintings are a little bit gritty, a little bit cheeky, and intriguingly beautiful. No matter what words I use to describe her work, visual artist SARAH LARNACH is a true artistic genius!
I'm sure you've probably caught yourself looking at her illustrations before, for example: LADYHAWKE's album and singles covers, as well as featuring in the music video for 'My Delirium'. Scrolling through her blog, I find the rest of Larnach's work really mesmerizing, including a seriously cool Halloween costume from last year.
After spending a few years in the land of Oz, the talented Larnach has returned to the place she calls home, right here in little old New Zealand! Upon discovering this little piece of information, I think I will now proceed to stalk her. Who wouldn't? She loves dinosaurs...
COUP DE MAIN: Was art and illustration always something you wanted to pursue as a career? SARAH LARNACH: Yes. I wanted to be an artist when I was young, but my mum, an artist, made me promise not to be one. I wasn't aware of creative jobs growing up, so I didn't really look into anything else in 'the arts'. Consequently, I was pretty lost when I left school and after much trial and error and time wasted, I found myself at art school in my twenties - it felt really good to excel at something, so I kept going. After that, 'work' just kept finding me; exhibitions, my work with Ladyhawke, the support of a patron (Element skateboards, through their Eden advocates programme), an agent (International Rescue)... and now the galleries are getting fancier, and the album art requests keep coming, and I'm feeling very lucky to have this as my job. BUT if this art thing doesn't work out, I'm going to study paleontology and hypothesize new visions of how dinosaurs might have appeared, because there are some details we will never know for sure.
CDM: What or who inspires you to create art?
SARAH LARNACH: My friends are my driving factor - I make art for the amusement and delight of my friends and myself. The artists who inspire me with their vision and imagination are Richard Avedon, John Waters, Tim Burton, Dorothy Parker and Crispen Glover... there are no painters in that line-up because I am paranoid about looking at other painters' work. CDM: I see you worked on some products for Esther Diamond, how did this come about and what inspired the designs? SARAH LARNACH: Yeah, I just got my cushions and tea-towels from them and I'm super happy with them! The Esther Diamond people approached me about using some images for their new artist line, and were happy to let my usual darkness shine though. They had a small set of criteria and I found some images and sketches that fit the bill, and then after a little work... we had some arty homewares!
CDM: Do you have a favourite piece of work that you have done? What is it that you love about it? SARAH LARNACH: 'Beam Me Up, Hottie' is my most recent large work. It's three-dimensional, with five or so layers, and a moving part - the UFO is manipulated by a hidden lever. It's a self portrait because the model is easy to direct and doesn't question my motives, and a little ego is necessary for art's sake. But, if I could have had Agent Dana Scully pose for it, I would have. CDM: When working on illustrations what gets you in the creative mood? Do you listen to any music in particular, drink lots of coffee…?
SARAH LARNACH: Ooh, to get in the mood a coffee helps for sure, and if it's a real desperate situation I burn some incense! While I am working, I'm afraid that I don't like to listen to music, but rather I listen to audio books cause they keep me in my seat (crime thrillers seem to work best). Or I might have DVD's relevant to my subject playing.
CDM: I hear you’re collaborating with Ladyhawke once again on her new album, and you judged a Ladyhawke competition for Laneway Festival which sounded exciting. Are you able to tell us a little about these projects? SARAH LARNACH: Collaborating is my favourite... this time around there won't be so many cats or pastels, but I can't divulge much more about the artwork for the new Ladyhawke album. There were terrific entries for the Laneway Festival competition to create a zombie Laneway comic scenario and it was really hard to choose the winner... I wish there had been more than one prize. CDM: From what I can see you’re a very busy lady! What else have you got planned for 2011? SARAH LARNACH: I need to get a good studio space set up, but project-wise yes, there will be more work with Ladyhawke, as well as something for World Wildlife Fund, more work with Element, and an art tour and a solo show, and I plan to to do some directing too!
QUICK-FIRE FIVE... Favourite place to be... My Mum's Kitchen in Nelson and outside in the sun with friends and cold beer. Favourite ice-cream flavour... Dairy-free mint chocolate. Guilty pleasure... Powdered cheese. Celebrity crush... Kristen Wiig. Favourite thing to do on a rainy day... Sleep in, under a corrugated iron roof.
HEART LISTENING = Youtube-battle-party dirty hip-hop classics.
HEART WATCHING = Chatty Man Alan Carr, sciency-type Documentaries. HEART READING = John Waters and David Sedaris and pop-sociology stuff. HEART IN GENERAL = People watching, cooking, and having friends around.
Check out more of SARAH LARNACH's work on her website HERE. |
