ARTIST LEO GREENFIELD
EARLIER THIS MONTH ‘THIS IS NICE’ FASHION DIRECTOR, ALEJANDRA GARRAN, HAD A CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST LEO GREENFIELD TO DISCUSS WHERE HE FINDS INSPIRATION, THE POSITIVE SIDE OF INSTAGRAM, AND A FEW OF HIS FAVOURITE THINGS. All featured Art by Leo Greenfield.
ALEJANDRA GARRAN:
Could you tell me about how artwork started for you?
LEO GREENFIELD: Drawing has always been a part of my life, from watching my Dad draw pictures for me as a little kid to keeping notebooks as a teenager, making pictures and wanting to draw is part of who I am. The starting point for me is that drawing and working to make an artwork is about documenting personal experiences. It is a reflective process as I draw and create from memory.
AG: If you weren’t an artist, what would you be doing now?
LG: I admire people with trades, from builders to couturier, so if I wasn’t working as an illustrator I hope I’d still be working with my hands to make things.
AG: First painting you fell in love with?
LG:
I don’t think I could ever narrow it down to just one, I am fascinated by the works of Edouard Vuillard, especially his treatment of patterns and textures. However, the first time I ever saw a painting by Peter Doig in real life in Paris, I remember thinking that the colours looked almost magical.
Also…My Grandma Dacia used to paint with me as a child, we used watercolours and I still remember the pictures we would make together. Dacia kept painitng, whether illustrations on letters for the post or on canvases and I treasure them to this day, especially now that she has passed away.
FAST FAVOURITES
AG: Artwork of yours?
LG: All my notebooks, they are my most precious, in them is where I keep my notes and develop the paintings and prints.
AG: Place?
LG: Paris
AG: Person?
LG: Can’t do without my family and my partner.
AG: Song?
LG: Elton John’s ‘Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters’.
AG: Vintage item to find?
LG: A Versace Tee-shirt that I have now worn to bits, the Medusa logo is falling apart.
AG: Beach in Sydney?
LG: Bondi Beach
AG: Coffee Shop?
LG: Icebergs Pool Café
AG: Color?
LG: Blue
AG: Medium?
LG: Watercolour/ notebooks/ ink
AG: Muse ?
LG: Joan Didion
Leo’s muse, Joan Didion with her daughter, Quintana Roo, photographed in 1968 by Julian Wasser for Time
Listen to Leo’s favourite song, Elton John’s ‘Monda Lisas and the Mad Hatters’, here.
AG: Favourite creative memory?
LG: Drawing a Chanel Haute Couture collection in Paris on Rue Cambon for an assignment for L'Officiel.
AG: I discovered you on Instagram. Many of the artists I end up purchasing from I’ve found on the platform. It feels like I have more of a relationship with the artist this way. How do you feel about instagram and the interaction you get with your followers?
LG: Social media opens a window into the world of the maker, it allows you to share your work in live stream, so it gives the sense that you are telling your story in your own voice. I think it shows part of the process and the hard work that is involved, it also allows the maker to give context to their work. Making contacts with people and building relationships through this is also very rewarding. I love making the work I do and to think that I can share it with my friends and people in my wider community is an honour.
If you had a uniform what would it be?
White shirts and navy chinos.
AG: What are some of your favourite artists and where do you find inspiration?
LG: Alice Neel, Kiki Smith and Louise Bourgeois, are three artists that I am particularly interested in, although their work is very different they all approach art making through observing and knowing the human form, their work for me is powerful, as it is deeply personal.
fill in the blank, ‘it’s __________ to be nice’
‘IT’S GENEROUS TO BE NICE’
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