Layers Upon Layers: Mixed Media Art

Artist Profile: Nicole Natri

by Cyndi on December 13th, 2007

Halloweenhead, 2007

Artist: Nicole Natri
Location: Linköping, Sweden

Blogs:
Nicole Natri Art Nicole’s collage portfolio
Nicole Natri Nicole’s personal blog

Nicole, how do you describe your work?
It’s a process of dissecting our collective history as much as my own personal one. Since I’ve chosen to work only with antique and semi-antique material in my collages, I think the stories become almost transcendent over time, somehow they stand above it.

What Religion Does to Man, 2007

What is your creative process like?
I work in a chaotic mess, right in the middle of books, papers, cutouts and sharp scissors. I’ve tried to be all good and disciplinary, but I guess I’m not that kind of girl. Sometimes I sit with my mp3 player while figuring out my compositions, playing my favorite songs over and over and over again. No wonder my brain is a mess at 3 am.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I’ve been creative my whole life, starting off playing different instruments and writing. I guess my work became visual as a natural growth from those two. A few years ago I started taking Art History classes at the university (my major for an MA) and that was the starting point for an ever evolving creativeness, like finding your true call in life.

Also, there have been a lot of creative, artistic people at my mother’s side of the family. I’m half Finnish and apparently the Natri’s descend from Russia. My soul is very Finnish, both melancholic and euphoric and I guess Russian in some ways. Why else would I feel so related to Olga Knipper? (The Russian actress married to Anton Chekhov)

Survival of the Fittest, 2007

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
Antique books, papers and sharp scissors – for my collage work. Da Vinci-brushes for painting.

What inspires you to create?
Art history, I won’t deny the giants on whose shoulders I stand. I always have one foot in the past and one here; right know in our own time. Also, I love stories, and I want to keep telling mine for anyone prepared to listen. Really listen!

Wounds, 2007

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Often I take a break to spend time doing just about anything. I know that the inspiration returns, finally.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
Find your own expression by experimenting with different materials, be sure to know what you want to tell and how you portray yourself. I like that phrase by Banksy saying: “The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don’t go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit.”

Also, don’t hazard your friends and family for opinions.

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Studies (right now it’s religious studies combined with history), café life and seeking inspiration in things around me (people, events, film whatever..)

What’s your favorite comfort food and other favorite things?
I’m a coffeeoholic (my grandma got me into the art of coffee drinking when I was around 10) so I’ll have to have a cup every once in a while. Also I like to collect weird curiosities – old insects, vintage erotic postcards, Victorian clothes, cabinet cards of people I don’t know who they are but love to adopt, to sing really loud (recently I’ve had these nightmares that my neighbors complain about me singing Christmas carols way too loud. whatever that means?) – and that’s just a few of my hobbies.

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POSTED IN: Artist Profiles, Collage, Creativity, Mixed Media, Paper