ART | thomas brodie-sangster [✓]

F O U R T E E N

FOURTEEN
I N T E R V I E W

BUZZFEED ARCTICLE
ART BY ART IS REAL ART

A couple of weeks ago, I had a wonderful opportunity to attend the opening of Queen Boadicea Gallery. The entire event was wonderfully organised and I even got to see a couple of familiar faces, but what impressed me most was definitely the paintings exhibited in the gallery.

Even though that was her first official exhibition, Art has been known to the Internet for a while now. Art is an anonymous painter from an unknown part of the world, who no one knows anything about. Her works are like nothing that can be seen by other painters, filled with hidden messages, realism and the actual picture of the world. When you look at the painting, you feel like you're looking into her soul and she's telling you how she feels. Her paintings aren't just paintings, they're the kind of art that is very rarely seen.

So, naturally, I'd done everything I could to get her Skype account and schedule a Skype meeting with her. When ART agreed to it, I just couldn't believe it. The only condition was that we would do it without web cameras and I respected that.

The interview was wonderful. ART is a really pleasant and cheerful girl, whom her paintings made seem much older than she really is.

Hello. How are you?

"I'm fine," she says and laughs. She'd told me before that it was her first interview ever. "You?"

Great, thanks for asking. So, Art, I am in love with your work. Where do you get the ideas from?

She's quiet for a few moments. "It's hard to tell. Sometimes, I know what I want to say but I need to work it out inside my head first, to actually know what I need to do to tell the people what I want to say. And the other times, I'm just listening to music and randomly going with my brush across the paper, or canvas, and the painting paints itself."

That sounds amazing! What kind of music do you listen to when you're painting?

"Indie pop and indie folk, sometimes indie and alternative rock, too."

You're an indie girl, then?

"Oh, god, no!" She laughs and when I start to apologize, thinking I'd offended her, she laughs again. "No, don't worry, it's okay. I guess I kind of am, actually, but the term 'indie girl' is mostly associated with those girls on Tumblr. You know, those with flower crowns and sad faces and egdy poses and such."

You're not a fan of that?

"I hate Tumblr and everything that it represents, actually."

Why is that?

"Well, I used to have Tumblr in my teen years, during sixth form. At first, it was a great place, but as I started growing out of my teen hobbies and started following different kind of blogs, it got messed up. I got really self-conscious and felt really bad about everything I did, because those people at Tumblr, they're not friendly. They're mostly sad and miserable and that kind of energy is transferred into everyone who's reading their posts. I realized it was influencing me badly, so I cut it off. Tumblr's not healthy."

Wow, that's one different point of view from what I usually hear. Was cutting Tumblr off a hard decision?

"Yes, definitely. I was so used to being on it that not being on it felt like something was missing. But I'd gotten better in a couple of months, so it was definitely worth it. I don't think I could ever be on it again."

And what about your self-consciousness? Did that go away?

She laughs. "No, not really. It's something that never goes away."