Interview with Helenbar

q)Name?

a)Helena de Barros or just ‘Helenbar’

q)Location?

a)Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

q)Contact info...?
a) http://www.helenbar.com
helenbar@helenbar.com

q)How did you get started making art?

a)Ever, since I can remember. I used to go to art schools when I was a child.
I loved to draw then. When I grew up I went to study graphic design.
Before graduating I started to work with computers. I used to do my own things once in a while, but it always got lost inside my drawers. The internet was a great challenge. It gave me the opportunity to show and share what I was doing for myself. I knew some wonderful artists too, and it’s great to exchange information and make friends all around the world with something in common.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)Intimate and personal. I try to do things to satisfy myself.
q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?
a)It comes by things that happen in my life, things that I like in other’s people work and things I find inside myself. Images appear in mind all the time, like awakening dreams. It is just a matter of doing it in the right way. When it’s ready I have the sensation it has always been there.

q)What other artists inspire you?

a)Making a salad of a lot of people: Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Albert Camus, David Cronemberg, Roman Polanski, Neil Jordan, Owen Jones, Joel Peter Witkin, Serge Lutens, Pierre et Gilles, Jeff Koons, Frida Kahlo, Ray Caesar, Jessica Joslin, Mark Ryden, Camille Rose Garcia… just to name a few.

q)Where can someone purchase your works?

a)e-mail me. I hope to produce some digital art prints this year with special cotton rag paper and pigment ink. By now there is possible to buy only photographic prints.

q)What is your main medium of choice?

a)Digital photomontage is the perfect medium for me. I work basically with a digital camera, a tablet and Photoshop.

q)What are you working on now?

a)I don’t have much time cause I am working on my mastership thesis right now. Hope to finish it next month. I couldn’t resist and had just make a new image too. It’s about the child inside us (there’s one inside me right now, which is a pretty crazy thing).
q)What advice could you give to someone who wants to be an artist?

a)What do I know about being an artist?! Go ask the caterpillar…
I think if you can’t avoid it, maybe it’s a thing you have to face, no matter if it will be nice or not.

q) What are you doing when you are not creating art?

a)I work as a graphic designer (which is my main activity), besides that I’ll probably be researching, reading, writing or teaching design at the university. In my free time, I love to sew my own clothes and to go to antiques fair and flea markets. Of course I like to be with my friends and to stay home with my husband, he is a collector of movies, and we are always seeing DVDs on TV.

q) What does music, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)A way to have fun and enjoy life, to recover energy.
It used to be more important when I was younger, but I still love music, nightclubbing, and music shows.

q) What does art, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)A way to take a deep breathe and go on. A way to communicate and understand the world, understand who I am. A thing that real matter to do in life.

q) Are there some web sites that You would like to recommend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

a)Oh, there are a lot of them, take a visit at the links session on my site, I am always uploading new links of my favourite artists, communities’ etc.: http://www.helenbar.com/link.htm
(Btw, I had just put “the extra finger” on it, and new artists I discovered here!)
;-)