Welcome to my first installment of my “Artist Profiles” segment featuring a good friend and fellow Spartan, Ali Manion.
I’ve known Ali for roughly a year, but I wasn’t aware of her artistic talents until a few month ago. It wasn’t until I finally got the chance to check out her artwork that I finally figured out what all the buzz around her was about. To put it simply; I could spend days flipping through her sketchbooks! And her paintings are nothing to be ignored either. She was nice enough to sit down for an in-depth interview and give some deep insight about her artwork. She’s definitely making a name for herself in the realm of fine art. I’d definitely be on the look out for her. Here’s the interview:
Great art comes from a great source of inspiration. Where do you get most of your inspiration for the pieces you paint?
I’m one of those people who tends to get inspired almost constantly; the world amazes me, and I find that my inspirations are endlessly evolving as I progress as an artist. I’m strongly influenced by nature and am fascinated with the shapes, textures and colors that appear in the natural world. The creature world inspires me as well, and the diversity and vivacity of all forms of life. Another one of my main inspirations is music–for me, the marriage between visual art and music is so close, as music motivates me in an abstract way and conjures up shapes and imagery that are impossible to put into words. I am also inspired by the sky and the notion of deep space, both of which strike me with their unpredictability in color and form. Above all, I guess I would say that existing on this incredible planet is my main inspiration.
Is there anything you’re trying to communicate with your audience? Anything you hope they get out of viewing your artwork?
I leave most of my work up to individual interpretations–I love hearing people’s reactions to things that I’ve created, and I feel that a lot of my work allows for freedom in communication. I definitely hope that my audience gets a sense of optimism as well as wonder while viewing my artwork; I like to think it has a definite sense of positivity, and an element that provokes curiosity. I also hope they get a sense of who I am as a person and my approach to life, and maybe I can share a bit of that with them…being upbeat, easy-going, seeking out positive experiences…
When did you first realize your talent in art?
I’m definitely a lifelong doodler, and art is something that I’ve always felt I could express myself through and really loved. It wasn’t really until a few years ago that I started to hone in on having a personal style and approach to art that is all my own, which I did mostly by narrowing down mediums to discover the best ways to create what I wanted to express. But for as long as I can remember, I have had an itch to put pen to paper and create my own visual world.
A lot of your sketches and paintings have a “psychedelic” flavor to them, is this influenced by anything or anyone?
I think a lot of that stems from my love of music, and may be connected to a lot of the shapes and ideas that music can conjure up in my mind. The psychedelic flavors could also be attributed to my obsession with color and my bold use of it in my work. It wasn’t really a style that I took on intentionally, just sort of an innate preferenced aesthetic that began to emerge as my art progressed. A lot of the shapes and symbols I use are things I have been doodling since elementary school, so I guess in that sense I had a leaning towards psychedelic patterns and imagery before I even recognized that style.
I’ve also noticed a lot of pieces that remind me of being deep underwater or up in space. Is there anything you can tell us about these styles?
For some reason, I’ve always had this thought about water and space somehow being interconnected… I grew up as a swimmer and spent a lot of time in the water, and I think that sensation of weightlessness and physical freedom that you experience while underwater must be similar to the experience of floating in space. I always tend to use a lot of patterns and intricate designs, which remind me of the miniscule underwater life forms, but also of the stars and other matter suspended in space. Both deep water and deep space do seem to appear in my work, and I can only describe it as my attempt to capture a feeling of floating in freedom.
You’ve also been to Africa. Is there any African influence in your artwork?
Definitely. I went to Kenya for two months, and it was the most visually stunning and overwhelming place I have ever experienced. I really got a sense of life at its most raw, most wild, and I loved it. The riot of colors in nature, as well as culture, were stunning. African influence has definitely appeared in my work since; I adapted some of the freedom of color that the Kenyan’s favored, and the wildlife has continually shown up in my work as well. Africa is the most visually inspiring place I have visited yet, and I imagine that the things I saw and experienced there have influenced my artwork in ways that I probably have yet to even realize myself.
Your “Beatles” trunk is something that always gets a lot of attention. What can you tell us about it?
I bought the trunk at a garage sale, mostly because I loved the leather detailing and the vintage look. It was painted white at the time, and I instantly knew I wanted to turn it into a canvas. The Beatles were basically the soundtrack of my childhood and something I grew up on, and many of their songs have taken on new meanings for me as I’ve progressed as a person, and as an artist. The idea to make each portion of the trunk based upon the lyrics of a different song stemmed from a simple doodle I sketched while listening to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”… I love the imagery in this song, especially “tangerine trees, marmalade skies”….”kaleidoscope eyes”… This doodle inspired me to create the landscapes that many of my favorite Beatles songs take me to, and I then transferred these thoughts to the trunk in full color. It gave me the freedom to technically make each side of the trunk an individual piece of art, while connecting them through a central theme of music and the power that lyrics can have in our lives.
Painting is something you do very well, but are there any other artistic mediums you’d like to pursue in the future?
I’ve spent some time playing around with ceramics, which I find to be a very organically expressive medium, but have not evolved in this medium to the extend that I’d like. That’s definitely something I’d like to return to in the future, especially since I’ve cultivated a style and mode of expression in a two-dimensional medium. I’d also love to do some experimentation with more graphic and technical methods, and I hope that one day my learning curve for design software can keep up with my imagination. Glass blowing also intrigues me, and I’d be thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue that in the future. I’ve definitely narrowed in on painting as my main method right now, but I am always open to try something new and to learn as an artist; I think this can allow for a whole new range of expression.
If you could be any animal in the world for one day, what would you be and why?
Hmmm… although my favorite animal is an elephant, I would want to be an owl because I would definitely want to be able to fly, and I think owls are just plain badass, nocturnal birds with the most incredible feathers.
If you’d like to find out more about Ali and her artwork, you can email her at manional@msu.edu
