Aleka Corwin
Los Angeles CA
Age 76
What keeps you excited in the studio?
I love using recycled materials, textures and bright colors. Sometimes my work becomes my new best friend and we play together for hours.
Looking back at your trajectory as an artist, how would you say your work has developed?
My work now is more confident and I can relax and trust that I know what I am doing. It’s all about trusting ( my choices, and where the flow wants me to go) and until a few years ago I felt tentative about putting myself out there in the gallery scene. Fear of rejection / imposter syndrome got in my way. Slowly my work has been welcomed and embraced . It makes people happy (which is my focus and intent ) AND it keeps junk out of the landfill and saves the earth at the same time.
What role do you think the artist has in today’s society?
We are here to create a new dimension or a 6 th sense for our audience even for an instant.Visual artists, poets, musicians, dancers, actors open a window into this new place for a short while , stepping beyond the ordinary world into a new perception for a moment out of time.
What’s the most important advice you could give to an aspiring artist?
Treat your artwork as your friend. Don’t try to force it. You would not force your friend, would you?
Does age matter in art? Why or why not?
I love being an older artist. There are warm convivial fascinating groups of us around the world, discovering new things , expanding our brains and loving working. It’s like a stew that gets better after all the flavors have a chance to meld. Of course , we have to fight to be noticed, because there is still ageism in the art world . But there are many of us, often banding together, so we are getting noticed.
What can we look forward to from you next?
My next projects are: more masks from recycled materials ( Cerberus, Medusa), more dioramas using toys and found objects, more photo collages after my summer trip to Europe , more poetry, more poetry songs. I teach parent/ Child Art classes and I get lots of inspiration from my young students.
Is there anything else you would like to share about being an artist later in life?
My mother was a painter, sculptor and printmaker until her death at 84. She was one of the NY Abstract Artists for decades. She was a feminist before there was even such a word. Her work got richer and more dimensional in the later part of her life and she is my role model.
alekacorwin.com
@alekacorwin
