- Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you started your adventure with doing art?
· I’ve always really loved comics and cartoons, and fantasy and storytelling, so in high school I started designing my own characters and stories. Moving to a bigger city to go to arts school afterwards was a big step for me in the right direction, and I wanted to get my artwork out into different places and on different projects. So I started showing my work to galleries and submitting to contests, and working on comic projects and exhibiting at conventions, and things moved along more and more.
- Where do you get your ideas and inspiration for your work?
· I feel inspired by lots of things- almost everything, from interesting words to beautiful things in nature both large and small. Even textures and fabrics can fill me with ideas.
- The girls in your paintings have very pretty faces – please share your story how you develop the characters through their faces.
· I know with my girls and characters that they have something to share and I want to feel what they express, and express what they feel. Emotion can play a role in how I want a figure to express themselves, they might be crying or looking shy, or full of wonder. These expressions are important to me and to them.
- Your girls appear to be main characters in the paintings together with little animals as supporting actors. Can you please share the relationship or meaning between them?
· Often my paintings will have thoughts or ideas that build into them, and the animals can be symbolic. Sometimes an animal can stand for multiple symbols, like butterflies or lovebirds. Butterflies are beautiful but also signal change and have a short lifetime. Sometimes the animals build a theme, for instance, Canadian Tiger incorporates animals all found in Canada.
- You chose many different colour lines. I feel these lines create excitement for the audience. How did you choose your color pallet?
· My colours can sometimes be a reflection of what I want to express, or what the painting wants to express. I love colours so much, I want my paintings to share that, and often strong colours contribute to the fantasy element or place-less-ness when the figures are in a colourful emotional space you can’t place geographically.
- As an artist what message do you carry?
· I think as an artist I have lots of different feelings and messages at different times. Some of them are very personal and show only through the finished painting. Some messages I’m more vocal about. For example, my painting Zebramilk features an endangered Zebra Shark and the girl is crying tears of crude oil- spills of which are threatening our oceans and their wonderful creatures. However, my paintings messages can also be deeply personal and interpretive to the viewer. I’ve heard lots of different interpretations, everything from paintings about lost love to girls wearing helmets from alien visits. If these messages make a positive impact on the viewers experience I think it’s great they can have that experience of my art.
- What part of the creative process do you find the most difficult? Is there anything, in your opinion that you would like to improve?
· I think a hard part of the creative process can be if I have a tight deadline, or something comes up and makes my schedule tighter for getting to spend the full amount of time on a painting comfortably. I’ve had many long nights in my studio painting until very late, because it can be hard to fit everything in, but the paintings must take time. I think this is challenging for lots of artists too.
Visit her website at www.camilladerrico.com
And online store store.camilladerrico.com where the sales directly support her.
She like to chat with her fans and post new art on facebook.com/camilladerricoart
Twitter @helmetgirl
Instagram @camilladerrico
And Camilla d’Errico on DeviantArt
