artist interviews

octavia

what is your art form?

i am a writer, theatre maker and photographer.

what do you do and why do you do it?

i write poetry (and sometimes pieces of theatre), help in the creation and performance of shows and take pictures for personal, artistic or commercial use. i do these as a life long passion and a form of self expression, wether that be showing my feelings through a heartfelt poem or seeing the world through my eyes in a photograph.

who/what has inspired you in your artistic practice and why?

i have been inspired by the people I surround myself with, as i am fortunate enough to be friends with so many talented artists with a wide scope of art forms. they support and encourage me on my own artistic pursuits too, and i could never be more thankful for them.

what do you think your role is as an artist? has anything stopped you from fulfilling this role?

i think my role as an artist is to invoke certain feelings to the viewer of my art. i know whilst taking photos it’s allowed me to slow down and appreciate what we might consider mundane, but when you’re not in such a rush these things end up becoming marvellous.

what have been the biggest challenges in your artistic journey?

the biggest challenge in my artistic journey is self doubting my ability to produce something good. we are each our own worst critic after all, and that doubt has prevented me from putting pen to paper many a times.

do you believe that good art comes from turmoil and suffering, or is that a romantic notion?

i believe that it can aid in the creation of good art. a lot of art tends to be based on expressing the human condition and unfortunately, that tends to involve much suffering. to quote Princess Bride, “life is pain”.

how do you feel your age impacts your experience as an artist?

being a more youthful artist, i haven’t found my footing in terms of what type of art i want to focus on creating, and feel like i shall definitely need time to develop ideas and techniques that i can apply to them.

what about your gender/race/sexuality/disability etc.?

navigating the theatre space after recently coming out as a trans woman has been a strange feeling. with my new gender identity comes a new perspective and experiences that i’m still trying to adjust to.

when it comes to art, what would you tell your younger self?

i would honestly tell my younger self not to hold back. write as much as you possibly can, perform as much as you possibly can, create as much art as you possibly can. i feel like i’ve missed creating some rather great pieces because of my fear of failure.