Estela Semeco is one of those artists whose style is almost instantly recognizable—any artist will tell you, that’s no easy feat. Though her passion lies in drawing, the 28-year-old Acworth, Ga. native and Reynoldstown resident doesn’t limit herself to paper and pen—she’s created sculptures, postcards, zines, 3-D works and more, and has shown in a plethora of galleries, including MINT, the Low Museum, ABV and WonderRoot. While her pieces cover an array of themes, she’s got a knack for taking weighted subjects like body image and anxiety and exposing them in a way that’s simplistic and eye-catching.
CommonCreativ spoke with Semeco about collaboration, making art in Iceland and what she’s got in store for 2014.
CommonCreativ: What brought you to Atlanta?
Estela Semeco: I moved to Atlanta mid-college in August of 2007. My goal for that year was to sell my car, get a scooter and live in the city. The scooter didn’t last long, but I’ve been happily car-free since! Plus, I was studying at Georgia State University, so I was ready to kick long commutes out of my life.
CC: What first sparked your interest in art?
ES: Definitely my sisters—I am the youngest of four girls, so they were a huge influence on me growing up. I always wanted to do what they were doing and wear what they were wearing. When I wasn’t bugging them, they taught me how to draw and color with the coloring pages they give to kids at the grocery store for neighborhood contests. We even won a giant pumpkin one fall.
CC: What does your artistic process look like?
ES: To be honest, it’s kind of a mess. [Laughs] I take lots of breaks and sometimes get stuck and have to stop until I sense a lightbulb go off in my head. Those moments of clarity are what make all the stress of artist’s block worth the while. Once I’m in that groove, I don’t want to stop until its finished then boom, it’s suddenly 4AM.
CC: Tell me about the first show your work was shown in.
ES: Years ago, just before graduation, I had three monoprints in a student show at The Granite Room in Castleberry Hill. The lacquer thinner transfers were of three different women, originally paintings of “ladies in hats.” They were all beautiful women, but I wanted to empower them, so I added kitchen knives into their hands.
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CC: What do you think about collaborative work vs. solo work, since you’ve done both?
ES: The first thing I noticed when I played with collaboration was the loss of complete control when you agree to work with someone—which at first is scary and can cause problems if you aren’t careful. The great news is that there’s a trade-off because you end up yielding something utterly new, and that moment of clarity I mentioned before, you get to share that with another human being. That kind of feeling rocks my socks.
CC: Which mediums do you like best?
ES: This is tough because my mind is so scattered and dyslexic that I often hop from drawing to collage to painting to sculpture and back to drawing again, then I suddenly want to make a book then I want to paint again. But really, my first and forever love has to be drawing. It’s my strongest focus as well as the most honest of my other mediums.
CC: You’ve had work in shows as far away as Iceland—how’d that come about?
ES: In July of 2012, halfway through a backpacking trip across Scandinavia, I had the opportunity to attend LungA, an arts festival for young people in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. I heard about it through a friend months before when she invited me to tag along with her group. I couldn’t say no! There, I took an Archeological Sculpture workshop that focused on using found local materials. I even got to peruse the town’s tidy and super organized junkyard! It was great fun.
CC: How do you choose your themes?
ES: I tend to juggle themes depending on my mood. A lot of my work is cheerful, colorful and idyllic, which I attribute to my love for folk art. Other times, I deal with darker subjects, such as my own fears and frustrations, through mixed media. Outside of that, I just make work simply out of pure enjoyment, even if I don’t plan to show it. Art to me is first and foremost, a form of play.
CC: Where can people see your work?
ES: I currently have a sculpture entitled “Suck It In” on display at The Low Museum on John Wesley Dobbs for SUPREMATI’CISM: an exhibition of cultural and aesthetic whiteness. It involves a vase resembling a mini monolith crammed full of tampons. Water was added to the vase as I was forcing the bloated (unused) tampons to fill every crevice of the vessel. The title refers to the dissatisfied feeling I suspect many women have when they try to squeeze themselves into unrealistic beauty standards. The exhibition runs through the month of February.
CC: What’s one thing you want to do that you haven’t done yet?
ES: I’m really interested in painting a mural, and even have a location in mind. Most of my work is fairly small, so I’d love to push myself physically.
CC: What do you think about the current arts scene in Atlanta?
ES: Atlanta’s art scene is spreading, and it’s really exciting for me because I’ve explored so much of what this city has to offer that I was beginning to get bored. Now that Dashboard CO-OP’s pop up artist residency, No Vacancy, has successfully morphed into The Mammal Gallery, Broad Street is attracting a crowd that it probably hasn’t seen in a long time.
I’m also really excited about the artists running The Low Museum. It’s so refreshing to see young, intelligent, and organized people giving fellow artists a place to not only show their work but discuss it as well.
CC: What’s next for you this year?
ES: This March I’m returning to Iceland to attend a 4-week art program at the newly developed LungA School! I’m not 100-percent sure what the other 19 students and I will produce, but stay tuned and we’ll all find out soon enough. I’m also excited to announce that I will be teaching my first workshop this summer at Atlanta Zine Fest’s annual conference, so make sure to clear your schedule for June 14th and come support local Atlanta zines!
Check out more of Estela’s work on Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and her website.
