Artist Profile: Carolina González

Queen of Africa

Artist: Carolina González
Business name: Supra Monster Studio
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

Websites & Blogs:
Supra Monster Blog
Neovamp Blog – this one is inactive right now but has a whole year of archives.
Etsy shop (US shop)
Dawanda shop (Europe shop)

How do you describe your work?
It’s not easy for me to describe my work because it holds many different things! Though I’m known for my handcrafted wire jewelry, I am a tattoo and henna artist, a painter, and a crafter in the widest sense of the word. For 18 years I’ve read Tarot cards and other oracles. I also make OOAK dolls, sell prints of my paintings and right now I’m entering the world of handmade beauty and health products! I’m the kind of person who enjoys doing everything by myself, from sewing my own clothes to making furniture if needed! I like to put my hands on everything, and obviously sometimes with better results, sometimes with awful results LOL! I don’t like labelling myself (or anyone), and I don’t like the artist versus crafter dilemma – let’s say I’m just a person who crafts! Also, I run a Tattoo studio with my husband, who is also a tattoo artist.

Harmonia

What is your creative process like?
I am a full-time crafter, and when I say full time I mean 60 hours a week! Since I make so many different things, I tend to work in 3-4 days series and then change the craft subject completely. That needs an organized method but it is the only way to avoid boredom for me. When I see people that make, let’s say, purses, and do not make anything else, I really wonder how they do it! Since I spend a lot of time at the computer too, promoting my shops and making contacts with other crafters/artists, I get inspired all the time by the amazing creativity I find everyday on the web! I research intensively about a subject and write down every project I want to put my hands on and just go for it! Usually music is on all day – something I share with my husband who is also a music lover. I make a simple sketch of the process to avoid missing steps and that’s all.

What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your currentlevel of artistry?
None at all. I am completely self-taught. This have made some of the learning harder (especially in painting) but I think it has helped me to develop my own style from the beginning. Since I left University I’ve been a full-time artist and I really can’t imagine doing anything else.

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
My Faber-Castell crayons, the glue gun, a brush…. and so many others! Also, the computer is an essential part of my business.

What inspires you to create?
Everything! I am a super curious person and I try to learn new things everyday. From cinema to gardening, from literature to quantum physics, from craft to philosophy, I put my nose in everything! We’re lucky we live in a time where information is everywhere, and I think we cannot stay on our own safe shell of comfort. I try to surround myself with people with many different interests because I really hate guettos, guilds, and any kind of group which is exclusive. In aesthetic terms, I am strongly influenced by rock/goth music, art nouveau, anarchism, occultism, the victorian era, the Reinassance, surrealism… the artists I admire most are Brian Froud, Antoni Gaudi and Robert Smith (The Cure) – outside the art world my most admired people are Mohandas Gandhi and Friedrich Nietszche.

Anastasia

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
Having so many interests, definitely. When something gets frustrating I go to the following project on my list! Feeling that I’m learning something new always puts me up and refreshes my point of view. The truth is that I love so much what I do that I hardly ever get frustrated – in fact what frustrates me more are my customers interrupting my work all day LOL!

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise intheir level of artistry?
Leave your comfort zone and stop complaining! You have been given the gift of art!

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
Enjoying life with my husband, three dogs and two cats. Watching horror/fantasy movies, reading, cooking for my friends…and surfing the web!

What’s your favorite comfort food?
My comfort food is solitude. Being able to work a whole day, without interruptions, is the perfect situation for me. Talking about real food, I couldn’t live without coffee!