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What inspired you to create art and become an artist? (events, feelings, experiences...)
I started drawing and painting when I was very young after I saw the Mona Lisa and an aboriginal painting, they instilled my love for art and as I got older I started to express myself more through art after realising how I could use it to tell my story and show the inner parts of me.
What is your artistic background, the techniques and subjects you have experimented with so far?
I started painting and drawing when I was young and then I went to art school and got my UAL in fine art. I mostly use acrylic paint but I’ve used paint pens, oil pastels, oil paint, charcoal, pencil, water colour and clay. I enjoy experimenting with many different mediums and letting my inner workings dictate which one I’m going to use.
What are the 3 aspects that differentiate you from other artists, making your work unique?
I have a very expressive, bold and colourful style, it’s telling the story of my life being intersex/trans and I’m very versatile in my mediums and the different ways I can paint and draw.
Where does your inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes from expressionism and aboriginal art mostly, but I get inspiration from anything; music, books, clothes and the things I overhear people saying.
What is your artistic approach? What visions, sensations or feelings do you want to evoke in the viewer?
I let my emotions guide me completely when I paint or draw and I want to make the viewer feel the rage, power, uncertainty and love I feel all at once and how chaotic my world view can be sometimes. I also want to express how I see womanhood and the way we’re perceived and the darkness that can come with being a woman.
What is the process of creating your works? Spontaneous or with a long preparatory process (technical, inspiration from art classics or other)?
I’m very chaotic when I create, I do whatever feels right to me and speaks to me in that emotion I’m feeling or at what I’m trying to express at that time.
Do you use a particular work technique? if so, can you explain it?
My technique if I could explain it is letting my subconscious and feelings take over and not trying to control anything.
Are there any innovative aspects in your work? Can you tell us which ones?
I’d say it’s my use of colour and the way I layer them to create depth in faces and movement and my mark making with whatever I’m using.
Do you have a format or medium that you are most comfortable with? if yes, why ?
Acrylic paint, I like that I can keep adding and adding to it and I like the life and death nature of it where I’m controlling it fully and getting it to do what I want it too while it still has an element of control and unpredictability over me too.
Where do you produce your works? At home, in a shared workshop or in your own workshop? And in this space, how do you organize your creative work?
I paint in my apartment and I put all of my work in a safe space and date and title it and if it’s on paper I put it in a portfolio.
Does your work lead you to travel to meet new collectors, for fairs or exhibitions? If so, what does it bring you?
It does not.
How do you imagine the evolution of your work and your career as an artist in the future?
I hope to get comfortable in a different medium and master what I’m already doing and I hope to progress my art style and keep evolving it. I like the endless possibilities and freedom and the fact I never have to stop creating.
What is the theme, style or technique of your latest artistic production?
The theme would be my memories and life experiences and the technique would be expressive.
Can you tell us about your most important exhibition experience?
My most important exhibition experience I had was when I was 14 and had a painting exhibited that I painted with my fingers showing the nazi occupation that happened where I lived for a theme on world war 2, it was an extremely surreal experience and I still going to view it at the opening and how it felt seeing it myself on the wall and seeing other people looking at it.
If you could have created a famous work in the history of art, which one would you choose? And why ?
The birth of Venus, it’s my favourite painting of all time and I love the way it plays with form and composition to constantly hide and show the vulva and other things related to woman. It is the most beautiful painting of feminity I’ve seen and it makes me feel so ease within my womanhood and how I feel and the colours add to that effect for me
If you could invite one famous artist (dead or alive) to dinner, who would it be? How would you suggest he spend the evening?
I’d invite my biggest inspiration Maggi hambling, I’d love to sit down with her and discuss the way she views painting and drawing and the importance they have for her and why she uses oil paint and how she translates her feelings and memories into her paintings while smoking a cigarette with her.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli 
