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Steel Roses Podcast
Steel Roses is a podcast created for women by women. Social pressures for women are constant. Professionals, stay at home moms, working moms, we are here to tell you that you are not alone! This podcasts primary focus is providing real honest content shedding light on the daily struggles of women while also elevating women's voices.
All women are experiencing similar pressures and hurdles, and yet, no one is talking out in the open. If these topics continue to only exist as whispered conversations then we further permeate a culture of judgement and shame.
Join Jenny weekly as she discusses topics that effect women in a relatable, honest way.
Steel Roses Podcast
The Art of Being Seen: Lucia Jones on Women in Frame
Lucia Jones, a Welsh painter with international exhibitions and prestigious recognitions, discusses how her artwork explores the female experience through memory and identity. Her paintings, which often feature women with obscured eyes, serve as vessels for viewers to project their own experiences, creating connections that evolve with each viewing.
• Supported by women throughout her life, Jones now creates art centered on women's experiences
• Uses cinematic imagery and found photographs to create anonymous female figures that any woman can identify with
• Employs layered painting techniques to create fractured environments that represent memory and emotional states
• Explores performative femininity and the consciousness of being seen through her exhibition "Spectacle"
• Creates paintings that change meaning with repeated viewings, allowing personal interpretation to evolve
• Examines liminal spaces where women exist between their public and private selves
• Uses color symbolically, particularly green tones that can be both isolating and calming
I want my work to be a safe space for women to feel what they're feeling deep down. Art should be for everyone—a space of inclusivity and expression. The key is making work that people can connect with; that's what gives art its validity and purpose.
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Hello everyone, this is Steel Roses podcast. This podcast was created for women, by women, to elevate women's voices. I am very excited today to introduce you to our guest. We have Lucia Jones with us. She is a painter based in Wales. Since graduating from Falmouth University, she has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions, most recently completing an artist residency in Virginia and exhibiting in New York. Jones has also been long listed for a number of art prizes, such as John Moores 2020, 2018 and 24, as well as Jackson Art Prize 2022 and 2023. Her work is held in private collections in Australia, austria, hong Kong, mexico, the UK and the USA, and she was recently acquired by a public collection, which information on that is soon to be released. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Jenny, it's lovely to be here.
Speaker 1:And you know what? I didn't ask you actually before Lucia or Lucia.
Speaker 2:Lucia, but Lucia, you actually before Lucia or Lucia.
Speaker 1:Oh, Lucia, Lucia. So Lucia, I want I I have a lot of gushing that I want to do about your art, but I'm going to hold that back. I'd really like you to introduce yourself to the listeners and let them know about your journey, how you got to where you are with being an artist, how you knew that you wanted to lean in there, and then also we'll talk a little.
Speaker 2:Know about your journey, how you got to where you are with being an artist, how you knew that you wanted to lean in there, and then also we'll talk a little bit about your process and some of the individual pieces. Okay, great. Well, I think from a young age I was always creative and when I was thinking about coming on this podcast, I was thinking about this sort of journey I've been on and it has actually been led by the women in my life that I've ended up in the career that I am. I was very fortunate to have a grandmother who took me to museums and a mother who sort of built that interest in art and creativity and allowed it to flourish. It's quite a dicey career to get into in terms of financial stability, but they've always been these cheerleaders in my life. So it's quite poetic for me really that my work has ultimately ended up being about women and about that female experience. So that's how I've ended up where I am really, and my work itself, as I said, is about the female experience for me.
Speaker 2:When I was, when I started painting properly I say properly, but like at university, when you're really kind of trying to establish what your inner voice is trying to say and what work you want to put out into the world I almost shied away from the self because you don't really want to talk about yourself in your artwork.
Speaker 2:A lot of artists are quite the same or quite introverted, and it was only through going through that process of university and over like the last 10 years I realized that that is where my work lies and it's about my engagement with the world and what I was sort of latching on to finding interesting was exploring these sort of female experiences and they're kind of unique in a way and how we engage with the world collectively. There's how people are reading the work, and it was leaning towards women for a long time. So, um, yeah, I've kind of landed in this space now where it's a more informed, uh commentary on those experiences and sort of allowing this inner world out there that other women can engage with, because I think we've all sort of treaded these liminal spaces that are in my paintings from time to time, you know.
Speaker 1:I love how you got to where you are. That's part of the story because you had the support of people saying, like you know, you should go for this. And it's interesting because a lot on a lot of other episodes, the creatives that have come on have flat out said, like nobody was supporting this, everyone pushed me in the opposite direction and, honestly, like a lot of the creatives that come on, didn't return to their art until they were much older because they were pushed into corporate, you know, or pushed into, you know, a traditional quote, unquote career. So I do want to commend you on really focusing in here and establishing yourself as an artist, because that in itself is very hard and I will admit, like hands down, because I dropped my whole creative like really long time because, again, I was pushed into the whole. You know you have to make money. You gotta, you gotta go for it, you gotta go for the money. You can't be like fooling around. I'm, like you know, it's a little bit sad because there's probably a lot of people that are very, very talented that drew back and were like, well, I can't do this, it's not gonna, it's not gonna bring in the big bucks. So, like you know I love that you have gone as far as you've gone and I love that your work is now being recognized and I had explained this morning and listeners.
Speaker 1:So when Lucia and I connected for our intro call, I looked through her pieces and I was like, oh, I like a couple of these I had. You know, I walked away from some of them feeling like, oh, this one looks a little bit sad. Walked away from some of them feeling like, oh, this one looks a little bit sad. This one feels like a little bit more, like it's fun and inspiring. And today, before we recorded, I opened the pieces back up. There's a virtual gallery, so I'm going to link everything in the description of the podcast. You can all check it out, but she has a virtual gallery and when I looked again this morning I walked away with like a different feelingcia is that? Is that quite common like? Is that a common thing for folks? Like when they're viewing the art, like they walk, they see different things in it every time they see it yeah, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:It's funny really, because some of these paintings, like in my recent show, they've they've been a few different places and it quite often happens with artwork that some paintings they stick with you a little longer and they go in various shows or they're in short lists and whatever. So they get displayed in various audiences and you get all these different reads on the work and, like we were discussing earlier, sometimes I get a different read after being away from a painting for a few years, like and I say away as in, like when you're working on it. I tend to work in series. There's usually like six or seven on the go and they're all chatting with each other. I treat them like people almost. They're all, all in conversation, they're, all you know, bouncing off each other. But when they're put in isolation, so I say, like in a show, on a wall and they've got space around them, and then people come up to them and they say, oh, I see this in this or you know, I've been, I feel, drawn to this painting, you think, okay, so you're seeing that, whereas I was coming from maybe a different headspace or something.
Speaker 2:I kind of love that about my work, in that people read these. They put their own memories and their own experiences onto the paintings and onto the women in the paintings, because they are in themselves ciphers for memory, but they're not, you know. So I say they're directly correlated to my own memory, which they are, my own personal history, but by using found imagery for these women and they're kind of like there's this disconnect, but then you can like hang yourself upon them if that makes sense. So I paint from films a lot and um, there's quite a lot of like Liz Taylor's floating around my work which have been obscured a little bit, you know, and that sort of means onwards sort of era cinema. But by taking them from their original context and painting them and sort of throwing them into these fractured environments, they become these hangers almost for putting your own self onto them. So yeah, it's part of the work in a way for me and it's exciting just seeing them change from space to space, you know.
Speaker 1:It is very, it is interesting. I actually like the one, so let me pick one out, the one that I had just talked with you about. So the name of the painting itself is I Can't Fit Into this Dress Anymore. Which listeners, you all might've gotten a chuckle just there. But because it is, it's, it's almost like you. And then you try to picture like, well, what could Jenny possibly be talking about? Like what, what is this painting painting appear up.
Speaker 1:It's a very moving piece because, you know, it's a little bit of a darker framework. The colors are on the darker side and it's a woman who's you know, looking into a mirror of her. You know vanity and you could see that she's has an outfit on, but it's not quite zipped up all the way. The title is an obvious title, but looking at the piece itself, it it draws all these different emotions.
Speaker 1:Now, the first time that I saw it I I guess it was very topical for me and I looked at it I was like, yeah, she can't fit into her dress. Oh, it's sad, the colors are on the darker side. But today when I looked at it and maybe it's also because of the time space in between, I don't know, maybe it's because I'm in a different headspace today. Maybe if I look at it again in a month it's going to feel different, but today when I looked at it it didn't feel sad.
Speaker 1:It felt and I don't want to say inspiring, but it felt almost calming to look at it, because she doesn't seem upset to me in the painting anymore. Now it seems to me that she's almost like just like, yes, this is me and that's how I felt today when I looked at it. So I was curious about that piece and your development there, your color selection almost too, because the green gives me a different vibe than you know, like a red would have given me a totally different look. So I'm curious about that piece um, yeah, I love this one.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's inspiration. My source, imagery wise, was from the film Blade Runner and also this photo of Sophia Loren. I'd seen um on Instagram just scrolling. You know I tend to grab a lot of things from my sort of peripheral visual where you know you just actually do on Instagram. Anyway, blade Runner is a film I've revisited several times in my practice.
Speaker 2:I just love it visually and Ridley Scott's just amazing, and every scene in the film in the original it's like a painting. So visually it's just like I'm like a magpie, I'm like, yes, I love this and I love that sci-fi as well. But the the context of the film and it talks a lot about memory and what memory is and how memories make us humans. Essentially, one of the messages within that for the, the main female protagonist anyway, she's an android but she thinks she's human because of these memories have been put in her mind. So that's kind of like in the background, sort of artsy, kind of like where, why I selected it? But this scene it's an abandoned room and I just thought I quite like this feeling of emptiness. And there was this light just in the corner and I thought, well, I quite like the idea of there being this sort of symbolism, with this light being on. It's like hope, it's like an idea. It's it which is where this kind of change, I think, and I find looking at the painting comes from, because you can read so many things into the things that are included and you know, like a mirror, you're looking at yourself. Are you judging yourself, are you getting yourself into the position doing your makeup, where you're ready for the world, putting your mask on, you know? So, yeah, that's kind of where it is in terms of headspace. But I quite like this, like you said, this sort of thing of she's content in a way, because initially, when I was painting it, a lot of the work is about my own personal history and you've all been there, kind of you put on something that you've had about six years ago. You can't get into it anymore. But I'd come to a point in my life when I painted this where it was almost like I realized a few things and consolidated a few things about myself and how I feel about my own body, about where I am in terms of, like, my career choices and things, and it's, you know, releasing that into the painting, you know, and it's I can't fit into this dress anymore. Okay, where do we go now? Kind of thing. And it's a quite lonely place to be. But it's also quite a liberating place to be.
Speaker 2:And you know, the choice of green green was in the original image but, um, I work from. But it's also quite an interesting color. It can be quite isolating and quite calming at the same time. It's like a forest. You think of this visceral reaction to the color green. It can be so many things and it's not like in a set space, if that makes sense, whereas red is very solid and it's very much one note.
Speaker 1:You know You're right, green is very fluid. You know it's funny. At work, in my daytime job, I've actually said to people like please don't, if you use red font in like an email to me, I'm going to assume that there's an emergency. I'm like I didn't, please like. And then if you and I and I've said that I'm like red highlights to me mean like this is bad and I'm like can you please just put green, blue, like use any other color.
Speaker 1:Yeah, red is very like alarming and for obvious reasons, like it's not very, it's not like a deep, deep rooted thing. It's obvious. You know, as you were talking to and I I maybe maybe that's why it feels different to me too now, because, as you were talking, I can't fit into this dress anymore is to me now I'm thinking like it through, like more topical, because it's also could be like the dress is symbolic for your life. I'm not fitting into this anymore and you're kind of just like looking into the mirror to really really see yourself to say like this isn't for me anymore. I'm ready to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I very, very much like this piece this morning, kind of I think I said it to you earlier like knock the wind out of me and I'm like, oh my God, what happened?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a wicked way. I love painting it and it was kind of a challenge for me as well, which I quite like. So it was like bursting forth into this new frontier of what I was doing. In terms of the material qualities of the painting, the lace curtain on the side I've been sort of gravitating towards curtains for a while and I just love, again, the symbolism of them. They can be used to like reveal, conceal what's behind it, what's going on. You know, in more recent work where I'm looking at like performative femininity, it's like the staging and this kind of like ta-da.
Speaker 2:I did one painting which was just like, um, it's a bit of a joke really, but it's these curtains, and then there's this black void in the middle, um, and I think they called it yeah, here we go again. It was kind of just like ta-da, like I got nothing for you, or like ta-da. This is what it is, you know. Anyway, back to this one, the curtain. I use a vinyl cutter to create like shapes within my work and get this sort of really crisp, clean kind of edge to a lot of the areas of the painting. So I thought, as I usually do, I try and I try and go for all or nothing I'm going to do. A lace curtain drove me absolutely crazy, but in the end it worked. So it was kind of like oh, I can actually fit into this new space of painting, which I didn't think I could achieve, you know. So, yeah, meanings of the paintings they just change and change and they just keep growing for me.
Speaker 1:So it's quite nice to look back on it you know you referenced your other piece, so I do want to talk about this one too, because I didn't mention it earlier. But for here we go again. So for listeners, I want you to take a look at the, the virtual gallery, so you can see everything that we're talking about. Here we go again. So it literally is like a curtain stage, like parting, like that, like it's the opening show, and I saw it and, yes, like the middle of the black void. But I don't know why I caught this feeling of like this is how I feel every single day, like you're about to put on this big show, and not so much like, okay, here we go again. Like, oh my God, all right, here we got to go all over again. It's almost more like in those. So in the mornings I get up and I'll meditate, or do I just quiet, read, like I do things in the morning. That's just like Jenny. Jenny by herself is Jenny. The here we go again.
Speaker 1:Painting made me think about how, okay, I usually will have to set an alarm for myself to say, all right, jenny, like this is your Jenny space. But as soon as that alarm goes off, you have to go and be mom and be a professional and be a wife and, you know, do all the things. And the black void in the middle of this painting to me was more of a hey, jenny, now you're going to put all your other hats on and you're going to go and do your thing and then there's going to be a curtain call at the end of the day where you can just be Jenny for a little while again. And it sounds a little strange the way I'm saying it, almost like I don't know how to, I don't know. I think all the moms that are listening right now are all the women listening are probably like yes, we get you, because there is a part of us that's like we have to wear so many hats during the day. And I've often said you know, angrily, by the way, I've often grumbled this really angrily there's not a minute of my day that's not accounted for there. Every minute of my day is either it's going to be to my professional life, to, you know, my family, to my husband, like to cooking, to the clean, you know, whatever well, actually not the cleaning, I'm not doing that anymore. But you know there, you know it's accountable. I'm accountable for every minute of the day to somebody else and so to have a moment behind the curtain, that's just Jenny back there. It's a very powerful thing. So I saw that and it's funny that you like you made that through line just now. But I'm like I I saw them like wow, I'm like, if you really think about it, like this isn't just, it's not just curtains Like this, is you like opening up your? You know, I'm ready to go, like here we go. Um, yeah, I thought that was very interesting.
Speaker 1:There was another piece here that I wanted to explore a little bit with you. No, say honey, go tell Poppy please. The other piece give me one second. The other piece, um, is, give her a minute, she'll be back. This one I like brought to you right away when we, when we hopped on, I was like I need to show you these pieces that like popped out at me today. So, yeah, in this image, um, you can, you can see it when you, when you're looking at it, that you're basically inside and you're looking out windows and to me, I saw this and immediately thought of my home office, and there are quite often times during the day where, if I'm like really overloaded or really busy with things, like I will take five minutes and be like, all right, when's my next call, when's my next thing, and I'll go and sit outside in the sun like, all right, when's my next call, when's my next, you know thing, and I'll go and sit outside in the sun.
Speaker 1:I actually like I will take little like little vitamin D breaks, basically, and be like I need to just get away from my space for a minute and just take a deep breath and like kind of reorient myself because I mean I'm like a constant, like I'm on and I'm very busy right now.
Speaker 1:So I'm like constant. And so, looking at this piece, the colors themselves, the colors inside the space are very bright and almost like we're bright, we're popping, we're here, we're busy, we're doing things. And then you can see in the background again the calming greens, and you get the image almost because you can't quite see her. But there is someone back there, hidden partially by the greenery, and to me this is almost like a calming moment to see that, because immediately I was like that's like what I do To take a step outside of your space, where everything's loud and again where you're accountable for everything, and go and take a step away into something that's peaceful, to just take a minute, and then you're going to come back and you're going to do your thing. That I like. I, yeah, went through so much looking at that painting, but when you read it like exactly how is it intended really?
Speaker 2:it's just give her a minute, she'll be back. It's kind of like my paintings are almost not like. They're sort of like things you wouldn't say out loud sometimes and it's like just give me a minute, I need some headspace, I'll be back. Like just two seconds almost. So she is just sort of wandering this sort of heat and like just getting a minute away from herself. But what's quite interesting with this one as well is quite a lot of people. They do miss this little Easter egg. There's a woman right in the very bottom left corner there's a little glove and she's quite abstracted.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I didn't notice that. Yeah, she's kind of my little Easter egg in there. It kind of, for me, brings the work back to this almost awareness of self, and you're looking through a window at yourself. So she's off on her own, but you're very aware of what you're doing. I think, as women, we're very aware of what we're doing with all the times, like you said, this, like every minute's accounted for, you know, and how we're perceived. So it opens up the conversation down that angle as well.
Speaker 1:But it's very much a painting of just give me a moment, I just need to be you know, I wonder if I would have gotten there eventually, because now, as soon as you said that I'm like well, now I'm looking at this totally differently. This is like her psyche took a break and she's still in there doing the thing, but like she mentally like oh my god, now you've got me I love doing that to people.
Speaker 2:When they watch this painting, I go oh, and this one, and this one.
Speaker 1:They go oh, can you see, I was like, yes, now I'm looking at this totally differently. She is concealed, but she is always there.
Speaker 1:Wow, oh my gosh Now. Well, now it's like a whole other meaning to me, because that's the other part of it too. The other element is, yes, like I could be here present doing all the things, but my mind is constantly like, okay, on these other hundred things that, like you know, or even like taking that mental break, oh my gosh, now I'm going to have to take another minute. Oh my gosh, yeah, give me a minute. Man, you know, yeah, I, what you've done here with creating these pieces and listeners. I really encourage you to take a look through them and almost like bookmark it and then go back, because it you get a different look every single time, or you get a different feeling, or it tells a different story every time you look at it, and it's such a honestly, what a tremendous gift you have.
Speaker 1:I don't think that's, yeah, a tremendous gift you have. I don't think that's yeah, I honestly like I don't. It's not common and you should be proud of yourself for this, because this is something that one, many of us, many people who are creatives, will step back. Obviously, like I said that earlier, for traditional careers, and then there's a lot of folks that wish they could tell this story, the way that you did and be able to pull these, all these little elements. Now I'm staring at the hand of the glove and I'm like having a hard time because I'm like, my goodness, there's all these other things that you could pull through into this painting and all these other feelings. That's such an amazing thing.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, I just yeah. I hope that the book as well. Well, thank you. I just yeah. I hope that the work as well. It allows people to get in their feelings a bit and it allows a safe space for women to, you know, feel what they want to feel what they're feeling deep down, you know. So it's from me, but it exists in its own space that people can connect with then. So it's, yeah, I hope that the work um does allow people to do that, and that's something I sort of came to a realization with at university.
Speaker 2:It's very much when you go to car school, you're like I want to be the next Lucian Freud I want to show in the tape, blah, blah, blah. You know, I want to. You know all these like amazing, like dreams, and you should have that mentality. When you go in, you should be like, yeah, I want to be epic, I want to do this, be the best artist I can be, and I did that for a while and you end up like imitating a lot of artists and you learn that way. So it's part of the process, you know. But, um, you suddenly reach this. I think it was one of my tutors, mark Seragis, an amazing painter. Everyone should go check him out. He's fantastic. And what kind of artist do you want to be?
Speaker 2:It's the second year when you know things get serious and you've got to start thinking about your dissertation and all this kind of stuff and I said, well, I want to make work that people can connect with. And I think that's when you get to that point, that's when the work suddenly starts to click, I think and it's taken me 10 years even from that point to sort of really fully embrace that and it doesn't really matter how successful you are in terms of finances and stuff. All of us are great and amazing and sort of accolades and things. As long as you're making work that people can connect with, it's got validity, I think. And it's got validity, I think, and it's got purpose.
Speaker 2:And I think, like a lot of artists, there's some artists this one has recently passed Jack Vectriano. He's an amazing painter and he's self-taught and he's um, he's beautiful, almost 1950s, 40s scenes of women and couples, all sorts of very romantic, you know, absolutely sort of shut down by. You know the typical sort of the art world. You know the sort of that stamp of validation, but his work speaks to the general public and you know if you can hit that kind of if anyone's wants to be like an artist or anything, hit that sort of crossroads of you know, the general public and responding that's what you want, really, because art's meant to be for, you know, everyone this sort of space of inclusivity and expression and it's it's meant for everyone, you know.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I you touched on something there, though, that I think that I want to, I want to highlight and it was really there's, there's part here where you do want it to be for general public consumption. Obviously you want to hit a nerve, but you also want to be, like, true to yourself. Like what? What is, what is the message that you need? What's the story you need to tell? What's the message you need to tell?
Speaker 1:And for you, as an artist, that will probably shift throughout your life. You know, like I mean, I'm certain, like your pieces must be so like different, totally different from, like you know, year to year, decade, year, decade, decade, even like month to month, because, like I mean, my reaction changed from the first time that we chatted to. Now, I mean, my reaction changed to it, so I can only imagine how long does it take you to like from start to finish, and is it really start to finish? Like, is that the journey? Or do you ever have a piece where you're like I don't feel like this is done, but it is done, kind of like?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's overall like your art practice. It's very non-linear, um, there's a lot of like loops and circles and you end up on it's like a roller coaster slash, sort of cross-country wandering down lanes kind of feeling to it. So you end up circling back on yourself quite a lot and it's recognizing those patterns and things that you keep circling back on yourself quite a lot and it's recognizing those patterns and things that you keep circling back to. I think that's that's what your key message is, I think, and it's something that will keep refining and coming through in your work. And I think, as you create more like the key to refining your practice is just making it. Unfortunately, that's the way. There's no, there's no quick sort of jump across or anything like that. It's you just got to keep making work and some of it's going to be a bit rubbish, some of it's going to be okay. You know, a lot of mine end up in like this sort of corner of shame in my studio. They're just like no, I absolutely like I turn them around, I'm like, I'm like, lady, you gotta go, like I'll do it. But they sometimes get resurrected and brought back into the fold, you know. But yeah, that's how. So I find the key message and it's a process of filtration as well, and the more you paint, the more you learn, the more you get better, or what you're doing it comes down and boils down to these key kind of threads, you know, and that's how I see it anyway.
Speaker 2:But for me, yeah, there's a lot of. I tend to have an idea of some sort of thing I want to explore or understand a lot of minor questions. So, say, I've got, like my solo show that came up recently in Oxford Spectacle, where a lot of these works are from, um, a lot of it there's a question of sort of why am I interested in these sort of performative characters, you know, and what, what am I trying to get at? And what I was trying to get at, it turns out, was sort of this idea of being seen and how we respond to that idea of being seen as women, and the performance sort of side of it was feeding into this idea of performative femininity and how, like with a lot of women I paint, they have these sort of masks, slash no eyes thing going on.
Speaker 2:I did. I noticed, yeah, um, and something like, oh god, so brutal. And I'm like, well, yeah, it is a bit. But you know, sometimes your eyes are terrible to paint. Anyway, that's another side story, but a lot of it's about, like it was this idea of being seen and being conscious of your actions and kind of playing on that sort of adage of the eyes are the windows to the soul and this kind of thing. So you know, you kind of as you make you understand and then you kind of get to the point of what you're trying to question. That was a very roundabout answer, but yeah, it's kind of questions and answers. It's my process, like why am I doing this?
Speaker 1:You know questions and answers. It's my, my process like, why am I doing this? You know, I tell you, I know I did notice, like the theme throughout, where you do have like the, the wrap basically over the eyes, or the, the gap in the eyes, and um, and it almost well, listeners, just you have to go look to see it but it looks a little a bit like a face mask, like across the the top of the face. But I didn't see that, as you know, like a missing piece. I didn't see it as as something negative. I actually saw it more as a. This could be any of us.
Speaker 1:This is all of us all of us fit into this. That's why there's this missing piece here, because we are all this person and we can all fit into this scene. Everybody could fit into one of like. That's actually how I looked at it when I saw that. Was that the intention?
Speaker 2:yeah, I started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's because I started working with like cinematic imagery and obviously, like you have, like famous actresses, and part of it was like creating anonymity in the figure because I didn't want them to have the context associated with, either like the film directly or, you know, the actress themselves.
Speaker 2:So that was where it came from. But it has become, like you said, this thing of it can be anybody and as well the mouth is quite emotive and I think it can often be more emotive than including a whole face and it leaves this sort of room for interpretation. And the way I sort of like cut the space out as well, it's like the space around the figure is like the headspace almost. It's like a continuation because of the way I paint and the layers I put down's. Like the space around the figure is like the headspace almost. It's like a continuation because of the way I paint and the layers I put down, like the layers are painted in isolation as well. So there'll be like almost shards of different like ways of painting on the surface. So, yeah, it all kind of again, it all feeds into itself and then you start to realize these little niggers come through, you know, and they become your practice.
Speaker 1:You know, I honestly like I find them very moving. I love that you focused on on women and our stories and really like the, the idea and everything that we go through. Because if you look through the pieces and listeners again, like I really encourage you to look and then take another look in like a month, because the pieces themselves, like it's funny because the what? When I first looked at your collection, not all of them caught my eye and today when I looked again, I was like oh, there's like a whole bunch in here that I really resonate with. Like what, what happened over the? What did I do to myself over the past like month or so, or two, two months that we were like that all of a sudden, like all these pieces are jumping off the page. So it's, you are definitely, I think, hitting a tone here and I think you really are. If you haven't, I know that you have big news that you're going to release in the coming months and weeks. But I mean, I really highly encourage everyone listening to take a look through the collection and honestly just see it, because this kind of art from Lucia is so important and I think that it really highlights women and what we go through and you can pull something from each. I mean I'm looking at do you want to form an alliance with me? And it's like I'm like, oh my God, I'm like these pieces are just like they really do speak to you, they really do.
Speaker 1:And I actually really love the title of your exhibited works here Spectacle because it all ties through there and it's almost like, oh well, don't make a spectacle of yourself. But at the same time, women themselves are something to me admire. Obviously I'm going to say that, but there's an admiration there of like women in general, and I'm not talking about like women up on the silver screen, women in like high and mighty places. I'm like the everyday woman is is a sight to be seen because of the amount of things that we do, because of the amount of things we carry on our shoulders. This is quite. This is something you know. And and calling your, your, your, your exhibit a spectacle, I thought that was like really cool too. I wanted to tell you that.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, yeah, it's. It's interesting that you said that as well because, like, throughout as you're making the work, and again it's this process of going through it almost as you're making it, seeing what you're getting at, and the painting that you mentioned, um, do you want to form an alliance with me? Absolutely, I do. With the last one I painted, and it was like this re-ownership of the spectacle, and it was like, yeah, we're taking ownership of this. Yeah, you caught saint up your spectacle. How about I am a spectacle. What are you gonna do about it? You know of the spectacle. And it was like, yeah, we're taking ownership of this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you caught the saint up, be a spectacle. How about I am a spectacle. What are you gonna do about it? You know, yes, yes. So yeah, it's, it's a, it's a cracking one. That one I really um, well, I took the title from, like, as I usually do, somewhere random, so it's from the office, and it was with dwight and um and um that's funny yeah, basically, um, I can't remember the character's name, that's kind of Jim, and he's saying do you want to form an alliance with me?
Speaker 2:yes, um, I think I got that right. I just thought that's hilarious. I often write down my titles and come back to them, you know, but, um, in the painting it was the women were from a film called Wasp Woman, which is like this bananas kind of B-movie from the seas, and this is a side story. It's quite fun, but you should watch it and it's um, this woman owns a beauty company and she's being told by all the men and, of course, if she's getting too old, so she can't, you know, be in charge of the company that she's put together she ends up using, like wasp fest extract to become beautiful again, which is obviously done by like taking her glasses off, because you know that's how it works in cinema and she ends up like basically turning into this wasp woman and it's like a rb movie in it. But, um, the women were these receptionists. Now, moonlight is a receptionist for like, all my art career and I continue to do so. She got to pay the bills, like you said.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you gotta keep the lights on you know, you can learn many from art, but it's never constant, you know, and I just love these women because they were just extras, but they were just so fabulous and they were always like you know, it's just this look of, and they just commanded the scenes. I was like, right, you're going in the painting, you've got to, I've got to, I'm gonna make a spectacle of you, you've got to go in there. And then I was listening all of a sudden, my works are quite chaotic sometimes I was listening all of a sudden, my works are quite chaotic sometimes. I was listening to a lot of Western music at the time, like old West kind of like country music. It's like desert in the background. I was like, right, ok, I see where this is going. Now it's becoming like a Mexican standoff painting to like finish off the show, you know.
Speaker 2:And then I included this little painting in the background which is like, really just about there, it's Manet's Olympia, which is in itself. If you're not familiar, go check it out. It's a wicked painting and it was painted by Manet, rejected by, like, the salon you know that it was going into and whatever. Everyone was like, oh my God, this is like scandalous. So I was like perfect, you're going in my painting and it was of a woman.
Speaker 2:It was a very interesting painting in that it kind of ducks the convention of the time in that women were often painted in the male gaze, which is obviously looking fabulous, draped over things and just looking beautiful and wonderful. And it's a transcription in itself, which is what kind of what I do in terms of transcribing images and all this. So there's loads of layers to it, um, but it's actually a painting of a woman who everyone thinks is actually a prostitute, but she's being put in this position of spotlight and, like you can see why the salon rejected it. But I thought, you know she's a real woman. Yeah, you can just go pop in my painting. It kind of just all reinforces, kind of like I am the spectacle. Yes, I am here, you know, come look at me I'm here and I'm not leaving.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm real, I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2:You can come take a look if you want yeah, I'm making my own money. I am who I am, you know, and it like, do you want to join me? Basically to other women, which is, you know, it's the female empowerment kind of feeling. So yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that one. She's my latest and one of my favorites, you know.
Speaker 1:I do very much feel like the empowerment vibe coming out just and even like the looks on their faces is very like. You can sense the almost like the severity in their faces and their looks, that they mean business and there is like you can see the softer side, like you can see it a little bit, but you can. Especially in the blonde woman you can see it's very interesting the way you did her face because you can see the softer side. But you also see with that one very arched eyebrow like I will take you out if I need to. So don't like, don't come to like. It's very yeah, you get a lot like. You get a lot from just that. And it's funny because like I've been told that I mean you're meeting me in this capacity.
Speaker 1:But like when I was younger and like in my early office days I used to get I had like a rep of being like an office B-I-T-C-H.
Speaker 1:Basically it's comical to me now when I think about it, but I did, I did the whole like stiletto, pencil skirt, like whatever look, and that was like that was the vibe that I was giving off and it was funny the first time somebody said that to me like yeah, I was scared to like talk with you when I first started and I was like, really, I'm like because I'm such a you know, I'm so ridiculous. This doesn't make any sense, but I love that, lucia, I really I can't say enough. That's why I said like I'm going to gush the whole call and like because I really I listeners, I really want you to take a look. Now, latia, let me ask you a question, because I'm not at all familiar with how this works or how art works in general. The closest I get to art is like my children's gallery that I have over here with for my kids and like it includes yeah, oh my gosh, you know what.
Speaker 1:I should have showed it to you. They have a little, so they're always giving me pictures. My daughter, all my kids, do freehand drawings, like they all. They're pretty good at it. One of my daughters has a very distinct. You can see the talent and she just does it and it's very, very surprising. So I bought them all frames that are like replaceable. You can open it up and put new art every day if you want.
Speaker 2:So that's what they do.
Speaker 1:So I have like a gallery sitting over like one of the tables in my office where they come in and they give me new pieces and it goes into the frame and, yeah, it's my favorite thing. That's amazing. Yeah, I try, I'm trying to encourage, because I loved being creative when I was younger and it got kind of stamped out of me. So I want to encourage these guys. So for real, for you know, actual adult art here. How would it work if somebody was interested in purchasing a painting? I know, obviously, like, your pieces are on display where you are, so we're not, you're not stateside, you're in the UK. If somebody was interested in purchasing from your gallery, like, how would that work exactly?
Speaker 2:well, um, I've got a shop on my website so they can just come to me directly um, um, or just drop me an Instagram message or whatever, and I can.
Speaker 1:I can do that all direct, so that's how you find me so, listeners, I'm gonna link everything in the description here, um, and I'll also link lucia's instagram as well, so you can like be in contact if you want. Let me just make a note to myself. Thank you so much for coming on the show today. I I was so excited to re-engage with you. I know we had to reschedule a couple of times because I had the flu, so I appreciate you hanging with me. Yeah, I mean, honestly, I really love what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Please stay in touch and I would love to know when you especially if you have anything exhibiting stateside like I'd be very interested exhibiting stateside like I'd be very interested.
Speaker 2:Well, fingers crossed, and if anyone out there wants my artwork in their gallery, let me know. But yeah, I'm always open to new exhibiting opportunities and I love showing in the States. I think I got a few collectors over there who bought a few pieces over the years and I think the work kind of I don't know why you see how it resonates with different like nationalities and things, but I think the energy in the work a of I don't know why you see how it resonates with different like nationalities and things, but I think the energy and the work a lot of Americans really resonate with it and the kind of feel of it. I think it's just something beautiful and exuberant and it's just, yeah, I just think it. I think you guys just love that and you're all wonderful Americans. I've met very exuberant and energetic people, so I think you guys really like thank you for like resonating with my work.
Speaker 1:Basically, oh, I'm I'm so, I'm so excited for all this. I really am um listeners, check the links out, check out the virtual gallery. Lucia, thank you again so much for coming on the podcast. I I greatly appreciate it. I appreciate you creating a space for women the way that you have.
Speaker 2:It's a beautiful thing well, thanks, jenny, and um, yeah, it's just lovely to hear that it's. For me it feels like, it's like something I can give you know, and it's a, it's an allowance of feeling and I think like this doesn't short supply sometimes, you know, to be able to just feel your feelings. So I think, hopefully, hopefully, my paintings can do that for the women out there, or people in general, to, to be honest, men and women impersonating with the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you so much, Lucia, and listeners, thank you for hanging out with us today. We will catch you on the next one, Take care.
