Olga Brindar's work is driven by her dreams. "My dreams have been vivid from a young age and I have been able to remember nearly all of them," says Brindar. Ghosts, monsters, Gods and animal totems that transform into new creatures inhabit her dreams and become fuel for her drawings. She works large-scale to capture the dynamic and sometimes overwhelming nature of her dreams and nightmares. Her painting Bears Fighting is a metaphor for human violence and confrontation.
Courtesy of Olga Brindar
1. Could you give us a brief introduction to who you are and how you became an artist?
I’ve been drawing since I can remember. One of my favourite childhood photos is of me in my dad’s studio, brow furrowed, holding a crayon. I was way too involved in my work, even back then. Since then it’s been a continuous and consistent process of expressing the world as I saw it through the medium of drawing and painting. I went to high school and college for art but the reality is that I have been doing it for three times longer than the time I was in school.
2. Can you talk about the concepts behind your pieces in Bedtime Stories?
“Bears Fighting” is part of a short series I did after I came back from trekking in the Himalayas. I was thinking a lot about human conflict and because I often use animal totems in my work, I used animals to represent this concept. The other works in the series are a pair of wolves and a pair of jackals in conflict.
3. What is your creative process?
I usually take inspiration from my dreams. I have had vivid dreams and lucid dreams from an early age that I remember in detail. Usually I dream of an image or an animal over and over again, so the process of including it in my drawings is fairly organic.
4. Do you admire any other artists?
Odilon Redon, Francisco de Goya, Alfonse Mucha, John Singer Sargent, Chiharu Shiota, Ann Hamilton, Edvard Munch.
5. Are you working on any new projects at the moment? And where can we follow your work?
I will be showing my work at RAW Artist’s event, Splendor, at Mr. Small’s Theatre on June 4th. Tickets are available through www.rawartists.org/loladraws