Childlike and Mature – Whitney May

Whitney May: You were a toymaker and an industrial designer before you became a full-time artist.  In what ways have your previous pursuits shaped your paint- and ink-filled oeuvre so far? Stella Im Hultberg: I don’t know if there is any direct influence from my having been a product designer to be found in what I do currently. Before I ever studied and worked in the industrial design field, I’ve always drawn. One of the reasons why I chose industrial design was because it seemed like a field in which I could utilize my love of drawing in more practical terms. One outcome of working as an industrial designer, however, is that, somewhere along the line, I began to feel like I have lost my own voice when it came to drawing.

Childlike and Mature – Whitney May

Stella Im Hultberg, Green Heart.

Whitney May: You were a toymaker and an industrial designer before you became a full-time artist.  In what ways have your previous pursuits shaped your paint- and ink-filled oeuvre so far?

Stella Im Hultberg: I don’t know if there is any direct influence from my having been a product designer to be found in what I do currently. Before I ever studied and worked in the industrial design field, I’ve always drawn. One of the reasons why I chose industrial design was because it seemed like a field in which I could utilize my love of drawing in more practical terms. One outcome of working as an industrial designer, however, is that, somewhere along the line, I began to feel like I have lost my own voice when it came to drawing. I’d grown so accustomed to drawing for an end product, for an end customer or for the clients that I no longer remembered how to draw as an expression of myself.

In many ways, pursuing what I do now started as a process of trying to get back exactly what I had before I started as a designer. It’s kind of a reversed process, in many ways.

WM: Although your career in the arts is still very young, your creative style has shifted much over the past two years. Can you describe the relationship between the child-like, round-faced and big-lipped characters that recently seem to have been all but replaced by the tall, angular, dark-haired and sexually mature vixens of your current work?

SIM: I guess a lot of the leaps I’ve made in the past couple years have a lot to do with my struggle in trying to get back to the center of myself. It’s all a process based on developing and experimenting, I believe.

The figures, childlike or mature, are representative only of the kind of emotion or particular human relationship that I’m trying to express at the time.

WM: How do you begin each of your works? What does your creative process and technique generally entail?

SIM: I try to keep a sketchbook with a lot of ideas usually. Ideas can be concept-based, visually oriented or they can be just a tiny part of what becomes the end product. If I have a book full of different ideas and sketches, I find it easier to trim thoughts down into the final piece.

For a tea-stained piece, with ink and oil, I normally start out by staining paper with tea. I simply brew tea-bags in hot water (just breakfast tea or earl grey sometimes) and rub it onto the paper. After the stained paper dries, I iron it out to flatten it. Sometimes, I get inspired from the stain itself, regardless of what I’ve had in store in my sketchbooks. Then, I start drawing on the stained paper. After I’m finished with the under-drawing, which takes a lot of re-dos and erasing, I do under-painting—with watercolor directly on top—after which I do the black ink part. Then comes the sealing part, where I seal the paper with clear acrylic gel medium, so that I can put down the oil painting layer. This is the point at which I do most of the detail work.

WM: How does the backdrop of paper figure into your overall aesthetic? Do you find yourself using this medium to your advantage or is it more about the ink, oil and/or tea on top that you find more interesting to manipulate?

SIM: The unexpected ways that the tea stains the paper often inspires me. No matter how many times I’ve gone through the process, it’s almost impossible for me to predict what the stain will look like in the end. There are a few times when the stain comes out far better than what I could imagine. Then, I try to work the serendipitous patterns and the stains into the work. And, reversely, when the stain is just so-so or mediocre, I have to learn to work with it.

It’s interesting for me to work with media that are all different—water based media are harder for me to manipulate, so I have to let go of my control over them to a certain degree. So, it’s kind of fun to mix two opposite media, ink and oil (or even watercolor, too) together. It feels to me like each medium compliments the other.

WM: You’ve previously focused your efforts on the application of acrylic and graphite to wood panels. This is a very popular technique as of late within the art world. Why do you think that is, and why have you personally shifted to ink on paper over the last year?

SIM: I am not quite sure why it’s such a popular technique currently, nor was I aware that it was! In terms of the usage of wood, I’ve seen it a lot lately, but I don’t think it’s anything ground-breakingly new either. But, it could be that, with all the advancement of technology, people might be craving a certain old-fashioned organic feeling, which wood and pencil/charcoal lines could easily lend.

Wood is a great surface to start from. I am familiar with the material from design school, and know that it’s organic and warm. One practical reason that I started working with wood was that I had some pieces that I found on the streets here—and they was easy to ship, as opposed to framed pieces with glass. On the other hand, one of the reasons I started with paper is for the material’s practicality—it required less space in our tiny Manhattan apartment.

Stained paper and wood are similar in many ways; it’s like two siblings from the same parents. They both feel very warm and welcoming to me, and both have pre-contained patterns and shapes that I can’t really control. I like that they already give me something to start from, an environment to be surrounded by, in a way.

WM: You appear to work in series a great deal. What role does this serve in your exploration of themes, techniques and compositions?

SIM: I love the cinema—and I heard that some directors I really admire work as if they are painting (some of them were really painters before they were directors). I love the fact that you can really read the stories with each frame in movies.

I think it’s kind of like that for artists who work in series. I feel like I can take more risks in trying to convey my ideas and emotions, because there are more chances.

WM: There are easily discernable sexual overtones in the vast majority of your works. Would you categorize your art as erotica, or is this a label that you would resist for your creations?

SIM: I don’t try to overtly slip sexual innuendos into my work. If you really look into it, there are not that many overtly sexual pieces, not even many nude pieces. Of course, sexuality isn’t about nudity, necessarily, and I do like that my pieces can come off as something erotic or sensual when the figures are fully clothed.

So, while I don’t strive to make erotic artwork on purpose, I don’t think it’s a label I’d try to avoid. Especially because I believe that sensual expression of sexuality is quite necessary for anyone to be happy and healthy. It’s kind of like a sense of humor, I think.

WM: I perceive some strong influences from the likes of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt in your paintings. How have these and other artists influenced your style and aesthetic?

SIM: I have an endless list of artists I’ve admired for years, from the old masters to contemporary artists : Degas, Schiele, Klimt, Goya, Balthus, Basquiat, Barry McGee, Swoon, Davie Choe, Audrey Kawasaki and Lilly Piri, to name a few.

I didn’t go to a real art school, so looking at all these artists’ works serves as a real education for me. They shape how I see things and how things can be expressed, and the real aesthetic influence and style are just a natural result of what I’ve absorbed. For me, it all feels like a long process for me to get to the basics and roots of myself, a journey.

WM: What new direction can you anticipate in your artistic experimentation, if any?

SIM: I would like to further develop my ability to efficiently elaborate on what I have to say. At the same time, to be not afraid to take risks in what I do.

This year, I am looking forward to perhaps finding time to do some three-dimensional works. I’ve sculpted and made three-dimensional things all through my school years, and not having done so in a while makes me itch a bit!

Also, I’d love to experiment with mixed media pieces.