Emi Avora: Commitment to Color

“Community Painting” Acrylic and oil on canvas

“The Painter and the Lion” Acrylic on canvas,

Artist Emi Avora finds inspiration for her vibrant paintings in literature and mythology, while also drawing upon her own personal history and everyday experiences. Composed of bright pinks, neon greens and majestic blues, Emi’s palette is evidence of her life-long commitment to exploring color in her work.

Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.

I am originally from Corfu, Greece and my first encounters with art had been through my dad who is also a painter. I was lucky to have art materials and a studio at home so I guess art was always part of my life. As the local school did not offer any art classes, I was trained by a great art teacher outside of school who helped me build a portfolio of work and I then went on to study in the UK, at the Ruskin school of Art first and then onto the Royal Academy schools.

Where do you find inspiration for your work?

I often see making artwork as making a layered cake. Each layer is a part of what I am making but only together as a whole the layers make sense.
I try to stay alert and observe my everyday environment and I draw inspiration from all sort of things current that surround me. Since I became a mother, domesticity has become inescapable and it has therefore formed part of my work. So has a sense of humour and my everyday anxieties.
Literature, mythology as well as my own personal histories are projected on to what I am looking at; a form of escapism. Wider interests in the cliches of taste, the cliches of middle class and the way they are communicated become another layer of inspiration. Last but not least comes the pure joy of painting, of managing to transcend something through the formal elements of colour, form, space and composition.

Your color palette is composed of vivid pink, red and green hues. What role does color play in your work?

The past two years in particular I have become a colourist. Colour is where I start and where I end my paintings and the relationship between the colours is often the subject of the work itself. I enjoy the challenge of throwing my colours into chaos in order to find a balance in the end. Heightened colour is what dictates the work and the clashes or shifts between the colours are the instigators of the distortion in the composition and the design of the work. The colour determines the mood, the space, the composition and the overall feeling of each painting.

How has your work shifted and evolved over time?

There are threads that go through all of my work, even the art I was making at school; like the way I work with the brush, my ‘writing’ and my tendency to depict light. There has also always been an interest in creating a psychological space, an area for the viewer to step into.
I never really plan a shift or a change in the work. The changes happen organically through experimentation and trial and error or because of practical factors that force change. For example pregnancy and motherhood forced me to change my materials as I could not use heavy smelling mediums and oils anymore, change of studio spaces often dictated my sizes. Lastly relocation has been a big factor in changing my palette and my subject matter as my immediate surroundings and my perception of them shifted.

What does a typical day in the studio look like for you, and how has your art practice grown or changed?

On a good day, I drop off my kids at school and then take a walk through the Singapore botanical gardens before going to the studio. I love that time of the day when I can reflect and put my thoughts together. In the studio I usually have a few things going on at the same time and I try to start painting or making as soon as possible. As I don’t have the luxury of time and staying in the studio as long as I want, I need to be quite disciplined and I make sure I try to be productive- even if that ‘productiveness’ doesn’t work out. I often work on a larger piece while having some smaller on the go or I might spend a few days on works on paper slowly building a wall of drawings in the studio. I usually stay in the studio until around 4pm without too many breaks.
The art practice is constantly evolving as it is a living thing that breathes and moves together with me. There are phases of huge productivity and others of contemplation and stepping back which I think are also very important.

Which experiences have impacted your work as an artist?

I would like to think that regardless of what life brings I would be able to make work and continue my journey. Changes like relocating from Greece to the UK and then again from the UK to Asia as well as motherhood had a great impact in how I see things and therefore my work. But I also think that subtler things like friendships, relationships, stories, memories, everyday worries and chance encounters are equally important.

How has Instagram impacted your art career?

Instagram has literally been a life line for me since I moved to Asia with two young kids. It allowed me to find opportunities and to be part of a global community. Through Instagram I discovered other artist-mothers that face similar struggles to combine motherhood and art making and also discovered local artists in my area that I connected with. It has also been one of the main ways I could showcase my work during the pandemic.

What are your future goals and aspirations?

I would love to show my new work in the flesh more in 2021. I have been lucky this year to have had quite a lot of exposure in publications and online platforms. With the pandemic the focus really shifted on digital ways to present work which has been very important. However it would be great to be able to have work presented in an actual physical space in 2021!

Follow Emi on Instagram: erasmiavora

Visit Emi’s Website: www.emiavora.com

Victoria FryFebruary 9, 2021