Transcript for Episode 010 – Painter, Ivana Lomová (Prague, CZ)

 

Published on August 22, 2019

Recording here: https://wisefoolpod.com/contemporary-fine-art-podcast-with-painter-ivana-lomova-prague-cz/

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

 

Matthew Dols 0:12
Could you pronounce your name correctly? For me

Ivana Lomova 0:14
Ivana Lomova

Matthew Dols 0:15
And you are from?

Ivana Lomova 0:17
I am from Prague, Czech Republic,

Matthew Dols 0:19
born and raised in Prague, born and raised here. It’s pretty rare.

Ivana Lomova 0:23
Is it?

Matthew Dols 0:24
Yeah, almost everybody suffers. Not from Prague, but

Ivana Lomova 0:28
right. Yeah,

Matthew Dols 0:29
I mean, most of the people I’ve met know, they either come from outside of Prague and moved to Prague at a certain point in their life, or well, or like me, like x paths are people from other places, but

Ivana Lomova 0:39
now I’m from you. Yeah.

Matthew Dols 0:41
Okay. One of the few. Okay. So and what’s your background? So that sort of, one of the things I’m fascinated with is like, how do sort of creative people come to be so like, your parents?

Ivana Lomova 0:53
Well, my father was a scientist, he was a parasitologist. What? He was interested in parasites of fishes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And my mother, she was a architect. Well, she did mostly interiors, you know, there is some background because her her grandfather was the architect kotera. And also it’s very distant background, but he died sooner than she was born. So you know, right. And in fact, I, I was just drawing and painting, I like it from my childhood. But you know, those scientists, they don’t, at least my father, he didn’t consider being an artist, like a proper job. So he always wanted to me to do something proper, or something would would, would be for some for you know, some some reasonable thing. So I ended up studying architecture. While and I finished it. And when I finished it, I said, Now it’s my time to do what I what I want to do. So I worked in the architecture, like five months, and then I quit.

Matthew Dols 2:17
went through the whole education did five months in, you’re out?

Ivana Lomova 2:20
Yeah. Then I’m out. Well, I never wanted to do it, you know. So really, so? Well, oddly

Matthew Dols 2:27
enough. I’m sitting here in your studio, looking at some works here. And

Ivana Lomova 2:32
in a way I got back to it.

Matthew Dols 2:34
Yeah, you have a lot of architecture, both interior spaces and exteriors. Yeah, you’re right.

Ivana Lomova 2:40
It’s just lately before I was avoiding it. So then I started doing like book illustrations. And I worked for a film on a cartoon film for some certain time. And so then step by step, I work in this, like, I made drawings, and I make illustrations and things like that for another, I don’t know, let’s say, five, six years. And then I never got the real book, which I would really love to illustrate. It was all always a bit of compromise. And then I have small kids, and no time, you know, and so and then there was this revolution in 89. So most of those publishing houses, they just disappeared, or they sold the publishing house and buy a car, carwash, or I don’t know what, before I finished the work, you know, interesting, so that it was very bad times.

Matthew Dols 3:44
So would you mentioned family? So you have your husband and children?

Ivana Lomova 3:50
Yes.

Matthew Dols 3:50
How many children?

Ivana Lomova 3:51
I had two kids. I have two kids,

Matthew Dols 3:53
how many husbands?

Ivana Lomova 3:55
I had one husband, which I don’t have an ad.

Matthew Dols 3:57
Wow. Okay, I’m sorry. I was implying it as a joke. I’ve read multiple.

Ivana Lomova 4:03
My bad. So then I thought it’s, I will do just what I really want to do, because also my husband began to earn money a bit. So it was not so much you know, like, I should do it and I was with the kids. So then I started doing by free art. And step by step I got first I did some pastels and I did later graffitis and things like that I wanted a price even for my first little coffee, you know, which, which pushed me a bit to do it. Stone lithography.

Matthew Dols 4:38
Yes. Yeah. Because now there’s the plates that you can use as a metal plates

Ivana Lomova 4:42
that you No no, no, not now. You can do it on a metal plate. I don’t know.

Matthew Dols 4:46
Yeah, yeah, you can. I love stone lithography though.

Ivana Lomova 4:50
It’s so beautiful. It’s so nice to

Matthew Dols 4:54
the physicality of it’s fabulous. It’s pretty rare these days actually to find a place. It’s still stones for stone lithography, because they become exceptionally expensive to purchase.

Ivana Lomova 5:05
Yeah, well, they’re expensive. You have about three, five places Maybe? Maybe more, maybe? I don’t know. Exactly. But three workshops for sure. And then by the universities are at the schools, you know, you’ll have another set. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I did my first little graffiti, like, in the 90s. So it makes 20 years or more even just storm out of

Matthew Dols 5:34
direct sunlight. And

Ivana Lomova 5:34
some people have it in a hall worse sometimes, sometimes. So, yeah, that’s faded completely by now.

Matthew Dols 5:44
Yeah. Well, I mean, dad, the sun is one of the worst damaging things for art for any pigment based artworks, whether it’s painting or print or whatever, photograph photographs are horrible with that stuff. So yeah, I mean, when people need to understand when they buy art, that they do have to treat it well, if they want it to last, like they can’t just put it out in the sun and think it’ll be there for their generation. Maybe

Ivana Lomova 6:07
there are some differences between the printing colors, too. And those printing hours were not so good, or I don’t know. So anyway, so I was doing this. And then step by step, I started oil painting. And it took me quite a quiet time like to get to find out how to how to work with it. But since then, I just mostly stick to it. Because in the old times, I had different themes. And I felt that every theme has, it felt like there are things to do in charcoal, and there are things to do in crash. And you know, I chose the technique, according to the subject. But now I can do almost everything in oil. So I don’t do charcoals.

Matthew Dols 7:00
What How long did it take you to sort of reach to the point where you said that so approximately, like what age were you when you found oils when you felt comfortable with,

Ivana Lomova 7:10
like certify for more even?

Matthew Dols 7:13
Yeah, I mean, I think that kind of thing is interesting for other people to hear. Because a lot of people think I’m an artist, I’m creative, I’m gonna do this thing when they’re like 1820.

Ivana Lomova 7:23
oils, when I was about 14, or 13, or

Matthew Dols 7:26
nobody’s good with oils at 14,

Ivana Lomova 7:29
I never figured out what

Matthew Dols 7:30
to do with it. There’s a lot of chemistry involved in it, it’s not as simple as just mixing paints, there’s drying times, viscosity, and yada, yada,

Ivana Lomova 7:41
this was not the main problem, the main problem is, was how to apply the colors on the surface, you know? Sure, it’s that Well, some people work positively. And some people work negatively. So they show you looks like you do positive because I’m seeing

Matthew Dols 7:56
your work here, there, and your white base jesso. And you’re putting color on top.

Ivana Lomova 8:01
When I when I started, I also made my own ground and things like that, but then I found out that it works, I can never guess what will come out of it. And so I just, I just give it gave up. Because now I buy the the canvas in rolls. And then I buy the frames, extra frames here and the canvas in Germany. And so it’s easy when you think of a picture and certain dimensions, you can make it in one day, you know, so you stretch your

Matthew Dols 8:39
own can

Ivana Lomova 8:41
canvases, which is much, much more operative than if you would order it and then they will bring it next week or something.

Matthew Dols 8:50
Sure I understand I’m a huge fan of building it at your own sort of,

Ivana Lomova 8:55
in a way I like to do it. Yeah,

Matthew Dols 8:57
one thing that I love about like a great painting is oddly enough looking at the back of the painting like the the way the structures put together the the different choices that are made, and you know, all the pins that are sort of put in like I love the backs of paintings and I think it tells a lot about sort of how involved are not involved. The artist is in like the absolute crash and all that kind of thing.

Ivana Lomova 9:17
I had an exhibition in Switzerland A long time ago and the gallerist he he pushed me to make the frames twice as much sick, that that it you can then die double the price or what? I don’t think it was so important anyway, we didn’t sell anything. So

Matthew Dols 9:40
I find that most people when they buy artwork, they generally get rid of whatever frame is with it unless it’s an absolutely stunning frame. I mean, there’s some times where they’re like this, the frame makes the piece like that combination of it but most times when people take it into their home, I mean I guess it depends like if they take it into their homes. They’re going to reframe it to fit their home. But if they’re just putting it into a collection, I guess the frame that’s that comes with

Ivana Lomova 10:07
them, they put frames to my pictures, and sometimes it even looks good. But I don’t care about the frames. It’s not my business.

Matthew Dols 10:15
That’s a fascinating thing. I’ve, I’ve had this conversation, I’m a photographer. So my background is, of course, like a photograph is not done until you put it into a frame and hang it on wall. So like, my background is you have to frame it, or else it’s not done. It’s just a piece of paper. So like, so when I see a piece of artwork, I love it. When it’s framed. It feels like it’s finished.

Ivana Lomova 10:37
Yeah, that’s true. And it can help a lot, especially to some alcohols or small drawings when you focus on

Matthew Dols 10:43
paper things.

Ivana Lomova 10:44
Yeah, absolutely. Then it looks like art, but even, like, you know, just this good. Well, that’s the things like,

Matthew Dols 10:50
I feel like if it hasn’t, I mean, it could even just be a stripped frame, whatever it is just like a piece of wood around it. But until it has a frame, it’s still able to be worked on. Yeah, but like, as soon as you put a frame on it, you basically said this is completed. And now it’s framed like so like, I love that like Final completion saying like, okay, now it’s done, and the artist is not going to touch it again. Because we’re famous for retouching. This again. Exactly. Yeah, that’s

Ivana Lomova 11:16
what I do. Don’t do that. Because it wouldn’t help. I think, well, in fact, the most, most difficult thing about painting such pictures is when to stop, you know,

Matthew Dols 11:30
it is a tough one to Yeah,

Ivana Lomova 11:31
to get the right point and really go away from that.

Matthew Dols 11:37
So what what’s your methodology for knowing when you have completed the piece?

Ivana Lomova 11:42
Well, I’m sometimes I’m trying to do it even a bit sooner, because I tend to overdo things, I tend to

Matthew Dols 11:49
overdo. And I just leave it at over done. Like it rides like more of Should I throw it away or exhibit it? Because I definitely have the habit of overdoing. But it ends up being okay. Because then I consistently overdo.

Ivana Lomova 12:05
It’s good. When you stop a bit sooner than you think it’s done. You do something else, you light a cigarette and go away. And then then you come look from the fire and see you it’s really done. Yeah, it’s nice. It’s not anything to add to it. But when you’re in it, you know, you see all those details, which are not exactly the way you want it to have. And yeah, I

Matthew Dols 12:30
mean, the work that we’re seeing here in the studio, very detailed, lots of lots of small details to it. Some of your previous works, were a little bit more gestural or larger. So you’re becoming a bit more Yeah, maybe details? Yeah, well, I’m not accusing you of anything I’m saying. But like, a little bit more detail oriented as far as versus the works that I saw on your website, and only in your book and everything so and we all evolve, and we change and we grow, we hope we grow better. But we wonder about that?

Ivana Lomova 13:02
Well, I don’t know. Maybe, maybe in the older age, you then you don’t have the energy you had when you were 25. And you were upset about so many things. And you were trying to protest and, and the energy comes a lot from those feelings, I think, then you get bit more well balanced, you know,

Matthew Dols 13:25
you think you’re well balanced?

Ivana Lomova 13:26
Well, definitely, I’m well balanced much more than when I was 30 or so, oh, I’m

Matthew Dols 13:31
far more well balanced than when I was 30. When I was 30. I was a cocaine addict. Good

Ivana Lomova 13:38
on the other hand, then the art gets more stuff stiff, maybe there’s not so many artists who who do better and better. That’s just an exception. Really.

Matthew Dols 13:50
You think artists don’t get better with age you think that

Ivana Lomova 13:54
some of them the best ones they do. That’s that I know more cases which kind of repeat the things they did.

Matthew Dols 14:04
So they sort of do like a like a bell curve kind of like they go up they they hit a point that’s really sort of the highlight of the career around

Ivana Lomova 14:10
or they just repeat what they did. Because it was let’s say successful or what are you have many ways how to end up.

Matthew Dols 14:22
Now you’re here in Prague and you have a good community here in Prague you have you do you have a gallery here?

Ivana Lomova 14:28
I have galleries where I exhibit let’s say, go How do you say it’s exquisite now exclusive, exclusive gallery I don’t have and and i don’t even I don’t want to have because I don’t want to be depending on some gallerist then then they try to control yourself control your activities.

Matthew Dols 14:54
Whether and that’s an interesting balance because like I’ve been talking to gallery owners and things like this about Control not controlling an artist’s reputation, but sort of assisting in building the artists reputation. They see that as part of their job.

Ivana Lomova 15:10
Yeah, that would be nice if one of us 30 and would need somebody. Yeah, I would have need somebody like that. But

Matthew Dols 15:18
it’s, it’s over, you’re over. You’re just like now,

Ivana Lomova 15:22
and I don’t Well, I don’t know about about such gallery. And also those galleries, you know, they take care of young young people after the school, and then they build their

Matthew Dols 15:35
careers. Some do. Yeah, you’re right. Not all. But some Do you have galleries and other locations other than products and just no galleries? You just have people you sort of you work with, and you sell through, but no, no exclusivity? And do you mean no near without being sort of blunt about it later? do you sustain yourself with your artwork? So

Ivana Lomova 15:56
the more or less now I can do it? Yeah.

Matthew Dols 15:58
Okay. That’s great. I mean, that’s the sort of the dream for artists. So and you you work reasonably slowly.

Ivana Lomova 16:07
Yeah, I do. But it’s all the long distance run, you know, for instance, through through the 20 or 30 years, I did a lot of little graphics, those little graphics, you have to pay, pay for the print and so on. But you have, then you have 50 pieces. So if you don’t sell any picture, or at least there go some money from the little graphes. Okay, well, that’s,

Matthew Dols 16:33
that’s an interesting issue. Because the idea, I like this idea that the basic you have your paintings that are sort of your big potential income, let’s say, but you also have works on paper, that one, so So you’ve sort of diversified your artwork, so that so

Ivana Lomova 16:48
sometimes they gave me they want to use my painting for a book cover, for instance. And they pay some really funny, funny amount for the cover. It’s not just paintings, so it’s also those smaller money from other sources. And, and the painting, I don’t know how. How the people come to, to buy my pictures, but it’s works also on a very long distance. Run. Somebody comes and say, and I asked him, Where did you find me? And he said, I don’t know. I’ve been to this exhibition, that exhibition, then I saw this on the news in a magazine or newspaper and, and then we thought we should buy it now. We should go. And by

Matthew Dols 17:44
that, I mean, that fits with the like, sort of this issue that keeps coming up where like, young artists seem to think you have an exhibition and they sell out at the exhibition

Ivana Lomova 17:53
never happened. Yeah,

Matthew Dols 17:54
exactly. I mean, that’s the thing is, the exhibitions are just publicity, basically. And then it’s people will see it there. They’ll read an article, they’ll hear about somebody who saw that show, and they’ll drop by later. And then the sales happened six months to three years later

Ivana Lomova 18:12
money at the moment. So they wait, then they see something again, and so now now we go and buy it so and what is funny about this is that you usually sell 234 things at once, then nothing for six months, nothing works like this. I don’t know why it’s not connected so much to the exhibitions. How many

Matthew Dols 18:37
years have you been able to live off of your selling of your art? I mean, because I’m sort of interested in like, the how you sort of tailor your life to fit with this sort of fits and spurts of selling like you sell a lot one time and then you don’t sell for a long period of time. So do you have

Ivana Lomova 18:55
it got a little bit better? But I was freelanced since after this five months in some architectural studio, so all my life

Matthew Dols 19:09
so Okay, so you’ve been so you’ve been living off of your art for majority of your adult life. I mean, that’s impressive. Not a lot of artists can say they do that, you know, like me, I would taught and I’ve done other things in order to you know, give me standard incomes and these kinds of things because and health insurance and all the other things that we all feel necessary because I’m not going to be able to make a living off of my art just because for whatever reason. The question about the galleries and the locations of your galleries was leading on to Who’s your market so who buys your work is it only check is it only locals that only European?

Ivana Lomova 19:49
Now it’s more checks, really more checks, right and, and quite nice people. They’re usually there They used to be my my age like my contemporaries Now, also young couples or a lot of lawyers and bankers used to be. But nowadays, I cannot say like, who is buying it?

Matthew Dols 20:18
I can see lawyers and bankers like especially for their office,

Ivana Lomova 20:21
those people who working in the insurance companies,

Matthew Dols 20:25
insurance companies. Wow. Okay, let me know you never know who your clients are going to be or what they do. And

Ivana Lomova 20:33
lately also I’m so maybe even more through the galleries or even the auctions, sometimes auctions.

Matthew Dols 20:41
Yeah, I know nothing about the auction, like

Ivana Lomova 20:44
so much. Because the best thing for me is when I sell to someone, whom I know at least a little bit, and I have a contact, and if it’s an important picture or something, so then I can ask him to land it for an exhibition or so. And the oceans, you know, he just he just throw it to the water. And that’s it. You don’t know who is it on the other side.

Matthew Dols 21:09
Okay, but I’m fascinated. I know nothing about the auction scene here. And because well, this is I don’t I come from America that in America, the tradition says, auction art auctions are secondary. So basically, if somebody if I sold a piece that that person who bought it, they want to resell it. It’s generally it’s generally not the artist who’s selling through an auction house generally. That’s the way I grew up. I mean, I don’t know, maybe, maybe I just never looked enough into the auction houses. Maybe they did. But so so an artist so you can place an art piece of art into an auction?

Ivana Lomova 21:49
Well, I have now one gallery, he regularly comes and wants something like, let’s say three times a year, four times a year,

Matthew Dols 21:59
it’s pretty regular one,

Ivana Lomova 22:00
one picture to picture, mostly two pictures, sometimes even he sells something.

Matthew Dols 22:07
And it doesn’t do well for you. I mean, versus like, let’s like galleries and other things like

Ivana Lomova 22:14
well, I, I put my older pictures to those sales, you know,

Matthew Dols 22:18
okay, of course,

Ivana Lomova 22:19
I don’t put the new ones who which I want to exhibit make sense. And so I’m trying to sell pictures. I don’t need so much anymore.

Matthew Dols 22:28
Okay. But now, so galleries are generally 5050 splits like, wow, no,

Ivana Lomova 22:36
I think No, it’s, it can be also like 30% 35% or

Matthew Dols 22:42
35%. To the gallery.

Ivana Lomova 22:43
Yeah. Okay, good.

Matthew Dols 22:44
So 3070. That’s lovely. I like hearing that. That’s very progressive.

Ivana Lomova 22:50
Yeah, currently have good relationships, and you know, each other, you know, and also, it wouldn’t be possible to sell them for such a high price.

Matthew Dols 23:02
Okay, that’s great. But what I saw are auctions that houses the same?

Ivana Lomova 23:06
No, it’s even less the auctions. Well, I am not exactly. Not sure about if it’s 15 or 20%, or something like that.

Matthew Dols 23:17
And do they sell the works for like equivalent prices to what you would sell in a gallery? Or is it basically they end up selling for less,

Ivana Lomova 23:24
they want to sell for less, in fact, that they count that the price can still go up, you know, but while it’s more or less the same, and then you have so many beneficiary benefit benefits benefit check options for you know, but

Matthew Dols 23:45
yeah, yeah, no nonprofit auctions benefit benefit off benefit auctions benefit

Ivana Lomova 23:50
auction. Yeah. For Kids and ill people.

Matthew Dols 23:57
Animals.

Ivana Lomova 23:58
Yeah, and the homeless and so on.

Matthew Dols 24:02
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I hear that people get hit up for that a lot.

Ivana Lomova 24:06
A lot. Yeah. And they sell a lot. But then I got no money,

Matthew Dols 24:10
right course, but they still do so. But do you choose like, I know some people that like they choose one a year basically. And they choose a different one every year or they have one that they really love to work with.

Ivana Lomova 24:24
I usually give them the little graffitis and so then I can get more a year like three that’s

Matthew Dols 24:32
nice to hear that.

Ivana Lomova 24:33
It’s also nice about the little graphics that you don’t feel it so much.

Matthew Dols 24:37
I understand give

Ivana Lomova 24:38
pictures it would be too much for me. I

Matthew Dols 24:40
think I did that mean that’s that’s a substantial amount of your time and of course, your resources and everything I mean, so your paintings like I’m looking at a painting here it looks like it’s about one by 1.2 meters, something like that

Ivana Lomova 24:53
one to one 150 centimeters to 120 20

Matthew Dols 25:00
I come from inches. So the fact that I even got that close is pretty good. No, but so I mean, they’re reasonably large. This is about 60 by 40 inches, something like that. Maybe a little bit bigger than that. And I’m trying to think it out for 40 to one meter is 42 inches approximately. Yeah. So 60 inches by 80. And

Ivana Lomova 25:21
this, this should make one picture together, you know? Oh, that’s

Matthew Dols 25:26
a diptych you’re making. Okay.

Ivana Lomova 25:29
Yeah. Because then if it would be in a one piece, I wouldn’t be able to, to operate with it. I wouldn’t fit it in my right ballrooms.

Matthew Dols 25:39
Yeah. Oh, that’s interesting. Okay, so you’re you were sitting in your studio here, which is on the top floor of a building, and there’s a reasonably narrow stairway going down. So you actually have to tailor the size of your work to fit the capability of basically getting it up and down through your building.

Ivana Lomova 25:57
And do you have to store the picture? Sure. Yeah. And, well, I made the biggest picture I made. I fortunately sold the exhibition, I was so happy that I didn’t want to take it to my bedroom. And, and, you know, pluck my wall with it. Right. So. So this is of course, an important factor. How do you what do you do with it? Oh, I’m the sculpture. You know,

Matthew Dols 26:26
I wonder I wonder about sculptors like how much money do sculptors pay and storage fees just store their old sculpture?

Ivana Lomova 26:33
Some summer weekend houses, which is which is quite common here. Yeah, and with big barns or some attics, and they, they do it this way,

Matthew Dols 26:46
but I made the mistake

Ivana Lomova 26:48
they pay for storage.

Matthew Dols 26:51
Oh yeah, my my where I previously lived, I made the mistake I had a very large studio and I said oh my gosh, I have this massive studio. I’m going to work as big as I can possibly work. And now I have moved to the Czech Republic and I live in probably one of the smallest places I’ve ever lived in my life and now I have this really massive work that I have to store so yeah, you know you might want to be thoughtful on the scale you work out about the the potential of change because it just the cost of shipping all that that stuff was and the time and it was insane I mean it was still works on paper but it was massive works on paper like one meter by two and a half meter sheets of paper that had to stay flat I couldn’t roll them

Ivana Lomova 27:36
because then it wouldn’t be flat anymore.

Matthew Dols 27:39
Well not that you will destroy it I probably would be like I did painting on end and caustic and all this kind stuff so it’s physically can’t roll

Ivana Lomova 27:52
so so then I have a first like the proper exhibition like a bigger exhibition when I was almost 40 and it was probably quite successful because from then on I got some offers to have and contacts to have another exhibitions or or to take take part in some group projects and in fact I was maybe quite lucky.

Matthew Dols 28:23
Where was this exhibition?

Ivana Lomova 28:25
Did was this in a spa her friend nirvash Bella gallery and that and then out of Nishida gallery about so much Bali I know Yeah,

Matthew Dols 28:35
yeah. National mountain run treated the national trying triangle nap tree though was treated. The Rodney tree does

Ivana Lomova 28:43
not need Cheetah Cheetah

Matthew Dols 28:45
is National Triangle Triangle that sound right. I don’t know. I don’t know exactly where it is. quatro a

Ivana Lomova 28:56
very nice gallery. And for me then I had another two more exhibition that I always liked it a lot because the sizes of the spaces is perfect. And you have the basement, the ground floor and the first floor so you can like you can have more themes, which

Matthew Dols 29:17
you it’s

Ivana Lomova 29:19
introducing more spaces and you can you can divide it. So I like to

Matthew Dols 29:26
residencies we talked before that you have done some residency

Ivana Lomova 29:30
I did quite a lot of residency started with this art make glof which is a little town with nice castle cells Moravia looks almost like in Italy there. And I spent three summers and they do it annually every July, August. There’s three weeks that they have, like 10, let’s say 10 artists, okay. There’s a lot of wineries and Vine sellers, and it’s very demanding the state that you have to make art and then in the evening, you have to drink and

Matthew Dols 30:11
it’s horrible. You really

Ivana Lomova 30:12
have to because otherwise they would be so. So sorry. And they would feel that you’re not friendly at all when

Matthew Dols 30:21
you’re done their thing their wine. So it was tough, but it was nice. After all, there is nothing tough about what you just said. You just said, make art all day drink all night. Like that. What’s wrong with that?

Ivana Lomova 30:35
Because you’re exhausted, you’re exhausted, you cannot move even then. And, and those first days. I was there. I was still there. Some of the time also with my kids, which were quite small at that time. Wow, see? Okay, so

Matthew Dols 30:51
you took your children with you to residency? Yeah,

Ivana Lomova 30:53
there were more children. So it was it was more like a family, you know. So it was exhausting a bit. But in this on these summer, very hot days to work in a castle was you know, pleasure.

Matthew Dols 31:11
As I said, it would be

Ivana Lomova 31:13
cool. And you know, you’d need no air condition and you feel okay. And then I was in some residency is the best one I told you was this was this island Elba in Italy. It was a private residency from some Swiss Foundation, Casa Xia, Lina was the name of the place. And there were just three of us. And we have, you know, beautiful house and cook and beach and everything. So it was like a holiday that was really sounds magical. And then I will I like I love residencies in Ireland, and kill reliq, which, which is the best most western point of Europe. It’s even more of us than Portuguese. And they’re like seven fishermen, old fishermen houses, old, like, let’s say, three 500 years as a stone, old stone. Yeah. And they turn it into a house with a studio and sleeping upstairs. So you are there and you’ll face the ocean on a cliff. In each each house, there’s one artist and then you don’t have to pay for the house, but you should leave them one painting. That was really very romantic. And then I was twice maybe I go again to in this siren gottfredson Center, which is near Monahan, if you go go north from Dublin, like two hours drive. And that’s a very professional place. And there are like, let’s say 50 people, writers, dancers, musicians, and artists, like visual artists, and the living is beautiful that you have even a studio than in the night you go to dinner together. And people gather and speak about things and they’re also like singing and programs and etc. And it’s also donation of this this guy, siren grocery who was play writer, famous Irish play writer, and it was his home. And he it’s his legacy that he said to the artists, they should, they should speak about not just art, but they should make friends and speak about things together. And so he it’s we should be grateful that he was enabling us to stay stay that and this is like that you made an application. And once they accept you so then you can go whenever you want. You just have to call them and ask if it’s free. And wow. Yeah, so this is perfect.

Matthew Dols 34:22
Okay, well, so that’s interesting. So you’ve been to residency is that I would sort of call her like group experiences where it’s all about the the interaction and the the engagement between disciplines and mediums and things like this, you know, playwrights, authors, visual artists, but you’ve also been to some that were very solitary. Yeah. When

Ivana Lomova 34:44
he was in England, was in Italy. Georgia fino chatter. I was alone in the village. I never want to repeat the experience. I was speaking with cats and birds and rabbits go laying around, I was really, literally alone in a village.

Matthew Dols 35:05
And like, no people it was well,

Ivana Lomova 35:07
it was an old abandoned village and the Americans, they turn it into kind of summer resort, you know, that they wanted as well. They wanted to do the residencies. And but for artists, it was like, April, May, beginning of May offseason, offseason. And they also wanted some pictures. They even want to pictures or work. It was very super, super rich super house. But it happened like, I don’t know, maybe it was not planned. But then I was there alone for like 10 days.

Matthew Dols 35:48
Which do you find more sort of hopeful or inspiring? Like, did you like the group experience of a residency?

Ivana Lomova 35:57
There are people okay, because you can get to know things. And what’s much more interesting, of course. Yeah. And I was in this Vermont studio Center, which there were also like, 70 of us. Yeah. disciplines in Vermont. Yeah. And that was also quite inspiring. They even have those artists talks. Yeah, it’s beautiful

Matthew Dols 36:17
up there. Like the location is gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, because like a lot of artists have difficulty getting residency and stuff. But a part of it is is we get which residency to choose to even apply for because it takes a lot of time and energy and you know, whatever to even apply. So, you know, some insight from somebody who has been to residencies and has it has experienced the benefits of them basically, is what I’m trying to get out of this did not did the residency because these days, I recently read an article actually about the Whitney Biennial in New York, and how something like some number like 60%, or 70% of the artists in the Whitney Biennial all happened to participate in a particular residency.

Ivana Lomova 37:05
Well, there’s one more residency which is so very, so very professional and so very prestigious. And is this mega doll or? Oh, yeah, Macau. Yeah, no, yeah,

Matthew Dols 37:18
no, that’s very competitive. Well, but but my my question that will lead back to you was the Did you get any sort of benefits like that? Did you meet some curators or some galleries? Or did did you beyond the just the ability to get away from your life and be just as an artist? Did you get anything?

Ivana Lomova 37:37
I would say not so much No. More and mostly I took the residency is like also a nice way to spend summer you know, and make a lot like a little holiday. Well, I work there, of course, but if

Matthew Dols 37:51
you’re away from home, you’re away from the stresses of home interesting

Ivana Lomova 37:54
to be and I what I wanted also residences in a nice nature, I wouldn’t like to go a residency into some city, you know, or so.

Matthew Dols 38:04
They do exist.

Ivana Lomova 38:05
Yeah, they do exist. But this was not so tempting for me.

Matthew Dols 38:09
I know of one that you might enjoy, which is a bald head Island. There’s a single residency called no boundary is run out of Wilmington, North Carolina, in the United States. And they go out onto this private build millionaires resort place. And they have these fantastic homes, but it’s just this private island. It’s stunning. And they do it every year. I think maybe they will every no one year they do us only artists, local and regional artists, then the opposite year they do International. And like everything’s paid for

Ivana Lomova 38:46
it’s just give me the contract.

Matthew Dols 38:48
Now I know the ladies, we found the Well, ladies and gentlemen who founded it as well, like they invited me. It’s, it’s beautiful. You stay in a house literally right on the beach. And when I say right on the beach, there’s no houses, like as far as your eye can see in either direction. It’s just beautiful.

Ivana Lomova 39:08
And then there are those residences in New Mexico that you stay for a year in the desert. I didn’t have the courage to do that. Now. Maybe well, there were, like 20 years when I cannot go anywhere because of the kids and house and you know, now I could afford it. But I don’t. I’m not so sure I would you know, but then you got some horrible neighbors, you know, and and you don’t know what to do and you go stressed. It’s possible.

Matthew Dols 39:43
I mean, I’ve certainly never done a residency of that scale. But yeah, because

Ivana Lomova 39:48
then you have to, you know, rent a car, do a lot of things.

Matthew Dols 39:54
Yeah. That’s basically like moving for a year. That’s not just a resident, maybe

Ivana Lomova 39:58
I would be Yeah, home sick or I wouldn’t do I wouldn’t know what to do there or on some of those residences, I really tried to paint from nature. But it’s a problem. I don’t do it anymore so much.

Matthew Dols 40:18
Looking around your studio, it’s mostly architecture of what looks like Prague.

Ivana Lomova 40:23
Well, yeah. This is from my moralized childhood.

Matthew Dols 40:30
Yeah, so what we’re talking about now, is the, the nature of life these days, these days? Yeah, I mean, in contemporary world, it feels like, it’s become exponentially more important to be able to eloquently write about your work not so the days of like, I’m an artist, here’s my art, you love it, or you don’t seem to have gone away. Like, it seems very important now to be able to eloquently express the meaning behind your work. Well,

Ivana Lomova 41:03
in a way I understand it, and as a viewer, or gallery visitor, I enjoy it even sometimes, indeed. But on the other hand, you can also say I’m painting because I don’t know how to say it. And so then, yeah, then all those, you know, artists talks and things like that. Fine, I find a bit all like, well, you should look at the pictures. And it’s there, how I can talk about why I did it, or what happened when I was doing it, or what technique means I have used or things like that, but to say is to say, what were what is it about? Really, it’s difficult. And also the thing is that everybody can see in one painting, everybody can see something else according to his own projection screen, you know, so the same picture, somebody, you know, project his things, and it’s, it’s really depressive. The other one find it, like, soothing or even funny, or so there’s no recipe, you know? So,

Matthew Dols 42:26
yeah, but if I feel like, because I do this thing online, where I do these portfolio reviews and stuff, and there is a, sort of a, what I would consider, like a balancing act where like, you’re not telling people how to read your work, but you’re, you’re I define it as like you’re giving context

Ivana Lomova 42:44
giving, like hints,

Matthew Dols 42:46
yeah, it’s basically sort of just leading them down a path of what what you were thinking and, and if they follow the path of grade, they don’t, they at least sort of get a sense of what you were trying to do. But like, I can’t stand when I read an artist statement that just basically says, My work is about this, and you must believe that same thing. That’s just not right. And

Ivana Lomova 43:07
also, what I found very, very stupid is when you go to a residency, most of the times they want you to write Why are you going there? What are you gonna do there? And why is it so important? And you’re going somewhere? You don’t know the place you you have no idea? How does it look like and the point is to just come and and let the place have some effect on you and then something can can happen.

Matthew Dols 43:38
Yeah, I have a horrible problem with these these applications where they always say

Ivana Lomova 43:42
applicants are so stupid. Well, I’m going there to just to paint maybe or no,

Matthew Dols 43:49
what are you gonna do? I’m gonna be myself and I’m gonna make something that somehow inspired by your place

Ivana Lomova 43:54
that several times I just put down some let’s say bullshit because they needed it. And so I just said our live this night I love this nature and I need to paint car I did and

Matthew Dols 44:08
but did those work? But if so they worked like so sometimes the bullshit works.

Ivana Lomova 44:14
Yes, you can. You just made up something and it works. But they need those, you know, sentences or what, then then you do something completely different. Or you forgot what you wrote before. You know,

Matthew Dols 44:27
what I’ve already spoken with some people from gentlemen from the meat factory, which is a residency program here in Prague. And he said that when they’re curating so he was the curator of his and when he curates the for your first and foremost, it’s the quality of the work. Secondary is the statement about sort of intent. And then last is the CV. So this are the hierarchy of what’s the most important to least important. So I mean, in the beginning, it’s always going to be about the work because no matter how beautiful and eloquent you are in explaining your work, you still have to actually record quality imagery. You know, for instance, that going back to the portfolio reviews that I do, like, I will look at, sometimes I have read the most beautiful moving experiencial statement that the work is not up to the same caliber as the statements like the statement is fabulous seated

Ivana Lomova 45:21
somewhere, maybe

Matthew Dols 45:24
they’re often very personal journeys and these kinds of things, and they’re very moving and all this and they’re great and an engaging and like, I’m emotionally connected to the story. And then the work doesn’t hold up to it. Yeah, I mean, in this day and age, and it seems like it has to be a beautiful combination, and a balance of beautiful work, and a beautiful text way of sort of enhancing the appreciation for the work without demanding the art, the viewer thinks a certain way. And that’s a difficult balancing act to play.

Ivana Lomova 46:03
Yeah, it is. It is,

Matthew Dols 46:05
do you write your own statements? Or do you have

Ivana Lomova 46:08
to I even if you’ve noticed on my on my web page, I even did statements to those groups of pictures, like 10 years ago, but it was just like, I don’t know, five sentences, why I did it, where I did it, what happened? And I, I appreciate this when artists do it when I can, you know, see, I can hear their voice, not the voice of some, some art historian or somebody. Third party, you know, okay, so I did this now. No, I do it sometimes when needed. And it’s also important because then you, you think about it for yourself.

Matthew Dols 46:55
I find that when I think about my work, I understand my work, and probably could write more eloquently about it. 10 years after I complete it.

Ivana Lomova 47:05
Yeah, that’s true. That’s true. Yeah, definitely. That’s true.

Matthew Dols 47:09
Rarely, like, Yeah,

Ivana Lomova 47:12
when you have the distance, because when you’re in it, you just go after your instincts. But that’s, I think that’s, that’s okay. It’s much better than if you, if you made some plan and then fulfill the plan. It’s much better to, to, to do instinctively what you want, what you feel.

Matthew Dols 47:32
So this is okay, so then going on back to sort of your art practice. So how do you come? So? Do you come up with an idea first of what you’re trying to express? Or do you sort of make your paintings and then figure out what they meant after completing them?

Ivana Lomova 47:47
No, in fact, I must get an idea.

Matthew Dols 47:50
elaborate on an idea like like Well, yes, mood and expression of memory.

Ivana Lomova 48:00
And sometimes it doesn’t come You know,

Matthew Dols 48:02
is it like when you say idea, like, it will look like well,

Ivana Lomova 48:07
well I had the my latest latest group of pictures or series that is to say it’s those those two which I now pushed away a bit because I have to finish

Matthew Dols 48:18
this so there’s some bad there are some interiors

Ivana Lomova 48:23
and the interiors are took took her from films and it really was like I was watching Europe TV this channel maybe you know, what they have quite a good films from this, you can you can pay something like

Matthew Dols 48:42
a TV by itself.

Ivana Lomova 48:43
So I was watching like, half year ago to for two or three films in a row from interiors and my inner feeling somehow connected with the, with the screen, and it made it made a hole and then I got the idea that I can paint from films that this time I don’t have to use my friends, my my my home and push somebody and I can I can take take scenes from films which are more neutral or how do you say it and I had exactly the idea of what kind of film and what kind of scene it should be which is quite complicated. So I have to go on finding some films now that that it will have some subtitles and something in the picture will be like that it’s

Matthew Dols 49:41
showing to its TV or so you’re actually gonna physically pay a subtitle. Okay, I like yeah, I mean,

Ivana Lomova 49:49
so but it was a moment when I got the idea, you know,

Matthew Dols 49:52
okay, so so you’re inspired by sort of a concept of of what you’re trying to achieve that

Ivana Lomova 49:58
you get to a certain point. in your life that you have some idea, I don’t know how to say it differently. It often happens. It often happens when you are on the move and you walk somewhere or

Matthew Dols 50:11
in the shower or whatever. Yeah.

Ivana Lomova 50:14
Now closing the garage gate, or

Matthew Dols 50:18
different people work in different directions, like some people are inspired by location or inspired by person

Ivana Lomova 50:25
about how to do it. And you think about a lot of things. And then it comes to certain moment when it clicks together. And if you’re lucky, so you got some idea. Doesn’t happen so often?

Matthew Dols 50:40
Well, actually, well, that then leads to another question I have. in photography, we have like, I’ll take, you know, 1000 photos to come out with like three amazing ones. So I have 997 failures for all practical purposes. What’s your rate of sort of success to failure on your paintings or late It’s everything you paint, you work it and work and work it until it works? or do some just never

Ivana Lomova 51:03
work? Some just never work? Of course,

Matthew Dols 51:06
what’s your ratio on that? Like? So? Like? What? 20%?

Ivana Lomova 51:11
Let’s say 40% are not so good.

Matthew Dols 51:14
40%?

Ivana Lomova 51:16
Maybe 30? Okay, but some of those 30% sometimes, then you will look at it three years later, and you find it’s not so bad. And sometimes it changes Also,

Matthew Dols 51:29
do you ever revisit or do like literally like repaint or retouch up something from years ago?

Ivana Lomova 51:35
Not so much. Mostly I use it to for like a testing ground?

Matthew Dols 51:41
I understand. Yeah, I do the same thing. Okay, well, no, I mean, that’s interesting. Because, again, like a lot of young painters think that like every painting is a masterpiece. It’s done.

Ivana Lomova 51:52
No, it’s not. And when I work in those series, so usually the first, well, well, maybe not the first, but the third to the 10th is the best and then it slowly, you know, you you run out of the main ideas, and then it goes down sometimes, then, in the end comes still come something but then you feel it’s it’s done that you cannot do anything more.

Matthew Dols 52:22
Oh, yeah, I get it. Yeah. Every every theme or concept sort of has its lifespan.

Ivana Lomova 52:28
As long as it’s possible to still like you have some ideas, but then I

Matthew Dols 52:34
do do you do like a whole thing where like you will title a series? Do you work in like a series and then sort of

Ivana Lomova 52:42
do more? Yeah, mostly I do used to do those theories. And, in fact, some of them like this, this theory called time it was from South Coast, England. And it was just that I was there one summer, and I liked it so much. And I had a lot of pictures, it was in 2004. So Still, the pictures were like pictures on a paper, you know, not in computer. And I felt I missed the place. And I felt sad that it’s over. And so I just took the pictures and started painting to be them a bit longer. And then then there comes the theory, but it was not intended in the first first cases.

Matthew Dols 53:28
Okay. So, as I have generally wrap up my podcast, I have two big questions that I asked for everybody. So first one is basically what kind of advice would you give to another artist they’d lay through either a bad experience you had or a good experience you had some sort of thing that you might help to help them become better for whatever reason you to avoid a potential issue that they may not have seen? Well,

Ivana Lomova 53:55
I would give them not so much practical advices. But I think the most important thing is to do what they really want to do, and to do what they are and not to not try to be like somebody else. I think that’s the most important thing.

Matthew Dols 54:14
Well, what if you themselves but what if your gallery comes and says oh, well these things are selling really well? Could you make more of these even if you don’t want to

Ivana Lomova 54:22
you can you can spoil yourself and hurt yourself? I mean, I mean, screw up yourself, like in a bad way

Matthew Dols 54:29
when your reputation even.

Ivana Lomova 54:31
Yep, one thing is the reputation and the other thing is to the ability to do something good again, you know, when you start doing it for money, so you end up you are not able to do it and do it for the inner reasons or you know, for yourself. They have to love the art they are making themselves at the first place then if they like it, so maybe somebody else will too.

Matthew Dols 54:58
Yeah, I mean I get the question all the time. Hi, I’m like, how can I make work that will win competitions? or How can I make work that will galleries will like? And my general recommendation is, do what you do? And yeah, the art world will will find you,

Ivana Lomova 55:12
for yourself. Do the best you want to do. Yeah, but you are satisfied. Yeah. Anybody else can’t chase the trends. Because

Matthew Dols 55:19
if you try and choose the trends, it’s a never ending fight.

Ivana Lomova 55:22
Yes. And also, it’s not interesting at all. Because then then

Matthew Dols 55:26
everybody’s the same one, there’s no level of authenticity. And yeah, there’s no unique voice to that

Ivana Lomova 55:33
the most important thing. Okay.

Matthew Dols 55:37
The other question I have is, that part of the podcast is every single person I meet with, I’m asking them for a piece of advice of some something I can do to point me in the direction that I want to get a piece of my artwork exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Ivana Lomova 55:57
Oh, my goodness, I should I should answer to this. It doesn’t have to, they should do to get their art in well.

Matthew Dols 56:07
Yeah. And whatever recommendations I get, I will do. And I will keep people updated throughout the podcast of all the process of the failures and successes that I have.

Ivana Lomova 56:18
Well, if I do it myself, you know, so I really don’t know. It is hard. It’s just be authentic and work on yourself. It’s still the same, but practically what you should do? I have no idea. Yeah.

Matthew Dols 56:34
So Well, I mean, this is an interesting conversation that I’ve had with a lot of chat, because I’ve only been speaking so far with Czech artists and curators and gallery owners. I was raised where like you strive to be the best, the best in the world. So

Ivana Lomova 56:50
that’s a very different, different temper in American and Czech society. It is Yeah. And here we more like, well, as my generation was raised, it was be like the others. And if you’re not like the others, something wrong with you, you know?

Matthew Dols 57:09
Don’t Don’t rock the boat.

Ivana Lomova 57:12
Yeah, yeah, you should, you should be the average. That’s the best that that was the, the mood in which I was brought up in the school and so on. So but yeah, it’s like when you ask, how are you? So in check, they say it’s worth the shit or something like

Matthew Dols 57:35
isn’t worth it.

Ivana Lomova 57:38
So they said, Well, I don’t know how to translate it. But they said something like, it’s really not good. Mostly, or in the old times, you know, and it was just just like, had it also, that we maybe we were more used to point to those darker sides of life. But in America, everybody said, I’m fine. And even if they are dying, they say, Oh, I’m good.

Matthew Dols 58:04
I do. Yeah, we are overly nice. It is major Mason. So you don’t feel like you’re putting anybody out or causing your problems. Like, like if I if I went into an office, I’m like, Hey, how are you? Well, my back hurts. I got a headache. Like if you actually told me the truth. Yeah, that might not be as much fun to talk to you. But like you said fine or good. Like sometimes.

Ivana Lomova 58:26
When in America, sometimes I heard those, those voices like how are you? And then the lady says you have?

Matthew Dols 58:35
And those people don’t like those people in the office? Yeah. You don’t want to hear those people you’re meant to just say fine.

Ivana Lomova 58:43
But I think nowadays, we are also happy and fine.

Matthew Dols 58:47
I find that the Czech people like their hierarchy of vocabulary is a little bit deflections, like, for instance, like, I’ll go out to dinner with my wife, and I’ll be and I’ll ask her, she’s checking, I’ll say, how was dinner? And she’ll say, Fine. And then she’d say, how was dinner and ask me and I’ll say, oh is marvelous. Yes, I’ll use these big, nice flowery words, that but the Czech people like fine is equivalent to an American superbe whereas good is equivalent to an American fine. So the the the level of language are very different.

Ivana Lomova 59:28
We don’t want to praise things and people so much somehow, why still could be better, you know, or I don’t know. I don’t know. Why is that? Maybe it’s also kind of those beliefs. Like if you have to say it, that if you praise it too much, it will get get worse. Or something like that,

Matthew Dols 59:51
right? Yeah. Well, it’s, uh,

Ivana Lomova 59:52
I just said it’s perfect. And now you know, see you jinxed it. Something like that, huh? Okay, well

Matthew Dols 1:00:00
that’s an interesting take on that. Go with that. Alright, but thank you very much for your time.

Ivana Lomova 1:00:07
Thank you for having me. Yeah.

 

 

The Wise Fool is produced by Fifty14. I am your host Matthew Dols – www.matthewdols.com

All information is available in the show notes or on our website www.wisefoolpod.com