Frida Pini
Hello Dear Frida Pini. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Our first question is what’s your background?
Hi dear Marvelous Gallery team, thank you for having me. My father is very talented artistically, and so is my sister. I have never tried. Only in 2018 I decided to try to paint the best possible picture for me, with pastels.
A neighbor of mine is a successful artist and teaches art at the university. I told him that I was trying to paint a picture. He wanted to see it immediately and was thrilled, he said I could paint emotionally. He encouraged me to paint more, came over with some oil paints and canvases, and got me to keep going. I painted for weeks, months on only three oil paintings. I had to learn how to paint. It wasn't until December 2019, when I was tied to bed for months as a result of several foot surgeries, that I started painting digitally, mostly all day long. It was much easier to do lying down than analog.
My first surreal portrait took me 90 hours before I was happy with it. I had to learn how to draw with a digital pen and Procreate.
Since then I've been drawing every free minute, it's become my passion.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what drove you to choose art as a career?
Art is not yet my profession, but it is my dream. I have the inner urge to paint, it is my passion.
I wanted to become an artist even when I painted my first picture.
I grew up in a small Bavarian village in a big house with a huge garden, in a family of artists, with horses and many other animals. Everyone played an instrument, music was heard all the time, we celebrated and loved to dance. That's why we had quite a hard time in the small village at the end of the 80s, beginning of the 90s, because it was very stuffy and arch-Catholic. That my parents did not go to church was a scandal.
It was a hard time, but also a very beautiful time, my art is still influenced by it today.
I moved to Berlin in 2013, because I just wanted to get out and had also found no apartment in the area of my family, with my two cats and my dog.
It was hard in the beginning, I was a graphic designer in Bavaria, here I had a job in a hotel reception only nightshifts. I tried many different (shitty) jobs, I worked as a postman, delivery rider, now I work for a serviced apartment house and as a reloctation consultant.
These jobs are just for earning money and paying my bills, beside I put every single minute into my art.
We see that there are many women as a theme in your works and that you blend these female figures with very sharp colors. Could you tell our readers a little about these vibrant colors in your color palette and the stories of these girls?
I love bold colors, I want my paintings to shine. I also like to use purple, the color that stands for feminism and therefore embodies strong women for me. All my female portraits represent strong women, so strong colors too.
I am inspired by life itself, my own emotions and experiences, movies and books.
For example, “Rose The Hat”, the picture with the woman wearing a small blue hat and having carnivorous plants for hair is a character from Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep". She is beautiful, but incredibly dangerous and evil, wearing this crooked little top hat on her head. She has psychic abilities. I read the book and this is my version of Rose. "Dark Shining" is also inspired by the prequel to "Doctor Sleep" by "Shining."
"Introverted" embodies my own rather strong introversion. "Hiding from People" is also very personal, as it reflects my love of animals and my introversion.
"Hoodoo Woman" is a woman with extra-sensory abilities who foresees her future in a glass ball. In the glass ball is an old picture of me "Progression at the last Second" which has to do with me finding myself very late in life, almost at the last second.
How do you stay motivated when working on a piece that’s challenging?
Sometimes I leave a painting for a while if I can't get any further, and start a new one. That´s how I stay motivated. But so far I have painted every picture at some point to the end. For example, I put "Furious Anger" on hold for almost half a year because I didn't know what to do next. When I continued later, it ran by itself and was finished within a few days.
What are some of your favorite art mediums to work with?
The IPad Pro and my Apple Pencil :) But I also love to paint with oil, I´m trying different things at the moment beside my digital art.
Do you have long-term goals? Are they written down or how do you revisit them and make sure you are moving along that path?
They are written down :) I have a "dream book" a notebook in which I write my dreams and goals and stick pictures to them.
When you write down your wishes and dreams, they manifest themselves better.
I want to become successful as an artist, also financially, so that in the future I can only make art and invest my time in it.
I want to improve my skills, that´s why im trying other mediums at the moment, not just digital art.
Can you talk about any other current or upcoming projects?
Yes, on 11.10. my biggest exhibition so far starts at Art Stalker in Berlin, on 12.10. is the vernissage for "Strange Things". Another project I'm working on is trying to sell my art on "Catawiki" and paint my printed art with gouache colors afterwards to make it absolutely unique.
Anything else you'd like to mention that I didn't ask?
Thank you very much for the great support!