INTERVIEW:

Bekii: Could I get you to introduce yourself and the type of art that you do?

 

Ellen: Hi I’m Ellen Russo and I do self-portraiture, a lot of the time with watercolour in the background, but I like doing other stuff…but I hate doing charcoal! Because I’m [studying art at university] I’m learning different techniques and different styles. My main [focus] is self-portraiture but yeah I’m slowly getting a wider range.

 

Bekii: Cool. What’s your degree and where are you studying?

 

Ellen: I’m studying at RMIT. It’s my first diploma of art so I’ve only just finished high school.

 

Bekii: What’s your experience in attempting to break out in the art world so far?

 

Ellen: Oh well… very difficult! You need good connections to ever get anywhere in art. It’s very difficult and unless you have a lot of money … but so far its been okay! Being at uni you get so many opportunities and [you meet] people so it’s been good so far.

 

Bekii: What do you your friends, family and boyfriend think about your art? And your choice to do art?

 

Ellen: They all like my art because they like self-portraiture, they like the detail in it. They’re really stressed about what the future [will hold] because “how are you going to get money?” , “what are you going to do?” I don’t even know what I’m going to do it’s just a passion at the moment so I’ll just see where it takes off. Hopefully getting into tattoo art [which] should be cool.

 

Bekii: Yeah that’d be awesome. How do you promote yourself and your art?

 

Ellen: Mainly through social media, through Instagram and facebook , I’m looking into putting my art [up] in cafes soon. And yeah just getting my name around, like everyone else spreads the name  when I sell a piece of artwork or something so yeah it’s just connections and….

 

Bekii: Like networking?

 

Ellen: Yeah! That word!

 

Bekii: Yeah awesome. How long do you spend doing art every week?

 

Ellen: Well… I’m at uni 8 hours a day and I go there 4 times a week, so you can do the math and then I do stuff at home as well, so any chance I can get at home in my free time yeah.

 

Bekii: How important is art to you? And how important do you think it is for society?

 

Ellen: Art is really important to me. It’s a passion. It’s how I let my emotions out and without it I don’t know how else I could do that. And to society it is really important, but I feel like the art is changing so much like the art that I’m interested in the really old-school art with so much detail and technique it’s really changing to this contemporary [focus],- like I don’t hate contemporary art- but like someone in my class put a toilet flushing on a wall, and…yeah there is ideas behind it, but where is the technique? The actual detail in it? It is important I think, but it has changed a lot. I don’t know how I can express my opinion on this without everyone else getting angry at me so….

 

Bekii: Do you need a job to supplement your art practice?

 

Ellen: Yeah. I’m not a millionaire , I don’t have a lot of money. At the moment it’s just grabbing what I can from people and from like junkyards, and yeah I need a job, but at the moment I have my parents which is nice. Thank you.

 

Bekii: Shout out to your parents! Do you have any art career aspirations for 5 or 10 years from now?

 

Ellen: I would like to be doing tattoo art, that is my main, I’d just love to be travelling the world doing that. Hopefully in America or something like that. My main goal is to work with Megan Massacre. She’s an amazing artist.

 

Bekii: What do you think about the art community in Melbourne?

 

Ellen: It is really big! Art communities are obviously really small but Melbourne is actually considerably big in comparison to a lot of other [places] and it is growing which is cool, but it’s growing in a more contemporary fashion.

 

Bekii: What advice would you give to someone finishing highschool thinking about doing art?

 

Ellen: I would say consider if it’s something that you really, really want to do and think about what’s going to happen after it. And if it’s your passion, you know, go for it. Also, you should [think about] whether it’s a passion and also something you want to do in the future or if it’s just a passion and that’s it. Because sometimes when you learn , when you go into school to do something that is your passion you can hate it instantly because people are telling you what to do and how to do it and you can just lose your passion for it.

 

Bekii: Have you always wanted to study art? Like when you were going through high school? Was it always your goal or was it something you decided later?

 

Ellen: I always wanted to study architecture and then I wanted to do music but art was something that I always did and it was the only [university offer] I was given so I thought I might as well do it.  I didn’t want to take a gap year. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do but yeah.

 

Bekii: Is there anything else you’d like to say about being a young artist?

 

Ellen: Art is cool and keep practicing. Nah I’m kidding! Everyone has different styles so don’t judge, just be nice. Be happy. Be smiley. Yeah.

 

 

Interviewed and writtten by Bekii Bialocki (2016)