When planning the general ideas for my artwork, I like to choose venues in which my imaginary themes can move and flow. I think in movement, structure, symmetry, and detail. I always try to incorporate the elements of imagination and fantasy.
Inspirations for my style include mainly japanese woodblock prints by artists such as Hiroshige, Hokusai, and Utamaro. All of these artists told a story in their pieces in high detail, complemented with a frailty inherent in their very culture. Other sources of inspiration included a set of children nursery rhyme books from Japan, Holland, and France that my mother lent me. Looking at these illustrations cultivated a desire to draw with the same high detail. In addition I have always been taken by the work of Erte, a Russian-born French fashion designer and artist in the 20th century. Modern artists I admire are James Jean and Soey Milk.
Music has been a part of my life since I was ten years old, when I learned how to play the flute. I liked the feeling of expressing myself more physically through music. Here at Berklee, I study composition – although I still also stay actively involved as a flutist. While I’ve worked on my music writing in the past few years, I often have had long gaps of time in which I am not able to work on my visual art. It still amazes me how this summer I was able to pick up my sketchbook after almost a year and was able to create more complex drawings than before. This means that – somehow – my brain is maturing visually, even when I am only working on writing my music. It fascinates me to try and connect the importance of composition and detail in creating visual stories – to my process in how I compose musically. I am thrilled that my visual and musical expressions are developing simultaneously, and are sharing something in the process. My eyes and ears still continue to develop.
-Eva Redamonti