1. Tell us a little bit about your background. What led you to art and a desire to open a storefront studio?

I grew up always drawing and painting and with parents who had a love for art. Once I got to high school I was placed with a group of other artists and our work was submitted to competitions which was exciting although I always felt like the black sheep of the group. After sending out my portfolio, I received a scholarship to the Art Institute of Chicago. Unfortunately, my parents didn’t feel it was a proper way to make a living so instead I went to EKU and minored in art. It wasn’t until many more years later that I inherited a Venice CA art studio and once again became serious about my work as an artist. Back then I worked in resin and had the good fortune of gaining representation through the venice art walk and had many of my pieces in restaurants around the US! My passion has led me through many different painting mediums including encaustic wax, pigmented alcohol inks and acrylics. I’ve had the great privilege of studying with some fantastic teachers

2.What does a day in your studio look like?

I usually go in with a plan that usually gets completely thwarted as soon as I go in. I know it sounds weird but the pieces speak to me, so I end up gravitating to whichever piece is the loudest. There is always music from the 80’s and if you walked by you would see me singing loudly bc I have crazy song lyric recognition!

3. You work with different mediums, including ceramics, fiber clay, and acrylics. What brought you to each material and how have you made your studio adaptable to these different mediums?

When I opened my storefront I had just recently transitioned into pigmented alcohol inks from primarily working in encaustic wax medium with a torch as my paintbrush. I eventually transitioned from resin work into encaustics for health reasons as resin is highly toxic. In 2017 I was diagnosed with stage 3c ovarian cancer and my work became about healing. I gave up my studio during that time…encaustics was way too intensive for me to do and while I was recovering from chemotherapy

4. How did your education influence and evolve you into the artist you are today?

I received a scholarship to the art institute but I never went. My parents were art lovers but didn’t recognize my being an artist as a job. So I ended up going to EKU and majoring in psychology and minoring in art. I thought I would be an art therapist, then I tried graphic design which I’m totally not right for either. I ended up acting. After years of acting in Los Angeles I wound up falling back into my painting and after a magical trip to Venice, Italy, I acquired my first art studio right off abbot Kinney in Venice, CA. In Venice, I worked in large scale Resin pieces and was featured in the Venice Art Walk for years. Many of those pieces are still hanging across the US in restaurants.

5. How would you describe your artistic style in a few words?

A free flow of energetic organic messages that I interpret as the curves of nature. Also I would categorize my style as MESSY.

6. Your most recent launch with LES had such a distinct quality and look to it- What was the inspiration?

I am very taken with nature, especially the lines of nature as it ages like a dance with the wind. I find myself marveling at leaves as they fall and the perfect shapes I find so much more interesting than when the leaves are young. I relate to them because I find myself much more interested and free and full. The juxtaposition of that fascinates me because our society lauds the opposite. I like to hope that my work captures the beauty that youth has to look for and celebrates the beauty of a life lived so full it can’t help but to encapsulate it with its whole self. 

SHOP STACY SOLODKIN