featured: Nicole Ioma

My first ‘crafty other’ feature is Nicole Ioma, a fantastic artist and student, currently working on a masters in art education. I met her through the Indie Biz class and was immediately drawn to her very bold, graphic paintings. After looking through a bit of her work, I still love the squares!

Nicole has a great blog here, which is always inspiring with a regular Monday motivation installation and glimpses of her wonderful art work.

Read on for a bit more about Nicole and her work.:

-favorite material/technique
I will always love photography, but what I love even more is taking photos and turning them into mixed media collages (sometimes three-dimensional!)  My favorite piece can be found here, and it includes a lot of three-dimensional elements.  Lately I have been getting more into painting and drawing, and incorporating those elements more and more into my collages.  I also love bookmaking & printmaking.

-biggest influence
This is a really tough one, because I honestly don't know.  I have never had a favorite artist or anything like that, I just love art, collectively.  I think the times when I have felt the most influenced have been when I have been in art museums, and have been able to see the art in person (if you have not done this, then you are totally missing out on part of the experience of art and you should get to an art museum ASAP!)

-have you ever had a crafting disaster?

Oh yes, of course.  Several times I have kept trying to make a project work that was a failure from the start, and in those situations it's best to just scrap the project altogether.  When I was an undergrad (majoring in fine art) those times would be VERY disastrous because I was usually working on a deadline with a critique the next day!  Those experiences have helped me to learn what techniques/materials work best in different situations, and how to solve problems quickly and efficiently.  I've never been discouraged by them, but instead inspired to find new and different ways to tackle a problem or complete a project.

-favorite shoes

I have a strange relationship with shoes.  I LOVE to look at them and I want to buy every pair I see, but then I never do and I end up just wearing flip flops all the time.  So the shoes pictured are my favorite ones that I own (but only wear occasionally.)

-how do you stay inspired?

It's really not that hard for me to stay inspired, since so many things inspire me.  The real problem is motivation, because I find myself with tons of ideas but no motivation to actually carry them out!  I did a post here on some of my inspirations, but really I get inspired by anything and everything.

-what do you daydream about - what are your BIG plans for your art/craft/shop?

This is still very much in the works, but I hope one day to have an online shop selling my original artwork, handmade books, etc., as well as teach art classes (locally!  So if you're in Indiana and want to learn, contact me!)  Right now I am getting a Master's in Art Education and I plan on being a high school art teacher, but I would also love to teach classes to adults in a more laid back setting, during the summer and possibly weekends.  I think that art is something that many people are intimidated by, but I think everybody can do art- they just need to find the right medium, inspiration, and instruction.

-favorite color
Oh gosh, I can never decide.  I have a favorite color scheme, really.  But mostly I love dark reds/pinks, and deep greens.

-when you aren't crafting/painting, you can be found...

Doing school work!  Since I am in school, I am constantly in class, writing papers, reading, and working on projects.  It's exhausting, but I know it will be over soon and I will be able to devote more time to making and teaching art.  I also spend lots of time with my boyfriend, friends, and family, and will hopefully get a chance to work on my wake boarding skills this summer  =)  I love reading, watching movies, and running (I'm training for a half marathon!) and I will be teaching art at an art camp this summer.

Thank you so much Nicole for answering my silly questions! It is great to get to know other creative people out there and I feel lucky to have met so many through Indie Biz. I'm always interested to see what others are up to, so let me know if you do something crafty and you want to answer silly questions!