olive47 Interview
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
I was introduced to the artist that goes by olive47 a few years ago. One morning as I walked to my car I noticed the building next to my apartment had been hit by wheat pastings by her and another artist.
olive starting putting up stickers in Los Angeles in 98-99 at that time no one was really doing it except for Shepard Fairey. The very first stickers she put up were some she did for a documentary (she is a graphic designer) about pop culture. The first stickers she made for herself were these pink sperm. “It’s always been the cute animals and creatures for me…But of course, as artists, your style evolves and changes. I think my earlier stuff was a lot more graphic and symmetrical, and then it got more narrative, and now, I feel like I want to get more graphic with it again.“ Olive started out as “fine artist” receiving degrees in Painting, Art History and a Masters degree in Printmaking. “I am always experimenting with different media. I’m never content with just hitting a “style” and sticking with it. I want to explore all the ways to represent my characters.. I was really inspired by the Picasso museum on my last trip to Barcelona, and how many periods he went through. I think most real artists have to do that, otherwise you feel like you’re getting stale.”
After a bit of traveling she now lives in London. “The street art scene here is completely different from Los Angeles. I think it suits me a lot better. London is just a lot more laid back, more my vibe.“ Although she admits she’s not concerned with getting up everywhere she does always keep stickers in her bag. “With wheatpaste, you gotta plan it a lot more.. that, I do when I have a specific idea of what I want to do. I like to plan out the pieces I put up for specific locations. I’d say I do paste ups every 3 months on average. I always do site specific work when I travel, so I just put up a bunch of 3 legged pigs in Barcelona, and also painted some ceramic tiles and stuck those up.“ Even though she has been active for all these years she has never been caught and sometimes her stuff even stays up longer then others. “I do notice that often my stuff got left by the cleaners when others were scrubbed away. I think the fact that my imagery is cute makes a difference in that respect.”
I asked how she got to take on the olive47 name. It turns out back in the 94 her and roommate would mess with people on AOL chatrooms. After picking a few names that were already taken she picked the username olive47 so they could play a prank on her roommates girlfriend. “I stuck with it for my art as I have always felt funny about having my name on my work. It was a way to be more anonymous.“ And for the record she does not like olives.
This summer Dreamland Toyworks put out a line of 3″ cupcake toys called Miss Cupcake that olive designed. The reception to them has been good and she is working on a second series and eventually will be introducing another character. You can buy them online (Myplasticheart, Rotofugi or Urban Outfitters) or at various toy stores and even a few bakeries. She is also in the process of working on some cupcake jewelry. To keep up to date on all things olive47 you can visit her site and I would suggest checking it out. In addition to her art (which you can buy) she has podcasts, downloads, games and more.
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