We had the honour of visiting contemporary fine artist Gretel Warner at her home studio in Essex. Join us in reading her interview.
Hey Gretel! Could you tell us a bit about yourself? Who are ya, where do you come from and what do you do?
Hey, I’m Gretel, I’m 27 years old and I am a full-time artist, part-time over-thinker. I was born in Kent, where I grew up and lived for most of my formative years.
I now live and work in Essex, spending the majority of my days exploring the complexities of womanhood within our fast-paced, social media-centric world. Not just the complexities (as that would be reasonably depressing) but the raw and unfiltered beauty of being a woman, and the entire emotional spectrum that comes with the package.
I like to create work that makes me feel, and feel hard. Mental-health is a theme that runs heavy through the veins of my practice, usually starting with words/phrases or poetry that I splurge out on my notes. And from here a painting is born! I suppose they act as vessels to carry me through the turbulent waters of life!
Can you recall a moment when you suddenly realised, ‘Yes, this is exactly what I should be doing’?
I was studying English literature in Plymouth and found myself spending all of my time drawing in my flat, when I should have been annotating some sort of book written by a dusty old man. I decided to go home and study fine art but I had no real idea what I was going to do with the degree.
I always knew I was a creative being, I just wasn’t sure if that was a viable path in life. I really had no idea about the art world.
From a reasonably young age I used art as communication tool, as a way to deal with mental-health struggles and issues revolved around body-dysmorphia. It was never about becoming an artist, it was about expressing myself and feeling better for it.
I felt more confident dealing with things through an artistic practice, it was like a middle man. I guess that’s when I realised ‘yes, this is exactly what I should be doing’!
What do you think your younger self would say about you now? How would they feel meeting you?
I think she’d be quite impressed that I had the courage to quit a stable job in order to pursue my (her/our) dreams, without knowing if it was going to work out. It’s not easy out here, and younger me had absolutely NO IDEA, aha.
But I know she was never afraid of hard work, and she knew nothing that was worth having in life was going to be easy.
Yeah, she’d be proud. And she would be glad to know we got through some dark times and came out fighting.
(She’d be very impressed with my tattoos haha).
In five years, what’s your dream scenario for yourself and your work? What are you most excited about?
My dream is to feel content and comfortable within myself. I have always struggled with the relationship I have with myself and it is something I know I will have to continue to work on.
In 5 years time I’d like to be successful enough to have absolutely nothing to do with social-media. My dream is to spend my days painting, with a wonderful employee that takes care of the marketing and sales side of things.
Social media /marketing is something that really affects my mental-health and negatively impacts my practice. It sours the whole experience for me, so to eliminate that would be the absolute dream.
I’m most excited to feel like I’ve done my bit and done it well, at a stage where my art speaks for itself- I don’t need to prove anything to anyone, it all just is.
I’m not striving for excess or fame, just to be happy and living comfortably, spending time with my family and doing what I love doing! (And a nice big studio with huge windows… haha!)
If you could sit down with someone just starting out on their own freelance or entrepreneurial path, what one piece of advice would you love to give them?
Become comfortable with being very uncomfortable, welcome failure and rejection- that’s where the best things are born. Be as authentic and true to yourself as possible and DO NOT give up- it’s not that deep and things will always feel a little lighter in time.
Just keep putting all you can into what you love, and that effort and passion will be recognised! Your time will come. Be kind to yourself, keep trying and be patient.
Picture this.. You’re stranded on a desert island and you can only listen to one song forever. What song would you choose and why?
Dancing in the moonlight by Toploader. I remember the first time I heard the song, I was about 8 and it was a Sunday evening. I heard it on the TV and I remember thinking ‘wow this song makes me feel something!’.
About 200,000 repeats later the song is still able to drag me out of dark places. It enhances a good mood and softens the blow on a bad one. Its been a good friend to me, and it’s an absolute BOP ( and I won’t have anyone say otherwise).
If you want to follow Gretel on her journey, you can find her on Instagram.
