ARTchipel , ARTchipel Artist Bari Sowa

Bari Sowa | Bari Sowa on ARTchipel.com (USA) - Connected. Fine art photography, 20x25cm

• Tell us in few words about you.
I’m from Los Angeles though grew up making frequent visits to family in New Mexico. I think that has influenced my work a great deal as I find myself more and more drawn to rural and isolated characteristics – in people and in landscapes.

• What motivated you to become an artist?
I never made a conscious decision to become an artist. I didn’t ever consider being a photographer because I didn’t own (and even still, don’t own) anything more advanced than a point and shoot. It took me a long time to realize that being an artist doesn’t have anything to do with what materials you use.

• What are your work process and techniques?
I guess my only process is that when I see something that incites emotion in me (sadness, loneliness, joy) I want to explore it – no matter what it is. It’s a big reason why I almost always post photographs with music – I feel there is a more complete range of emotions possible with more stimuli. I want to tell a story or have someone else create his own story. My only goal is to have a person walk away feeling differently than he did before viewing my work.

• What are your ideal conditions for work?
I take a photograph when I see something that makes me pause. This, of course, can occur almost everywhere, so there are really no ideal conditions. Editing photos, however, is different. I like to edit in silence to allow whatever photograph I’m working on to speak to me. Based on the emotions that the photograph has stirred up, I’ll start listening to songs that have made me feel similarly, which allows for a more complete movement of emotion.

• What inspires and provokes imagination in you?
People. I adore and am inspired by and am moved by people – their stories, their eccentricities, their quirks. What they’re afraid of, what makes them laugh, how they take their coffee.

• Does your work reflect your person?
I suppose it does to a certain extent because I feel a very strong connection to each piece and therefore it’s all an expression of something that I’m feeling or have felt. As a whole, though, no. I don’t think so. My work feels very lonely and I’m not a lonely person. I feel very vibrant and alive all of the time and I’ll look at my website and wonder where all the color is.

• The adjective that best describes you?
Alive

(interview with artist by ARTchipel Nov-2011)

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