How do you keep fueled up while creating modern day masterpieces? We wanted to know too. Apparently, it’s all about snacking on yams, drinking tea, short jaunts to neighborhood hotspot Sqirl, and keeping an empty Moleskine at arm’s length. I guess we knew more than we thought!
We’re catching up with artist America Martin, a Silverlake-based, Colombian-American painter and sculptor who is quickly capturing the attention of the art world and collected by a wide variety of famous Los Angelenos including Kirsten Dunst, Juliette Lewis, Danny Devito, and Giovanni Ribisi. Take a peek inside the studio with this rising star…
Name:
America Martin.
Daily necessity:
Is to know that everyone I love is good!
To get the creative juices flowing I…
I put on my work dress (paint-covered white chiffon dress) and shoes (leather moccs)!
Favorite object on my desk:
The favorite items on my desk would be my Ganesha figurines. Ganesha is a deity that has been around since the fourth and fifth centuries from the Hindu religion. This god / deity had many abilities, but he is most known and revered as the remover of obstacles. I love theology and Ganesha has always been a favorite of mine. So I have two of them on my desk – one for myself and one for art.
Favorite morning of the week:
Sunday is my favorite morning of the week because it can be such a calm kind of day.
At 10:00 am I am usually:
Barking at the sun and four hours into getting my grove on in the studio.
My favorite current project is:
Taking photos and experimenting with my hot new Sony A7R camera.
My favorites workbooks/paper goods:
Moleskine
notebooks – I love to make lists and their paper goods and workbooks feel so whole and nice.
Soundtrack in the studio:
Glen Gould to start the day, then fade into songs by artists from the Delta, folks like Bukka White, Furry Lewis, Blind Willie McTell.
Most common visitors:
Friends, other artists and gallery owners.
The snack we always keep on hand:
Yams and tea.
Easiest way to brighten up the space is:
My friend Amanda Phillips works with this awesome essential oil company called dōTERRA. So to make the studio bright and fresh, I love to put some of these amazing oils in the diffuser and let them transform the space.
Favorite way to spend the lunch hour:
Eating at this small restaurant called Sqirl, which is very close to my studio in Silverlake.
Favorite design neighbors:
Graf & Lantz are literally my next-door neighbors – they’re wonderful men who make fantastic leather and felt bags and totes.
My necessary extravagance is:
Gobbling up books from Audible.com. I listen to everything while I paint – from Richard Burton reading his favorite poems to Down and Out in Paris
by George Orwell. I get to learn so much and the time flies by.
My top distraction is:
That life is beautiful and that time passes by so quickly.
Books always in studio:
Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius and so many more.
Organizational item I can’t live without:
My oversized Hello Silverlake full-year calendar. It’s so grand to see all your days right in front of your eyes.
