I discovered the artist Lily Mae Martin when I noticed links to her website on the pages of other artists I admired. I was immediately attracted to Lily's work as it was skilful and challenging. The technical skill shown in her drawings is fantastic and developing with every new work. The palette that is used in her paintings is rich, vivid and hyper real. I love that Lily draws equally well pictures squirrels and pictures that depict violence. She paints tender portraits of her baby and the more challenging depictions of sex or the grotesque. She is an explorer. So without further ado I give you my interview with the talented and sometimes pictorially contradictory Lily Mae Martin.

Picture
Lily in her Berlin studio with little Anja

Lily I’d love it if you could introduce yourself to our audience:

Hello readers, my name is Lily Mae Martin. I am originally from Melbourne but have been living and working in the UK and now Berlin, for over two years. I have a studio at the Bethanien which is an old hospital - now a kunsthaus in Berlin. My space is in the basement and I often wonder what that room was used for when it was still a hospital. I'm a figurative artist; I have just been getting back into painting and also have been writing a lot more about being an artist. (http://lilymaemartin.com/blog/)

One of the major themes in your paintings and drawings is the body and I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about that:
 
What is your fascination with the body?

The body is our vessel that we are given to last our whole life time. It is  the thing we try and change with all of our science, make up, surgery, plucking, pruning, pulling at… but ultimately, the body will do what the body will do. We are bound by it's ability and inabilities and we will cease to be when it's time is up… wether we are ready or not. Bits of it also come in and out of fashion if we colour and pluck it a certain way. Bits of it we consider vulgar and censor as much as we can. But we also love to see ourselves. Fashion and advertising have become so caught up with the body that people are so disconnected form their own bodies. We are so convinced that fad diets and detoxes are good for us. That tanning it makes us look healthy. We actually have no idea about other peoples bodies and what is normal and what is not. So if you say, get a haemorrhoid, you can go around feeling hideous and disfigured, when really it's just a haemorrhoid.
Before I started drawing people I had no idea about the body and what was and was not normal. I think through all the people I have drawn naked I have come to really understand that everyone has an amazing body, wether it is pale, tubby, wrinkly. The more I have explored this topic, the less I feel ashamed of my own figure and the less I worry about what advertising sells me as sexy and hot. When people scorn me about my looks, or lack of them, or boobs, I have the strength to recognise that that is their own insecurities, and very little to do with me.
When I draw and paint the body I love getting fascinated by the veins and bones in a foot, or the way skin will wrinkle over an elbow.


You often seem to use it to tell part of a narrative-  I was wondering how these visual vignettes take root in your thinking?

I think a lot about things that are said to me or that I have seen and some things just stick out. They may not seem very profound but they are reoccurring and then one day I just use it in a work.
I used to look a lot of fairy tales and children's books and then when I was older graphic novels. I'd often think about the written piece of the work and then what they have chosen to illustrate and why.

You are the model for many of your drawings- how much of the work is self portrait or is it mostly the convenience of being a cheap and readily available model?

I just have to say how surprised I am at people not knowing that all the works are me (except for the bearded men, of course) and when people realise that it is me I get such mixed reactions, usually making the person uncomfortable.
I began using myself as a model as I had massive issues with my body when I was in my early twenties. It's hard being a young women especially when guys expect you to be a certain way and all your girlfriends are competing against you in terms of how your body looks. Gene (my better half) used to try and take photos of me when we were first together and I hated it, I used to hate the photos he had taken of me and I got to a point where it was like "why?" "Why do I hate the way I look so much?" I used to get so unhappy with how I looked that I just wouldn't talk or eat or want to go out. So I think I got to a point where it was like 'I have to deal with this'. The only way I was able too was through my art as I didn't have people to talk to and writing was something that I had been convinced that I was bad at.
So yes, it's a combination of having to get myself over some things and the availability of myself. I have also found it hard to work with people in the past as you get so much pressure from people who pose for you to make them look good and I just couldn't be bothered with it.
But I have some great people around me now and some of them have agreed to sit for me, so I am very excited!
Picture
Bleeder. 2011, Pen on paper.
In terms of your art would you describe your body as a tool and has/does your relationship with your body change as you draw?

I became less judgemental about my body when I began to use it for my art. It is what is it and I enjoy drawing it as much as any other body. After having a baby my body was a mess and I just worked through it by taking my 'reference' photos and thinking of it in terms of an artwork.

What keeps you producing?
I really enjoy the process of making things. For me it's therapeutic, it's escapism and it's fun. Lately I have been getting back into all sorts of art and it's inspiring me all over again.

And last is there an inkling of what is next for Lily Mae?
Well, work wise I am just painting a lot. I am going to revamp my site soon which is also exciting, I will be putting a lot more variety of things I can do, as I feel I have become known as too much of a 'dark artist'.  I have two groups shows in L.A early 2012 but pretty much taking time to enjoy my life at the moment- Berlin, baby and painting!
Picture
Anja, 2011, oil painting by Lily Mae Martin
So there you have it people please pay attention to thie work of Lily, as she said her website is under construction but you can see her Blog here: I am very glad she decided she could write. This is a link to her Facebook page. I promise to let you know when the website is up and running. So stay tuned.
Next week's(ish) blog is as yet unthought of- my creativity is having a little sleep under the couch but some thoughts are devalopping around the ideas of style: how much is choosen and constructed and where does my confidence and honesty to my practice sit with in it: big ideas for a sleep hungry brain my friends.
 


Comments

Clarissa
07/13/2011 06:07

I love it. You are both such talented beautiful women. xxx

Reply
Bonnie
07/13/2011 20:41

thank you, i agree with clarissa. it took a long time for me to find peace with myself about my body. its a big issue. the more its talked about the better xo

Reply
amelia
07/16/2011 13:29

Thank You ladies. So glad you enjoyed it!

Reply
Bec
08/15/2011 17:16

Another fantastic talented person, very very inspiring! Thank you for these interviews, I love them.

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