We were delighted to receive an email in our inbox from “a stray Pigeon,” so we have to ask—what is the significance of your artist name? What do pigeons mean to you?
They survive a lot. They are small and kind of invisible, yet they’re everywhere. They’re generally underestimated and don’t seem like much but if you take a closer look you can see that they actually have their own charm. I just have a soft spot for pigeons.
Could you speak to your influences—what artists (in any genre or medium) have made the most impact on your work, and how?
I remember when I was fourteen and I discovered surrealism and the work of Salvador Dalí and René Magritte; that blew my teenage mind a little bit. I think that experiencing their otherworldly creations and learning about the ideas behind surrealism had a very strong impact on the way I started to develop my own images. It’s been a long journey since then, but surrealism showed me the possibilities of bending creative boundaries and using my imagination to create new, escapist worlds. I was never particularly interested in portraying the world in the realistic way—I’ve been much more focused on exploring dreamlike logic, creating stylized characters and the strange dimensions they might inhabit. Since then, I have acquired a strange mashup of influences, which I still revisit when in need. I look up to amazing, hard-working women with imaginative minds—Tove Jansson, Yuko Shimizu, Kate Bush, Björk and so many more. My other great influence is literature, and I frequently come back to books that had a big role in shaping my imagination. I’ve also always had a thing for circus and folk tales, which often comes through in my artwork.
from Rusalka by Pigeon
You say on your website that you are interested in “the power of imagination and storytelling” and the way art allows people to connect to each other, and that you are particularly interested in individualism and the female perspective. Could you say a bit more about that?
There’s just something beautiful in the human need to make up and share stories, don’t you think? From folk tales and legends to contemporary fiction, we need stories to stimulate us, expand our perspectives and to live new lives in different points of view. Visual art can be a powerful form of storytelling, a tool for visual metaphors and communicating ideas. I love how artwork doesn’t have to be literal at all but, if done right, can evoke unexpected emotions and open up new places in your mind. For me it’s a process of observing the world around me or certain feelings, then filtering them through my own sensitivity and experience (I imagine this as a colorful, nonsensical machinery inside my brain), using illustration to communicate all these feelings to other people, and hopefully to encourage the viewer to feel something completely new, think thoughts they wouldn’t have thought otherwise. There are so many stories told via images, comics, animation, or writing that had a huge emotional impact on me. I’m fascinated by how a viewer can create a bond with artwork. I think that through my own creations I am putting my efforts into (imperfectly) reaching out to people and their sensitive side.
“Letter to My Body” by Pigeon
So much of your work has a playful, child-like spirit and bright pastel colors, while at the same time frequently referencing occult themes or having a surreal, almost manic energy. Could you discuss that contrast a little bit, and why you are drawn to your particular palette and themes?
Ambiguity is great—the feeling of looking at an image, which seems pure and innocent at first but reveals something darker when you give it a second look. I really enjoy the clash of sweet and innocent themes with something much more sinister and disturbing. Life isn’t black and white, things can’t (and shouldn’t) be categorized and labeled too easily. A lot of things are different than they seem at a first glance. Looking at pop culture and media, we are often presented with either very idealized or overly dramatized versions of people’s realities. It often takes a lot of analyzing and challenging of popular opinion to get to the center of it. I think I’m drawn to sweet and kitschy elements of pop culture and enjoy contrasting them with more sober truths connected with feelings of solitude, isolation, and anxiety. At the same time, though, I believe we need some form of fantasy in life—but it should be on our terms. Everybody should nurture some fantastical, private dimension in their head to which they can retreat when the real world becomes too much. I try to portray these mental states and have fun with mixing different themes.
“Clowning Around” by Pigeon
We noticed that you work in both digital and traditional art media. For you, what are the benefits and drawbacks of each method? What influences your choices to work in each?
For a long time I’ve been swinging back and forth between the two until I gradually worked out my current way of merging traditional and digital media. Through trial and error I have realized that, for me, the drawing itself is something very organic and spontaneous. Ink lines give me the best way of expression. The image has to have its roots on paper. I enjoy ink, the way the brush feels—and I try to embrace little mistakes, lines going wonky . . . that gives the piece more character. For me the linework and coloring are two separate processes. With the drawing I tend to be spontaneous and playful; the color is slightly more strategic. Working with digital software allows me to try different color palettes and create multiple versions of the same image without losing the original lines—and it’s a very efficient process.
from Rusalka by Pigeon
We are particularly enchanted by your beautiful work for your graphic novel, Rusalka and would love to hear more about that project. You mention on your website that Rusalka is partially inspired by Slavic myths. We adore dark fairytales, folktales, and myths, and are always excited to see new and exciting work inspired by them. What were your goals for the project? Where is it in its development, and when/where will it be available once completed, so we can get our grubby wolf-paws on it?
It’s a dear project of mine that for many reasons is currently on hold . . . for now Rusalka exists as a concept for a graphic novel, with some chapters developed in full (one of them, Rusalka’s origin, is available as a separate ‘zine). Rusalka aims to bring Slavic folklore into the spotlight; I feel that Slavic mythology has the potential to fascinate readers the same way Nordic and Greek myths already have. With this project the goal isn’t just to illustrate those tales but to portray the mythical creatures and tropes filtered through my own sensitivity and visual language. The idea was born while I was reflecting on my life as an immigrant—I am from Poland originally—and going back to explore the cultural roots of where I come from turned out to be a great source of inspiration. The focus of my story is the character of a Rusalka, the deadly mythical creature who is a spirit of a young girl murdered near the water. She lives by lakes or rivers and lures men with her beautiful voice just to drown them—in that regard you can say she’s a Slavic siren. What I’m particularly interested in is her backstory and how the tales of Rusalka even came to life. What I would like to highlight is the fact that in the human mind she’s a demonized, deadly, deceiving woman, but her vengeance and sinister power were born from injustice, suffering and the horror she had to go through. The story features three main characters—Rusalka, the Boy, and the Bard—each with their own storylines that affect each other. I’m currently slowly developing the rest of the script and hoping to share more information about the project on social media soon—stay tuned!
from Rusalka by Pigeon
Besides Rusalka, are there any other projects you are you working on right now? Where can we find your work and how can we support you as an artist?
With Rusalka being on hold for a while now, I have been involved in quite a few different projects. I’ve done some editorial illustration for Polish online magazines (“Szajn” and “ZiŚ”), tried my hand at mural painting and, recently, I have also created a surreal ‘zine, “Floating,” and taken it to few different art events. I’m planning to develop my visual storytelling further—for now, I’m happy for people to get engaged in my artwork via my Instagram or to send me any thoughts via email. I really appreciate seeing responses to my creative work.
Pigeon is a visual artist from Poland (currently based in Cardiff, UK) with a head full of surreal thoughts and images and a strong desire to share stories with other people. She works with a mixture of traditional and digital media. Her portfolio can be found at www.pigeonmakesart.co.uk and more information on her Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.