Brisbane artist Louisa Rossitto uses watercolour on paper, inspiring images and dreams to bring together fantastically bizarre and beautiful artworks which explore themes of human existence and the absurdity of our inconsequence. Louisa was kind enough to invite me to her studios to explore her process and chat about her work...

Was having a career as a professional artist always something that you knew you wanted to pursue?

Growing up, my older sister and I would draw together just as a way to entertain ourselves. I don't really remember deciding to go to art school, I didn't make a very conscious decision about that. I just thought - well I'm going to be doing this anyway, I may as well just keep doing what I was doing under cover in a class situation. This could be my full time agenda.

You studied a BA of Visual Arts (Fine Arts) at the Qld College of Arts. Was this an integral step in your development as an artist?

It did help me shape my artwork to date, in that they let you do whatever you want. Other art schools can try and exercise more of a style. They can try and shape people to a certain ideal depending on who is lecturing at the time. QCA come from a much more skilled based agenda than some of your more academically driven art schools who are going to come at it from a more conceptual angle. QCA encourages people to come at it from their own angle. We would have a lot of free time with guidance. Being taught to paint, draw and sculpt is not something that is very measurable. It's the other people that you meet, other students... they are probably the most valuable thing you get out of any creative study that you do.

 

You also have a degree in Library and Information Sciences and work part time in a library. Do you find that this influences or shapes your work in any way? 

 

I was interested in this job because it's something that you can push in a lot of different directions. It's a job that is about organising which sounds a little bit dry, but for me is mega exciting. I've always wanted to keep my job there as it's so separate from what I do in my studio. My studio is a wanton selfish space and no one really gets a look in. My time there is very focused and extremely self absorbed. It's hard to engage in that in a really full way and then feel like you are still contributing to much. As much as I love making my work, there is a lot of conflict "where is this going, what is this doing, what is this contributing to?" and I think those questions remain a little bit unresolved for me always. But my other job is a very service oriented job, so it really balances things out. Especially when you work at a university library. You are helping people with their PHD and helping people research their projects that they are really excited about. It often turns out that things that happen there crop up in my work. 

You work primarily with watercolour on paper. What do you like most about this medium?

I feel like there is a little bit of comedy in painting with something that is 95% water. It doesn't feel very serious. The great thing about watercolour is that even if it dries out, you can revive it again with water. They are extremely fun to play with and approach in a very scientific manner. There is a lot of reaction that happens with watercolour in itself which is often unorchestrated and just happens on it's own. I had also been experimenting with really nasty acrylic fluro paints and making watered down washes with them. In those works it was all very tonal with these punctuations of flurescents. But my works now are more about spectrum.

 

You lived in Wellington for a year. How did you find the work you produced differed to the work you create here?

I was making very tonal work as opposed to the other work I do which is all about contrast. But they do look a lot more mature to me. The way I usually use colour now is definitely more about a colourbox approach, it's much more playful. 

You work from a studio in Metro Arts. How did you come about getting your studio there?

I first got a studio there in 2008 because I won a scholarship with metro arts. They put me up for a year and gave me a show here. Part of the prize is that you get a studio rent free for that year as they are developing you. At the time I was living in a one bedroom flat, which wasn't an ideal situation to develop artwork in. I do like having the space separate to my living space. Although I know I'm spending too much time in my studio when I start getting my house and my studio keys mixed up.

Where do you find inspiration for your work and what is your creative process?

I collect a lot of images - some kept on the computer, photocopies, magazine pages, torn out pages from books they are throwing out of the library. I will just get big chunks of these images and start moving them around and kind of put them into couples. If you are working in this way, you get very attuned to responding to something on a really gut level - I like this image, I don't like this image. It's extremely instantaneous. I keep a visual journal and I keep a writing diary. I also do some creative writing, but that's more sporadic. Because I like language so much some of the images start by thinking about phrases, different words and their dynamic. For example, a fever could be a sickness or to work on something feverishly is to be working on a higher plane of consciousness. I like the duality of that. A lot of the work I do has a lot of ridiculous and bitter humour. Most of the time, the inspiration behind my pieces are so obscure that I wouldn't expect anyone to pick up on what's going on. But it's always fun to hear other people's meaning behind your work. 

 

What are your plans for the future?

The dynamic I've been in for the last couple of years has been difficult because I love my work and my day job but my life has just been so busy that I feel a little bit disconnected from a lot of other things that I enjoy. Particularly when deadlines are involved and you have said yes to too many things. I've never had a career plan, which has meant that I've had to learn a lot of things as they confront me. I don't have an agenda. Whatever becomes of this, it will still find a way of happening even if I didn't have the opportunity to resolve things in this sort of fashion. I don't think I will ever be someone who doesn't draw. I'm a painter just because there is paint there, but I don't feel like a painter. I feel like a drawer. The drawing to me is the more absorbing part. The painting feels like work. Although I've never had a plan, I feel like if I did have some sort of plan then I might have been able to better manage what opportunities do come to me. I think you need a healthy balance of plan and taking things as they come.

Images courtesy of Louisa Rossitto represented by Helen Gory Gallery