Mixed-media illustrator Niky Roehreke isn't afraid of bold use of color, recently bringing her feminine touch to Insight's Garage Artist series of tees and store installation at the apparel line's flagship store in Venice Beach. Niky's works, often done with wartercolor, pencil, typography, and collaged among symmetry are up through May 1 so swing by this weekend.
Mixed-media illustrator Niky Roehreke isn't afraid of bold use of color, recently bringing her feminine touch to Insight's Garage Artist series of tees and store installation at the apparel line's flagship store in Venice Beach. Niky's works, often done with wartercolor, pencil, typography, and collaged among symmetry are up through May 1 so swing by this weekend.
1. One reason you make art:
I suck in communicating through words.
2. The last good movie you saw:
'Funky Forest' by Japanese director Katsuhito Ishii
3. Something you’ve always wanted to do, but have yet to:
Read more books ranging from German history, aliens to interesting biographies.
4. Favorite country or city visited:
I just went to LA for the Insight exhibition and it is now my favourite place to go to when I need to get away from NY for a while to relax.
But I want to travel much more so that I would have a hard time choosing the answer to this question.
5. A few words that sum up your philosophy on life:
Be honest, be thankful, work hard, have fun, make mistakes.
6. Something you want the world to know about you:
I don't have anything in particular, I simply want the world to know more about my artworks.
7. Something that annoys or frustrates you about people:
People who talk about other people.
8. Something that concerns you:
Japan's future
9. Artists you admire:
Kusama Yayoi, Pina Bausch, Patti Smith
10. Favorite quote(s):
'The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you' - Bob Harris/Lost in Translation
11. The first record or CD you ever bought? The last album you downloaded?
First CD: soundtrack to Disney's 'Lion King,' and just downloaded: The Weeknd 'Echoes Of Silence'
12. Something you do when you’re procrastinating?
I eat cookies. But I'm actually not quite sure what this question means.
13. What is your most defining characteristic?
I'm an indecisive perfectionist who works non-stop.
14. What is your greatest fear?
To be an indecisive perfectionist who works non-stop.
15. The moment you realized you were an ‘artist’:
The moments when I sat in mathematics class and felt completely lost. And the moments I imagined how the math teacher was abducted by a humongous wasp.
16. Your greatest quality:
My right side of the brain
17. Something you wish you could change or alter about yourself:
This is a difficult one because there are quite a few things, so I will just write what I felt today: I wish I could speak in public without getting so nervous and I wish I had slightly bigger boobs.
18. What is the biggest risk you’ve ever taken and was it worth it?
I believe it was when I got accepted into a professional ballet school in the UK and left Tokyo for a year when I was 15.
Instead of sitting in a classroom all day, I suddenly had to dance 8 hours a day, and I was so behind that I had to train twice as hard to keep up in class which lead to a couple of injuries. I really felt the limits of my body and at some point I had to accept the fact that I wasn't meant to become a dancer. It was quite tough to realize that the one and only dream I had back then won't come true, but it was worth it since it made me realize that life is not going to be easy!
19. Something you wish you had known five years ago:
During college I wish I'd known that an artwork doesn't communicate to people when it has a well explained reason or when it shows how much work was put into it, but simply when it's honest.
20. What do you hope to accomplish in the next five years of your life?
Do more art shows, more screen prints, improve my decision making and time management skills, stop eating too many cookies and live in Berlin or Paris for a while.
insight51.com and http://www.nikyniky.com