27 - Christy Lee Rogers
What inspires you? What moves you? What makes you think ‘Wow, that was so meaningful’? These are just a few of the questions that I want to explore through interviewing various artists on Quin. I decided to start this blog as a way to explore what inspires people and hopefully to help those on their creative path find inspiration. I wanted to do this to dive deeper into my own creativity and to seek out artists that I truly find inspiring and whose work deeply moves me. I can tell you that every artist I have featured on Quin truly does move me. This isn’t a place to advertise or to create more unnecessary noise on the internet. There are so many things trying to grab our attention nowadays. I want Quin to always be a place for introspection, exploration, and creation. I designed it intentionally to be almost like a virtual gallery. Where you can take your time with the work of the artist and hear what they have to say. I had to take a step back for a while but I am very excited to be sharing new artists with you and hopefully exploring what it means to live a fulfilling life full of creative energy. As you read through these interviews, take your time. Notice how you feel when reading these interviews or what thoughts arise. Try to slow down for a few moments and use this time to explore your inner artist.
Christy Lee Rogers is definitely an artist that makes you want to stop and spend time with her work. Her work has really inspired me personally and pushes me to live a more colorful, honest and creative life. Her use of color, light and movement is so mesmerizing and invites your imagination to join in and explore this underwater world with her. Her composition and use of the human body come together to create worlds of deeper mystery that want to be discovered. She has an amazing collection of work and only a small part of it is being featured on Quin. I highly recommended visiting her website to look through her whole collection and to learn more about her.
You have a body of work called 'Luminescence'. Its absolutely stunning and reminds me of the older masters. Can you share more about this body of work? What inspired it and what does it mean to you personally?
I was working with light on this collection and experimenting with underwater flashlights, and how to create drama within the moving bodies. For years I’ve been fascinated by the electromagnetic spectrum and the wavelengths of the physical universe, including this concept that these wavelengths exist around us that are not visible but perceived. This is where I started and then got lost along the way in interweaving these images with stories of a place beyond reality, full of passion and longing. I wanted to imagine a future like Renaissance; a fairytale in space and beyond recognition. And personally color, movement and light are like candy to me; I could lose myself in them forever.
Your piece Punica from the siren collection really caught my attention. Is there a story behind this piece?
Punica emerges from the fire with grace and ease, as if born from the same element. Her head disappears into the darkness of the water, lost but recognizable. The movement within the water around her body becomes the key element that I focus on, and within that one flow of energy, she emerges.
Not only do you make these beautiful photographs but you also use film as a medium. I noticed that there is music in these pieces and I would love to hear how it all comes together. Does music play a crucial part in creating the piece?
Yes I can’t work without music; it’s playing in my studio the whole day. On the new Luminescence video edit I started with a piece of music composed by a dear friend of mine, Renato Sebastiani. From there it was like a dance with movement, combining and layering elements that felt airy and of another world. It’s a long process starting with capturing the video elements over two years ago, but I always know that the music will carry the piece.
How would you describe your work?
A passionate, timeless exploration into the unknown. They’re extensions of myself and that search for the answers and mysteries of the universe.
What was your journey into becoming an artist?
As a child and teenager I was always looking for a way to express myself, and feeling very disconnected from the world around me, until I was able to communicate my feelings through an image. But my path was not easy and I had to make some big mistakes along the way, and work many jobs that were less than fulfilling. Working with water became my obsession in 2003. and I had no idea where it would take me, but I kept traveling down the path with experimentation after experimentation, and each shoot would reveal some new challenge or idea that would then build into the next ideas. You know when you’ve found true love because everything else disappears, time slips through the cracks; and it feels effort-less. That’s where I like to stay as an artist.
Is there anything that you are challenging yourself with currently?
I started to paint and draw again, and this is a whole new approach to creating for me. One that requires a different kind of patience and planning.
Are there any people in particular that have influenced your style or art?
I love the heart felt poetry and sculptures of Michelangelo who was searching for something higher than himself, the stunning costumes and sets of Baz Luhrmann that are playful and insouciant, Muse lyrics that are filled with the most profound heart and soul, the old films of Georges Melies that are pure creative freedom, the music of Itzhak Perman and Danny Elfman for Cirque du Soleil, the visual brilliance of Fellini and his Films, Peter Paul Rubens and Caravaggio for their perfection of drama, passion, color, light and movement, Bjork and Grimes for being so true to their visions as artists, photographer Orit Gersht, David Bowie, and the list can just go on and on.
How do you approach working on a new piece?
I write in my notebook ideas as they come to me each day, and from there I start fleshing out new concepts and new places I want to go. Sometimes a song can inspire a whole collection. I’ll sketch out costumes and materials I’ll need; models I want to work with and visualize the whole process before I even start planning the shoot.
How do you find inspiration?
I find letting go and just really experiencing life around me to be the most rewarding. And that means not being in front of my computer all the time. It comes in the form of music, lyrics, performances, movies, traveling, architecture, science etc. Sometimes just a word or a visual can set the whole creative process on fire.
What has been your biggest struggle as an artist? How did you overcome it?
Working on other things than creating. There’s a balance you have to have with the administrative side and the creative. These get intermingled a lot and most of the time I just want to dive in and stay in that creative place. It’s like being in a different world. So I have to be disciplined in setting time for each part of my life, including my son.
Do you have a daily art routine?
Yes, I start the day with reading and writing in my notebook. Then I’m off to more administrative details like emails, communication with my galleries and planning shows. The night time is dedicated to creating, which is a time I find most freeing, as no one is needing me.
What advice would you give to other artists?
Stay true to your creative vision - speak from your heart and you can never go wrong.
Visit Christy Lee Rogers website to see more of her work.
