Juliana Lima was born and raised in Campinas, Brazil but has spent a large part of her adult life travelling the world, working in fashion, design and art, eventually settling in Singapore.
Driven by creative expression, Juliana is a professional fine jewellery designer and a self-taught painter and artist. She works with a variety of mixed mediums, creating her own unique style that is fluid, layered and complex.
Here is a Q&A with our newest artist at White Space Art Asia.
Q: Can you tell us more about your background and how has that informed your art?
JL: I have been in fashion since my early twenties, first as a model travelling the world and when I eventually settled in Singapore, I became a full-time fine jewellery designer. Both these experiences have shaped my art. Working with fashion designers gave me appreciation for taking inspiration from various cultural influences, working with colour and different materials. Being a fine jewellery designer gave me an appreciation for technical and structural discipline and sculptural craftsmanship that working with fine metals and stones requires. I believe both these professions have shaped my art, in the sense of my experimentation with mixed media and the discipline required for fine detail, balance, and layered composition in my art.
Q: Who are your biggest influences and why?
JL: It’s probably not who but what. Nature is my biggest influence. I’m continually amazed at the endless creative force of nature, the movement of water and light, the combination of colours that change through the seasons, the cycles of change from day to night, sunrise to sunset. I take a lot of reference from nature, always changing, always inspiring.
Q: Why do you create? What do you like most about the creative process?
JL: It’s a drive and an urge to express myself fully. Being able to create from nothing is the ultimate freedom of expression without constraint. I have always been a rather introspective person with a very rich imagination and deep emotion but have struggled at times with expressing myself verbally. Art is the perfect outlet for me to channel my emotions and thoughts, so in a way its more than a drive, it’s a necessity.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have received?
JL: Get out of your comfort zone.
When I was growing up in Brazil, I was presented a wonderful opportunity to be a model and travel the world. My father, in spite of his worries about my leaving the comfort of my home and family, encouraged me to get out of my comfort zone and see the world, gather new experiences, because he knew it would give me a much more enriched life. This led me to have the courage to become an artist, even though I had no experience and formal training. I believe this advice has made me the artist I am now, always pushing to try new techniques and work with new materials, even though at times it can make me uncomfortable.
Q: Who would you most like to collaborate with, dead or alive?
JL: I would have liked to collaborate with Alexander McQueen. He had a fearlessness and a conviction about his fashion and art, endlessly pushing the boundaries of fashion and artistic expression. The other artist I would like to work with is Marina Abramovic, an amazing performance artist who conveys a powerful emotion and technique through movement, something I try to capture with my work, the feeling that a painting is fluid and constantly in motion.
