The Gallivanting Girl Blog: Artist Interview: Stefanie Beyeler.

This interview comes all the way from Switzerland. That's one of my favorite things about Etsy, and the internet. You can find artists from all over the world with just a click of the mouse. So here is a few questions and answers with Stefanie Beyeler of beyeler.etsy.com:

1. Were you always an art kid, or did you stumble upon it later in life?

My dad, despite growing up in the fifties as a farmboy in Switzerland, has always been fascinated with art. So my parents have probably taken me to museums before I could walk. And I have been drawing as long as I can remember.

Bullterrier.

2. What style of art is your favorite and why?

What fascinates me most, are linedrawings. I love the movement that’s in a line. And I like portraits very much, be they antique or modern. The things one (mis)reads into a facial expression are interesting to me, as is the changing ideal of beauty over time.

3. What do you use for inspiration, or how do you generate ideas?

Everything is inspiration and everything can be distraction...

Hydrangea.

4. Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished project.

Sometimes an idea comes very quickly, sometimes it is hard work. I do sketches, then draw with color pencil and paint with acrylic color on cardboard. Usually I scan the work, continue in Adobe Photoshop and print it out.

5. What is a typical day in your life?

My husband and I are waking up to the loud cries of our orange tom cat, who is ever so hungry. Then we have to cuddle the other cat, who’s main purpouse is to put cat hair on all our clothes. As I have a dayjob as a graphic designer and work on my own as an illustrator, my days never are the same. The most typical thing would be to sit at the computer or at my drawingtable.

In the evening, my husband, who is also a graphic designer, and I often talk about our workday, or we collapse on the sofa, watching a movie.

Listening.

6. What do you think draws you to other people‘s work?

This is such an interesting question, that I often ask myself. Usually it‘s like love at first sight. Or it can be the opposite, an un inexplicable aversion to a work of art.

I think, I prefer the content above the technique.

7. What are your interests/hobbies?

Books and DVDs from our local library, walking my neighbours old labrador and my business! And I would love to find the time to sew again.

Melancholy. (I bought a print of this beauty!)

8. Is this your full time job, or do you have a job out-of-studio?

I work 50% as a graphic designer in a small studio, were I design logos, letterheads, websites and other things for clients. Then I work for some friends, like swiss fashiondesigner www.cascade.ch or goldsmith www.goldschmied-aebi.ch.

9. What is your favorite piece you’ve ever made and why?

This would be the book "Die Prinzessin, die immer duenner wurde," which I made with my sister, a journalist and a writer. It’s a fairy tale about a princess that gets anorexic and then bulimic, because her sister is more elegant and beautiful than herself. An evil fairy hears her wish to be thinner and then there is a magic mirror, weird diets, the usual frogkissing, a handsome but helpless prince and her desperate parents.

The inspiration were all those stories a girl hears even at a very young age, about perfect beauty as a the key to happiness.