We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Zinna & Sylvia Troconis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lisa and Sylvia, thanks for joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Lisa: I came from a family of “IBMers”, so that was the path that was expected after college. I didn’t necessarily have another passion to pursue, so after a few years of random IT jobs, I finally landed at IBM as a technical writer… for 27 years. During my last few years of that job, I became increasingly curious about creativity, art, and photography, especially photo editing. I was known to decorate the dull hallways with photographs and Damien Hirst-inspired dot collages. In my off hours, I spent a good portion of time learning and experimenting with editing apps on my phone. I retired as soon as I was eligible and knew I would have a solid art practice to keep me busy and engaged. Knowing now how difficult it can be to make a living as an artist, I don’t think starting my art career earlier would have been beneficial in my case. I love that I started art later in life and now have a hunger to learn more, ideate, and share my love of art by volunteering and exploring new paths, like collaborations!
Sylvia: I never waited. I have learned throughout the years many crafts in several creative areas. Whether it was jewelry making or fusion glass techniques, I never saw it as a career but more like learning inclinations or hobbies. I remember my parents fostering those. They would take me anywhere to learn whatever I wanted to learn. I would say that more than in love with art I have always been in love with being creative. Going back to the question, I started being creative when I was born, obviously not as a career but more of by the way of self. Knowing all of those techniques and processes is what has made me a mixed media artist today.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Lisa: I’m a photography-based artist, with a knack for pouring a smooth coating of resin. Not content with a basic photo, I use apps on my phone (mostly) to edit and layer images and discover unusual ways to combine physical art with digital art. Dreaming up new ideas might be my favorite activity, though.
Sylvia: I’m a mixed media artist. Everything I make in my art studio is driven by my need for visual expression and a desire to create beautiful things with my hands … and a few power tools. My bold color aesthetic takes strong cues from my Latin American heritage, and my obsession with science is echoed throughout my work!
We met during a West Austin Studio Tour event and stayed in touch somewhat through Instagram. Towards the end of the pandemic, we got together in person to discuss ideas for getting our individual art back out into the world, specifically in Austin. It was nice to be able to meet up face-to-face, instead of conversing online like we had been doing for a couple of lonely years.
Towards the end of the exchange of ideas, we started brainstorming about how we could combine my photographs with her wood layers, making the photo image pop in a 3D sort of way. Our first prototype used a photo I had taken of a Whataburger that was the original A-frame shape. Sylvia used her skills of creating precise cutouts of particular areas to make them pop as additional layers, and that was our first official collaborative art piece! We have since sold out of that limited edition series of 10 and have created over 30 designs since then, over the past year.
We never necessarily talked about continuing in the direction of iconic and popular Texas establishments, but that’s what we did and continue to work on a year later. We’re finding that the nostalgia of certain restaurants really resonates with people and they bring back childhood memories or special times. These places feel very Austin and Texas Americana and evoque that feeling of what we think shapes our culture in this community.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
People! This collaboration has taught us that having the help of another person is immensely beneficial. An artist’s life can be very solitary and sometimes you think you have to figure everything out yourself. Contacting other people and artists doing similar things should be commonplace. We find that most people are happy to share their experiences and give advice and tips. Sometimes artists don’t want to share their ideas with anyone and want to be able to take full credit for them. With a collaboration like ours, the two of us bounce ideas off of each other, and subsequently, have even more ideas.
Austin has a number of groups, such as the Creative Arts Society, that are communities of “art-minded” individuals. They help with getting our art displayed around town and provide resources and learning for artists of all levels.
Other resources are community workshops. In a community workshop, you can see people doing amazing stuff. You wander around, ask about the process, and then somehow you are inspired and have new ideas. Sometimes there is a new tool that you can learn to use and don’t have to buy. That tool can widen your artistic horizon. The members of that community are also a great asset. There is always someone that knows more than you and can help. It’s funny how members of those shops like to solve problems by approaching a discussion. You ask somebody a question, somebody else overhears it, and you end up with four people around you trying to make your idea a reality.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Lisa: Seeing thoughts and ideas come to life is very rewarding. I feel like I spend an inordinate amount of time ruminating on art techniques, photo editing, and ideas for new series. The collab with Sylvia keeps me accountable so that we make forward progress instead of just keeping all of the ideas in our heads.
When we deliver a commissioned piece to a collector, there is nothing better than to hear that it was better than they had imagined.
Sylvia: To see people vibrating with you through something that you made. Making people feel in awe about something that you create, is to me, the best feeling in the world. Also, being creative makes all anxiety melt away because when you are an artist you are always busy. You are either making art or thinking about making art. It is a low-level type of obsession.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sylviatroconis.com/collaborations
- Instagram: @lisa.zinna and @stroconis