We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lola Victor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lola, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?

Being a burgeoning female artist in the art world is similar to being in a pit of lions. However the lions are not the limitations of people, but instead the internalized constructs of society, that come hurling towards you, as critiques and write-offs of your art, in many moments unforeseen via the projections of others. You cry often but alone, for fear of being “too emotional,” as you are shown that it is much more rare to be understood in light of your art, and far more common to be misunderstood as a female artist.

In this light, the most terrifying and fascinating misunderstanding of myself and work came in the form of an accusation and gossip, that my art is witchcraft, and I a witch capable of incanting men, which is why male colleagues support my career. As a successful female, you encounter people who belittle your successes to your physical attractiveness and/or your assertiveness as itchiness with a capital B, but it’s not so often the Medieval witch hunt resurfaces. This sort of femme fatale association with my work has never been something I intentionally prescribe to or create from, and it was and is not the truth…so encountering it was eye-opening.

Of course I had to tell my best friends… In response one of them, who happens to also be a curator, told me, “If you have that power you should use it.” We had a good laugh.

Ironically, I don’t make a point to factor in the opinion or reaction of many men in my creative process. However, I do hold the intention of making art that expresses my connection to that which I perceive as divinely feminine energy. Yet, I am familiar with philosophical discourse on gender and feminism that might suggest “the female form can be pleasuring in form and threatening in content.”

So, I can perhaps register this response my art as a compliment, that my art is expressing my own authentic expression of femininity, as is my intention, and that may well be translated as equally pretty as dangerous to patriarchy… something both magnetizing and terrifying…and therefore it must be witchery.

To be frank, the layers of this accusation and the basis of them, are still revealing themselves to me, and I am excited by the inquiries that this is inspiring: how can we reimagine archetypes of witch and femininity; how can we use critiques derivative of patriarchy as information to inform the creative process of feminist making; is it possible to create art that validates multifaceted femininity without being misunderstood; how we can cultivate our magical skills in our coven to make art that ends the patriarchy for all?

Lola, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am an artist, trained and painting. I create mystic art, kin to abstract surrealist art, that expresses my perceived connections and with the mystical, the ethereal, and the sacredly feminine.

I have made art since childhood, always exhibiting symbols and metallics, the lineage if which is still recognizable in my work today. In my paintings you can explore imagery reminiscent of dreams and cosmic landscapes, formed of intuitive line work, a personal codex of symbols, light language, and minimal, metallic palettes.

I have also worked on large format murals and develop digital images, videos, and animations.

I am inspired by artists like Hilma AF Klint and Alexander Calder. I am engaged with philosophical discourse on intersectional feminism and psycho-spirituality.

I was born and raised in studied, studied at Tulane University in New Orleans, and SACI in Florence, and obtained my MFA through The California Institute of Integral Studies, in San Francisco.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being an artist teaches you to allow yourself to re-make yourself as often as you make art. You learn to surrender, as you witness yourself as subject to change from your creations, as yours creations are subject to change from you. This realization affects all aspects of your life, for you realize that as daily as you create yourself anew, others also have the potentiality. Therefore you only have time to dedicate to curiously discovering yourself and all others as new everyday. This is the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

READING LIST (useful yet far from exhausted): The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir
Autobiography of a Yogi, Yogananda
Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton’
On Beauty, Zadie Smith
The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Brooks
The Red Book, Carl Jung
Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel García Márquez
Beloved, Toni Morrison
The Glass Bead Game, Herman Hesse
Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
A Room Of One’s Own, Virgina Woolf
Psychomagic, Alejandro Jodorowsky
The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Jane Ray
The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud
The Awakening, Kate Chopin

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lolavictor.com

Image Credits
Noelle Giacona, A Simpler Perspective.