We were lucky to catch up with Natacha Sochat recently and have shared our conversation below.

Natacha, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Meaningful Projects

For my entire creative life, I have divided my work into Projects. Globally all these projects share a common characteristic in that they are my conceptual idea and created by my hands. The work I create has the intention that I will share it with others and all my projects are created for a positive public health experience for the viewer.
I do not follow anyone else’s decisions on what work to create or have someone else do the work. Over the course of many decades, I have projects that are continuously expanded as they evolve.
There are words that are important to me in choosing what work I create for each project. I really enjoy the challenge of creating work that has the capability of having more than one meaning simultaneously.
Words that are important to me are: Chaos, Complexity, Emergence, Intuitive, DNA of Memory, The Actual Experience, Saxa Loquuntur, Construction-Deconstruction-Reconstruction, UpRooted, Making Roots, DNA of Memory, I am Witness, Americana Hispana, Patterns, Germs, Words are Seeds, the Hand is the Mind, in My Garden, Networking, Grid, Connection, By Hand and by Machine, Face as Icon, Fractals (micro to macro), NeuroMorphic, Paintings for Children, String theory, Weaving, and Ethics. I will not go into the meaning of each word now since the topic currently is meaningful projects and not specifically the above words.

Over the years I have had the wonderful opportunity to work on projects that are collaborative with other artists. One of these was when I lived in Boston, MA. I collaborated with 12 other artists in sharing the creation of 12 artist books that each of us created on our own, and then passed on to each other to change over the course of a year. As you can imagine, each ‘book’ was unique in form and content. At the end of the year, we exhibited these artist books in a downtown Boston Gallery. It was very interesting to see the varied and myriad book forms that resulted in the end.
Another memorable project was in Raleigh NC. I collaborated with 6 other artists and writers over the course of a year. We had to decide what our unifying concept would be as we met and discussed many possibilities over many months. Our unifying factor was that we were all Latinx/Indigenous. We chose Weaving as our unifying concept since weaving is a word that encompasses our cultures and processes in a myriad of forms. At the end of a year, we exhibited this work at Diamante Arts and Cultural Center located in Raleigh (which is a nonprofit that supports Hispanic/indigenous artists) as well as Piedmont Community College located in Charlotte NC.

I am very lucky to be a part of a wonderful group of artists in the Triangle. The group is Triangle Book Artists, or TBA for short. This hard-working, creative, and dynamic group of people add tremendously to my current experience in NC. I am very grateful to be a part of their ongoing projects and ideas.

I will continue my work individually over time in my projects and look forward to continued collaborative experiences with other artists as well.

Natacha, 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?

We are so Familiar with our life that we are Blind to the Actual Experience. -Natacha Sochat

I am an expressive, figurative, multidisciplinary artist who creates complex work that involves science, social issues, beauty and philosophy. I use visual art as a language that can be interpreted in several ways; not only what I as the artist am saying, but also leaving space for what the viewer may see with their own personal experience. I want to create work that adds to the public health of society while at the same time makes people think. I want viewers to experience visual pleasure. Much of my work is created to capture the child and the adult at the same time. It has been influenced by my being in the sciences as well philosophy, gender, and my complex ethnicity.

My practice uses experience, seeing, and touch for ideas. This practice, along with my intuition helps in constructing an object. I create in the space of my studio, but the memory of the actual experience and my psychological response are incorporated into the work. My experience as a child involving social justice, as a first generation American and a Latina woman as well as the experience of others in society are important to me.
I explore ideas that may be contradictory and have no easy answer. My work is personal and relevant to contemporary society. I use various mediums in execution of my work: painting, sculpture, crocheting, ceramics, printmaking, photography, performance art, and video. Each of these processes have different sensibilities and may reference specific metaphors. For example: the use of crochet as a reference to the hand, to the value of labor, to female handcrafts, to our connections, to our networks, to spiders/nature, to imprisonment, etc. etc. (and this is just the metaphor that crochet brings to the table). References to being female, human, sister, wife, mother, healer, scientist, and multicultural, all influence my art objects. My bias is that found objects that I use were really part of my personal life and not just bought at a store to make work with and outside of my actual daily experience.

Initially I was self-taught in art, but I attended the Ingbretson Atelier in Massachusetts, not to improve my drawing skills but to improve my perception – how to see objects in light. I then went on to do two post baccalaureate programs (Brandeis University Graduate School and School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston). This was the beginning of my exploration of the ideas in my work. I have an MFA in studio art from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. I have a BA in Biology (summa cum laude minor art history) and an MD from Boston University School of Medicine. I practiced Emergency Medicine as well as Public Health Emergency Preparedness in the past to raise my family and contribute in an additional manner to society. The combination of my biological and medical knowledge allowed me to realize how art objects are a part of a society’s public health. Art objects have the ability to contribute positively to the lives of viewers. Art objects are not simply made for the shock value and superficial notoriety, nor the spectacle that dominates some of the art world. Regardless of the conceptual underpinnings of my work, my mission has always been to be a positive contribution to public health.

My knowledge of the brain and other biological sciences has made me aware that the hand is the mind so my conceptual practice must include my hand and not someone else doing the work.

I have taught painting, drawing and printmaking at numerous places in the United States. I create one of a kind handmade artist books.

When I was very young I did not understand how I chose what to create or why. I made work with my hands because I felt I needed to communicate. Now I understand myself fully as an artist. Though my work is visual art, I view works in a specific project the same way that a symphony would have different movements, or a book has different chapters. Each project is a book with many chapters, or it is a symphony with many movements. A musician does not have to write the same style symphony over and over to be accepted as a consistent ‘brand’. They can have great variations in the style or substance of each symphony. This analogy is helpful for me to explain and for you to try and understand my overall work. I have many symphonies. Each is comprised of numerous movements (a movement equals a painting or any other singular piece of individual art). Each symphony may express a different thing. Though each symphony’s movements may be a singular work they exist together to creating the whole.
If this analogy does not work for you, then perhaps you can use the analogy of writing a book as a project, with each chapter being an individual art object.

I was influenced by an American critic named Dave Hickey. Dave Hickey’s lecture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston validated my perspective. I was also lucky to have a kind and talented artist named Gerry Bergstein as my mentor while I was at the SMFA. 

Currently some in our society seem to harbor narrow ideas about what it means to be from a particular ethnicity. I am not a stereotype in any way, manner, or form.
Living with my eyes and mind wide open, along with the use of my hands (the Hand is the Mind), has been my practice for all my life. I use fabric, yarn, oil, or acrylic paint, personal found objects, as well as ceramics. I spend a great deal of time thinking simultaneously while making. I am in the habit of creating intuitively.
Nature has always been an integral part of my visual practice and I immerse myself frequently under a tree with its nurturing canopy of leaves. I listen to the wind, insects, and birds. With this experience I think about life and society and look at nature’s infinite patterns.
Style is simply an element (analogous to other elements in art such as color for example) and not merely a historical ‘movement’ as that is an anachronistic way of thinking about visual art.

The mission of my work will always be to communicate and improve the lives of others via the personal experience of my art objects. To contribute to public health in any way that I can regardless of the conceptual framework that my work embodies.

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Short biography
I was born in St. Claire’s Hospital in Manhattan, NYC. I was the first child of Carmen (Boricua) and Mario (Cuba). My father was involved in the Cuban Revolution, so his lifestyle resulted in that I was sent to Cuba at the age of 4 months. I was raised by my paternal grandmother Balbina and my uncle Miguel. My grandmother Balbina would take me to visit a spiritualist and curandera frequently. This spiritual healer predicted that I would also become a healer. At the age of 5 my grandmother Balbina and my uncle Miguel moved to the United States so that I could have an easier transition and be re-united with my parents.
The experience with my father greatly dominated my early life and affected my adult outlook on society and social justice. This also made me appreciate the wonder of just being alive in our world; the beauty that nurtures and surrounds us even in horrific times. This is the cornerstone from where I build art objects. I grew up in Manhattan and the South Bronx. I attended the Bronx High School of Science graduating with honors in 1968.
Being a first-generation child from immigrant parents made my early years as a young person difficult to navigate. I felt alone, sad, and not really belonging in my country of birth at times. I existed simultaneously within different cultures while trying to blend in. However, currently I no longer try to ‘fit in’, but rather accept the wonderful uniqueness of my condition. It is a gift that has given me deeper insight into being human. Though my art for a long time was about beauty (masking the pain to survive), I felt I had as much right as anyone to express myself in whatever manner I chose and not simply what I was allowed to do due to my ethnicity. I evolved into an artist that wanted to contribute to the public health of other humans like me (and not like me), for there are way too many destructive things in our world.
I lived in Berlin, Germany where I worked as a photographer and teacher at Andrews and McNair army bases. During this time while in Berlin I drew and painted. I was inspired by DaVinci as he was an artist and a scientist. There was an advertising campaign during the 1970’s that said “DaVinci started out as a student” and that idea resonated with me tremendously.
In the early 1970’s I photographed myself in different scenarios. I was fascinated by the expression and movement of time in a photograph beyond the capture of the frozen milliseconds that photographs capture. I loved the black and white photography of Diane Arbus as well as the fantastic worlds of Jerry Uelsmann. Since DaVinci as an artist and scientist inspired me I decided to become a healer and an artist. I was the first to go to college in my family.
I am the oldest of 5 children and I felt obligated to my younger siblings and the community to be a role model. I studied biology as an undergrad at Boston University College of Liberal Arts. While an undergrad I worked in the lab of Professor Lynn Margulis who became my mentor and whose theory of symbiosis in evolution as well as her role as a mother and professional changed my life. While at BU I would visit the undergrad and graduate School of Fine Arts many times and I met a few of the professors. I was influenced by the lectures of Harold Tovish who emphasized that being an artist is related to being disciplined and working hard, and not a romantic magical gift that we are born with. I was also influenced by the expressiveness and kind encouraging words of artist Arthur Polonsky. I sat in some of their classes informally. Their philosophies shaped my perspective in creating art.
I attended the Boston University School of Medicine and practiced medicine until I retired from it. Though I was predominantly self-taught in art processes initially, I spent a few years at the Paul Ingbretson Atelier where I learned how to see the light perceptually. I was accepted into an MFA studio art Program at School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston/Tufts University after completing a post-Baccalaureate year in art. I opened an art gallery for Boston area artists with a fellow MFA grad (Kathy Halamka) in Boston. I have taught at numerous places including School of the Museum of Fine Arts (painting), the New Hampshire Institute of Art (drawing and printmaking) and was Master Teacher in Studio Arts at the St. Paul’s School Advanced Studies Program (Concord, NH).
I subsequently worked as Medical Director of Public Health in NH for emergency preparedness, developing protocols for biologic and terrorist events. All the while that I was a physician, I created art objects.

I was awarded the Arts and Culture Award for NC in 2021 by the Diamante Arts and Cultural Center that serves all the Latinx community in NC.

I have had over ten solo exhibitions of my work and been in over 100 group exhibitions.

I have just opened a teaching studio gallery in Cary NC where I will teach painting, bookmaking, and printmaking. It is called SimpleVida Contemporary Art.

My bias is that an artist should learn every process that they can when they are young. This is so they are able to decide what they really want to do with their work and not be limited by technical mastery. Though mastery of techniques is important for this reason, you cannot let mastery alone be the deciding factor of what work you do as this may be a dead end for creativity. Any process of seeing and interpreting the world is valid, but having only one process and being ignorant of what else can increase the possibilities with your creations is an unwise limitation to be imprisoned by. Be prepared to work hard and be disciplined in what you do. Work with passion and knowledge and don’t worry if your vision is not initially understood or appreciated. Visual art is a language that most of the time has no concrete words in it. Visual art’s language and meaning is defined by the artist creating it. Time will give greater clarity and understanding to your work. It may be necessary for a visual artist to supplement their income with another profession as they create work. This is not an unusual situation. For me it was medicine that helped me to support my family while I created works. 

Oh, and by the way – I have been a gamer all of the time since gaming began.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Non-creatives never understand why I am both an artist and a physician. They tend to think of a person having to be in a state that has to be singular, and a person cannot be more than one thing simultaneously. For a creative, knowledge in other fields only enhances their creative pool and ideas. It also allows for a cushion that permits a creative greater freedom to choose how and when to do the work they really want to do.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Our society needs to change its perspective on how to create a healthier and fuller society for all its citizens, not merely be dominated by the current model of hoarding so much wealth one can never spend it in a million lifetimes. We have many problems in our society due to the current systems that exist. The Supreme Court stole our influence as citizens when it validated Citizens United, it said that corporations should have the same voice we as citizens have but what it really did was give all the power to corporations since they are extremely wealthy. We have been dominated by the extreme wealth and power of corporations since then. Corporations control our government and our politicians.

Society needs to think outside the box. We can create a society that has a minimum income for all its citizens from birth, as well as healthcare for all. If a society has a minimum living income for all its citizens from birth, many problems that now exist that are vastly costly to society would no longer exist. It would be more financially sound than what we have now. People would be free to choose what they love to do and not be forced to do things they have no interest in. In addition, our society should pay very well for those citizens that don’t have any passions and choose to do purely service jobs that add to all our lives. We should not treat those jobs as demeaning and worthless.
You may not easily believe it, but this is a goal we could accomplish. Our society could afford it, though special interests and corporations will loudly yell that it is a crazy and not a feasible idea.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natachasochat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natachasochat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natacha.sochat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wildNatacha

Image Credits
Natacha Sochat Michael Sochat Clementine Tran