Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paty Vilo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Paty, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking risks is the daily lot of an artist or anyone who practises an artistic activity. In the creative process, you’re constantly making decisions, and each one involves a risk… A risk of going wrong and ending up ‘missing’ your creation, a risk of ‘disfiguring’ it, a risk of going in the wrong direction, a risk of ending up with nothing interesting, or nothing that makes sense….
For example, when I decide to cut a shape out of a fabric, I make a decision that sometimes makes me hesitate because it may be irreversible… I may have had this fabric in stock for a long time and I may not be able to find it again. And then: how am I going to make the eyes, the mouth? Each part is going to give meaning and create the expression. It’s these many decisions and the many risks they impose that will gradually create the artwork, sometimes in the opposite direction to what you had originally thought.
In the end, by taking small or big risks in the creative process, you end up ‘getting used to it’, and it’s easier to do the same in your artistic career or in your life.
Recently, for the Fiber Art Fever! a group of which I am president, I decided, in agreement with some of the artists, to change form and create a platform where each artist would be in charge of his or her own space. It was a big risk… It’s make or break! At this moment half the artists decided to leave the association, because they used to get used to me doing everything for them and now it’s up to them to do their part.
Now it’s a case of putting the group back together with more committed artists, and that’s happening little by little.
Time will tell whether I was right or not.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a visual artist and since 2000, I’ve worked mainly with textiles. I’m also an artistic promoter and on two occasions I’ve set up artists’ associations. The first time was in Mexico, where I lived for fifteen years. I set up the “Puertas Abiertas al Arte” association and the “Puertas Abiertas de artistas” festival from 2003 to 2006. It was a tour of the historic city centre of Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico inspired by the open doors of Parisian artists’ studios. As well as the artists’ studios, the route also included spaces promoting the visual arts: museums, galleries, cultural centres, etc. The festival was also open to poetry.
When I returned to France in 2006 and at the end of 2010: I set up the association Fiber Art Fever ! (www.fiberartfever.com ). This is an international association of visual artists who work in a privileged way with textiles and textile techniques. The aim is to promote contemporary fiber art through its website, its artists and its social networks. We have over 20,000 international followers on our Facebook page: Fiberartfever Art Textile and over 11,500 on our Instagram account: Fiberartfever. We also organise exhibitions for our artists and promote calls for applications from all textile artists.
As a multidisciplinary artist, I have worked with a variety of materials: clay, stone, silver, bronze and mixed media, before discovering textiles and I have practised various techniques: sculpture, painting, engraving, etc.
Since 2005 I’ve worked mainly with textiles.
I follow different paths. I started by using my old dresses to make wall hangings around women, femininity and the woman’s universe. Then my raw materials are stuffed animals, to create artworks for both young and old, with erotic, funny, tender and poetic cuddly toys. Then I had practised the art of embroidery, mainly to make a series of foetuses with various temperaments illustrating different approaches to life. Crochet invented masks, reminiscent of my days as a make-up artist for live shows and audio visual industries. Wool again to make digital knitted pictures around the theme of masks, then trees. I use a family knitting machine from the 80s, which is hacked up to incorporate my own designs.  These knitting pictures are often embroidered or transformed with needle felt.
Finally, I’m currently taking photos of flowers decomposed or recomposed and sometimes embroidered, or using potatoes or other vegetables that I let germinate and dehydrate until they become “sculptures”.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Building an audience on social networks takes time, consistency and regularity, and you must never forget to follow your own path… Follow your path: first and foremost, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to promote. Then only make posts that follow that path. If you’re an artist and you want to promote your artwork, it’s best to avoid posting photos of your adorable cat or cute baby. On the other hand, you can post about your environment, your studio and its surroundings, for example. This helps us to imagine yourself in your daily life and gives an indication of your culture, in other words, what defines you and inspires your artwork.
Don’t overdo the selfies… even if it’s important to see what you look like because it gives us an idea of yourself, selfies can quickly become tiresome, even annoying. In short, it’s better to only post things that help people understand your work.
Be precise and explanatory: on Instagram it’s best to avoid mosaic photos… It’s not attractive on the home page.
Details are fine, but you need an overview too!
Don’t think that showing your artwork with images is enough! Text is necessary too! Give meaning and information to help people approach and understand your work.
Use hashtags to attract your audience, which you need to develop constantly.
If you’re announcing an exhibition, don’t forget to include all the information in each post AND some text about the purpose of the exhibition.
Interact and network: promoting yourself is great, but follow others too. Find out who’s in the same spirit as you, follow them, like them, and they’ll return the favour. Social networks are first and foremost places for sharing information, especially Facebook. Instagram is more about networking, i.e. interacting with others.
Consistency, time and regularity: you have to dedicate time to it, create your own posts but also follow others, look at what they’re following, plug in where it interests you, like, comment, etc.
If possible, publish at the same time every day.
Personally, I spend at least 2 hours a day on social networks. This is just for the Fiber Art Fever! association! Unfortunately I don’t have much time left for my own work.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The best thing about being an artist is the freedom and satisfaction you get from your work. The trap is to be disconnected from a certain social reality.
The most difficult thing is economic insecurity. That’s why I’ve chosen to have a job that allows me to meet my basic needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fiberartfever.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fiberartfever/ | https://www.instagram.com/patyvilo2/
• Facebook: Fiberartfever Art Textile : https://www.facebook.com/fiberartfever
• Other: https://patyvilo.blogspot.com/

Image Credits
The knitting pictures, the flowers and the potatoes are from Paty Vilo The masks and the stuffed animals are from Thierry Becouarn