Rose Electra Harris
1. How important and influential are travelling and spending time in a different place than England for you and your work?
If I am lucky enough to do a trip, it will direct my work for a whole year. In 2018, I reached a point where I wasn’t excited about my work in printmaking anymore, as it felt too safe. I went travelling to Mexico for five months with the intention of painting and drawing while there. Surprisingly, I couldn’t accomplish anything I had set out to do when I arrived. It was only when I came back that I took it all in. I just needed time to process the experience. In 2023, the opposite happened when I went back to Mexico City for a residency and a solo show at Jo_hs Gallery. I couldn’t stop making works to the point that I prepared twelve large paintings for the show in about a month. And even if places inspire me, it has more to do with how I feel when I am there, and the aspect of their unfamiliarity, that makes a place an influence on my work. I normally notice the impact on my work from the colour palette, like when the colours became much more vibrant after my time in Mexico. Choosing a colour is an intuitive and spontaneous process in my work, and an emotional decision for me.
2. What are the themes at the core of your work?
I work on the canvas driven by how I’m feeling about life and what’s going on in my head. More and more, my painting expresses the purest form of how I am feeling. As I continue to develop my practice, different places, environments and types of nature are the main themes in my work. Nature is the most important one because I often use it as a stepping stone to get to my emotional state. Nature helps me to feel a connection within myself with what I’m drawing. It is all very intuitive. It’s about my emotional state and the way I express it on the canvas. In the past, I was far more interested in the aesthetic, but now it’s more about my emotions. I used to be scared of doing that.
3. What’s frustrating and difficult about being an artist?
When I work in the studio, I do it for the joy that I feel in the final stages of a painting. I like starting the painting, the middle is a constant battle, and I love finishing it. But being an artist is complex in many ways. I find it difficult not to compare myself to other artists due to the pressure of social media, for instance. Then, working on my own presents me with a constant comparison of myself to others, and it can get into my head. Isolation is something I love and hate at the same time. Sometimes a dialogue with other people is important to me, or just a presence, but the studio is my space where no one can interfere, and it’s how I want it. Certainly, I haven’t set out to please people with my paintings, but the need to sustain myself and my practice financially can also put pressure on me. Then I question myself if I am a true artist, as I never thought I would be one, and sometimes I wonder if it is who I am. But I love it and I’m lucky. It is something special to be able to do, and I will do everything in my power to continue for a long time.
‘Grappling’ - credit to Justin Piperger
‘Up all night’ - credit to Justin Piperger
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