Archive interview with Alison Cardinale:

Carmine Magazine: What drives you to create? Also, what inspires you and your work?
Alison Cardinale: The want to create stories and characters that show my sense of humor. (A butterfly can be hilarious if put into the right situation!) I also made it a personal quest to create art that is positive, thought provoking and has many hidden stories in the image since I think deep dark art and hot chicks with guns/sword/whatever is so easy to fall back on. No offense to the hot chicks art, I love to see it, but it’s for the most part just eye candy and most time slacks in any concept.
Everything! A few; Art Nouveau (Much a & Macintosh particularly), African sculptures & masks, fashion photography, other illustrators…

CM: Were you formally trained in art or self taught? Do you think it has helped you or hindered you?
AC: Both! I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember and still continue to draw on my own, so that would be the self taught side of it. I took many a art classes in high school (painting, sculpture, portfolio prep..) and for college I attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Drawing and working on your art will always be a benefit and I can’t imagine if I would have learned to take my art as seriously as I do if I hadn’t gone to Pratt. If nothing else, it helped to give me time to discover and experiment with materials, methods, ideas and really try to take apart what I want to say with my work. When I first went there all I knew was that I wanted to do art of some kind and by the time I left I *knew* what field I was meant to be in.

CM: Do you have a ritual, quirk or superstition that influences you and the way you create? (example: I must where the green underwear when I paint hair or it will look horrid, etc.)
AC: Not really, though I do prefer to have a big empty table, tea, movie I’ve seem a million times/tv series (currently catching up on Battlestar) when I get ready to work.

CM: What mediums do you work in the most? Do you have a particular brand that you love working with? Why do you use them?
AC: I usually start with a pencil sketch, refine it and finally lay down a piece of acetate and go to town with my dip pen. I love the line work I get from it and working on a clean surface helps to preserve my lines. After that I attack it in Photoshop and have at it with the texture library I’ve acquired over the years. I used to work with acrylic on the back of the acetate, treating it like an animation cell, but though I loved how it looked I couldn’t stand how often the scanner would distort my colors/line work and how long it took to work on it. Also, no undo button!
I usually use ordinary speedball Indian ink, it’s thick enough, dries fast enough and doesn’t crack off like thinner inks do.

CM: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? And now?
AC: An artist, that’s all I knew of the art world at the time ….up until my 2ndyear of Pratt.
Now? An illustrator, maybe toy designer. I would *love* to do costume designs for movies but I don’t think I have enough of a portfolio to show for that at the moment. Still, if anyone sees my work and would be interested in hiring me for it, please contact me.

CM: If there was one style of art that you could take up, what would it be?
AC: Screen printing, hands down. I would love to be part of a screen printers collective but it’s just so hard to set up a whole studio in a small Brooklyn Apt. Also, to find time for it. I’d also tried to learn stained glass at one point but I dig screen printing more.

CM: Do you think the internet, technology, media, etcetera are helping or destroying the art world?
AC: I don’t think it’s hurting it, I think it’s changing the way in which we communicate and share our work. It’s made certain things easier, opened up the market a bit and let all the cornells who had previously holed up in their apartments alone be able to more easily show their work. It’s also made it easier to spread your name and your work (hey, check out my website!) with just about anyone.
The downside is that it’s also made it easier for people to steal and sell your work as their own. Just see what happened with Colorful Illustrations 93….

CM: How do you deal with creator’s(or writer’s) block?
AC: DOODLE,DOODLE, DOODLE.
Draw as much as you can and don’t be taken down by the negative voice in your head. Don’t stop and don’t think about how stupid it looks. You have more paper, you have more pens and you may find something in your drawings that you can eventually use. If that doesn’t work, take a much needed break. Just make sure that you don’t get drawn into the temptation of “continued break” and don’t go back to work.

CM: How do you prepare for art shows where your work will be shown?
AC: Get the prints, get the frames, sign the prints, get cards printed, spread the word….busy busy time.

CM: At what point did you realize that creating was going to be a large part of your life?
AC: Creating has always been a large part of my life, aside from some low points in my life,it’s always been a major part of me. Though, at Pratt it became much more then“I want to be an artist” and turned into “I want to be an illustrator”.

CM: What was your worst experience with art?
AC: The point of artist’s block that lasted for months. I had so much doubt in myself and in my work that I was ready to throw it all away and never create another thing. Eventually I was able to turn it around when I realized that this is what I love, this is what I’m meant to do. I can’t be happy knowing that I gave this up.

CM: What was your best experience with art?
AC: The most recent, handing my extra Valentine’s day card promotional out to people(on Valentine’s day) at Union square and having them turn around and ask to get a card. Bear in mind, these are Nyers and when someone is handing out anything they’ll either ignore them/the handout or just take it and toss it out at the nearest garbage can. These people actually turned around and *asked* for a card. I also saw many faces light up when they received it. That was a great night.

CM: How would you define your style? Is it an extension of yourself, or something else entirely?
AC: My physical style has a cartoon, whimsical, liquid, angular but soft look to it. People are shapes and it’s ok not to show every detail on their pants. The subject themselves are “my voice”. It’s an extension of how I see the world and how I would like it to be. I see it as a quirky place that has many hidden stories and interesting characters that you probably miss half the time.

CM: What does your workspace look like? (Pictures or a description work for this one)
AC: I sketch on the train, outside, sitting at my wee table in my apartment but also I venture out to my wee studio space. I work everywhere and sorry, no pictures. I hope to one day have a studio room in the same unit as my apt, hopefully sometime soon. NYC rent’s expensive man!

CM: Aside from art what do you do with your time? Is there anything else that drives you or that you’re passionate about?
AC: Gaming, Pilates/Yoga, wandering the city,seeing friends, seeing family, Poi (fire dancing)…you know, the usuals.

For more information on Alison Cardinale and her artwork check out these links:
Alison Cardinale.com
Myspace
Myartspace
Virb
Talent Database
Design Related