Sit Down With Our #090 Featured Artist

Mikaella Theofanopoulou

Instagram / Mikaella Theofanopoulou
Featured Artist / #101 ScrawlrBox 

Mikaella is an Athens (Greece) based independent artist & designer, born in Tokyo (Japan). After receiving her Master in Applied Design in Architecture from Oxford School of Architecture, she engaged with interior design, drawing inspiration from the traditional Japanese aesthetics of the wabi-sabi philosophy. Her obsessive admiration for the clean lines & organic forms of interiors of unobtrusive beauty, stimulated her to shift her perspective towards the creation of artworks that reveal this kind of authenticity.

Drawing her inspiration from minimalism to expressionism, she communicates her abstract ideas with a refined single line visual language, perceived universally but subject to multiple interpretations. Her art is all about exploring genuineness in existing imperfection through the simplicity of a single line, rejecting everything superfluous. Her works invite you to discover that the most intricate sentiment can emerge even from a smooth, subtle line.

The elegance of a less-is-more mentality and the variety of all these distinct emotions are reflected in her one-line drawings, which currently depict people’s faces. Mikaella encourages you to ‘’Embrace your inner ‘hygge’ through imperfect raw lines’’.

The size of her art is diverse, as she isn’t only creating artworks for small scale projects but she is also commissioned to produce large scale art for high-end residential or hotel projects, using walls as her canvas.

Her most recent work is starting with a one line free flowing drawing as a base and colourful touches made with multiple brushes in the blank in-between spaces, allowing the viewer to enter the ‘pop’ perspective world of the artwork.

We absolutely love the clean yet characteristic style your work has. What led you to this style on your journey as an artist?

Drawing my inspiration from minimalism to expressionism, I communicate my abstractideas with a refined single line visual language, perceived universally, but subject to multiple interpretations. My art is all about exploring genuineness in existing imperfection through the simplicity of a single line, rejecting everything superfluous. My works invite you to discover that the most intricate sentiment can emerge even from a smooth, subtle line. I would describe my style with three words: Subtle, Flowing, Aesthetic.

Do you think your architectural background has helped you refine your style?

Absolutely! After receiving my Master in Applied Design in Architecture from Oxford School of Architecture, I was engaged with interior design. My obsessive admiration for the clean, organic interiors of unobtrusive beauty, stimulated meto shift my perspective towards the creation of artworks that reveal this kind of authenticity. My less-is-more mentality is reflected in my one-line drawings which currently depicts people’s faces. The one line is subtle, flowing, and aesthetic. I encourage you to ‘’Embrace your inner ‘hygge’ through imperfect raw lines”.

Would you say your pieces tell a story?

I create art in order to stimulate people to experience joy, pleasure, to develop self- awareness and motivate them to reduce stress and feel calmer. Thus, my artworks aim to be humble, functional, and simple without meaningless details. I believe that each one of my pieces tellsa different story for every person looking at it. I welcome everybody to look deeply into my art and discover their own stories!

With such a minimal style how do you decideon a colour palette?

When simplicity and elimination of any unnecessary features in art, can evoke sentiments and create feelings, then this is the absolute success for a minimalist artist. I love drawing monochromatic figures, to be clear, simplistic,and subtle through one single line. People who are inspired by clean lines and organic forms, are the ones who choose my artworks for their interiors. My art is all about diversity in people’s faces. I believe thatthis variety of differentiation in a limited colour palette, motivates and stimulates people to desire my art. In general, I love earthy, terracotta tones mixed with nature’s beautiful greens. Apart from these, I use a lot of shades of blue as they remind me the Greek sky and sea.

What is your approach to learning new skills?

I love learning new skills and practice them. My tips for new creatives that would like to acquire new knowledge in art, are the following:1. Read about art history. Learn the art movements. Widen your art horizons.2. Find a place to practice your art.3. Share your work through social media even if you believe it is not perfect.4.Go to as many exhibitions as possible and learn what other artists use as mediums, feel their work, ask them questions.5.Go to creative classes and develop your knowledge on other styles of art.

What’s your favourite food?

Obviously Greek food, but I also love Italian and Japanese cuisine!

What art supply do you have too much of? (although we don’t truly believe you can have too many supplies!)?

Especially Papers and Canvases! I do like buying different textures of papers (rough, soft or with and without wrinkled edges) and diverse colour linen canvases. I end up having too many but I keep on buying more. That’s kind of an obsession!

What does your creative space look like?

My art studio is my inspiring space; it is the place where my artistic personality is perfectly revealed. I like to keep it organized and comfortable, so it can enhance my creativity.I have wooden furniture that gives a sense of warmth to the space. An easel, a big drafting desk, storage for my papers, jars full of brushes and markers, acrylics of every colour etc. I always hang some of my favourite artworksso as I can see them before they are sold. My house plants bring the outdoors inside andare pretty essential for ‘my’ ideal atmosphere. Lastly, music always helpcreate more and more!

When you are not creating, what will we find you doing?

When not drawing, I am exercising, reading books, going shopping etc. On the top of the list though, is making time to be with my loved ones, family and friends.