Interview with Hayley Lock

q) What is your name and what do you do?

a)My name is Hayley Lock and I am an artist.

q)When did you really get into art?

a)I have always drawn for as long as I can remember..

q)How did you come to the realization that you should try your luck at art on a more serious level?

a)I guess it started on my foundation course aged 18 when creating ideas for work became more of an obsession rather than a chosen serious career route..

q)How did you discover the particular style that you have?

a)I don’t like to think that I have a particular style as this would be too limiting for me emotionally instead I respond to different things every day in a variety of ways from drawing to collage, painting to making objects to listing and procuring moments from life itself.

q)How would you describe your style?

a)Constantly evolving

q)Who or what influences your art?

a)I have a deep - rooted passion for the figurative elements of portraiture from Velasquez to Philip Gurry.

I adore ornament, the baroque and the distortion of the truth. My practice has a tendency to be figurative within its subject of reworking old works, suggesting a darker side to the seductiveness of beauty whilst disrupting the real.

q)How often do you create a new piece?

a)I work every day to keep me sane. It depends on what I am working on as regards to new work, if it is collage new work is created daily or every other day, drawings tend to be daily if small in scale, paintings take a little longer..

q)What kind of success have you had with your art?

a)I have been successful on many levels throughout my career, some I have avoided out of shyness or choice with the conscious decision recently to meet ‘success’ face on..(however success is measured..)

q)What would be the ultimate goal for you and your art?

a)Tricky question…I believe that as long as I am hungry for life itself then I will continue to make new work that is exciting for me. I have no belief in the ‘ultimate goal’ as if that were achievable then there would be nowhere else to turn and nothing new to try out.

q)What do you see as an accomplishment in the way of art?

a)Accomplishment for me is more to do with self – satisfaction.

I take work to a place that is good for me on a personal level and of course some work is more successful than others. Regarding my accomplishment from the perspective of finding an attentive audience, I cannot deny that I am as much curious as I am terrified at who these people could possibly be!

q)What kind of message, if any, do you try to convey through your art?

a)I am not attempting on any level to try to convey any kind of message to the masses. My work is literally a reflection on what and whom I see out there in the world I live in today. I reflect the state of society as it stands in the beginning of the 21^st century, the good and the bad, the truth and the elaboration of the truth.

q)Sum up your art in one word.

a)Dark

q)Any additional comments?

a)My practice is focused towards hierarchical and fantastical subjects of monarchy and noble folk, dwarfism, bearded ladies, the obese, the anorexic and the deformed. My work allows for the surface to be manipulated in many ways by adding conscious elements of frivolity such as stickers, souvenirs, artificial flowers, foliage, glitter, birds and sequins. I enjoy putting quality together with the cheap, the good with the bad, which one is which is your decision.

q)…your contacts…

a)www.hayleylock.com

Tel: 0044 7892 905016 (mobile)

Email: hayleylock@tiscali.co.uk