Lia Porto
Q. Tell us about yourself…
A. I’m a multidisciplinary artist living and working in
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Q. How would you describe your artist style?
A. Contemporary.
Q. How has it evolved over time?
A. My practice was originated in painting and drawing
but through time I incorporated embroidery, collage and
installations. I’m very interested in the hybridisations of
techniques to amplify the range of the materials that I
work with, because that allows me to reach further in
my conceptual explorations.
Q. What’s the most valuable lesson you have
learned on your journey as an artist?
A. Trust intuition.
Q. What is Fiber Art?
A. Fiber involves the use of textiles. I’m particularly
interested in using recovered material, that carry in itself
a lot of social, cultural and emotional information.
Q. Where do you find your inspiration from?
A. I work with my daily concerns, everything I experience
I process through the artistic practice. My work and my life
are deeply entangled.
Q. When you are not working on your artwork what other
interests do you have?
A. Galleries, museums, yoga, nature and my family.
Q. What artists inspire you? Why?
A. Many artists inspire me and in different ways. It is very
nurturing to stay open and aware to what others have done
and are doing.
Q. What projects or pieces are you most proud of?
A. I’m more interested in process than I am in result.
The continuity of my practice is more relevant to me than any individual piece. It’s great to see the big picture of many years of work and to see how each piece is the result of the ones that I’ve done before.
Q. What in your personal life has influenced you to choose your career?
A. I had the need of expressing myself.
Q. Where or what is your happy place?
A. I want myself to be my happy place, I’m working that out.
Q. If you could change one aspect of our society through
your work, what would it be?
A. In many of my recent works I’m exploring the idea of
coexistence and cooperation.
Q. Do you think creativity is innate or learned?
A. Creativity is innate, but we have to learn how to connect
with it.
Q. What piece of advice would you give a young artist?
A. I see art as a practice that needs to be developed, a kind
of muscle that we have to train. It is a process in time and it needs patience.