60 Over 60: Angelica Sotiriou

By Angelica June 25, 2024 News

Studio, work in progress, “Scala” 6′ x 4′, acrylic, water soluble graphite 2024

Angelica Sotiriou

Redondo Beach, CA
Age 71

What keeps you excited in the studio?
I love working on new processes for my paintings and drawings. The challenge to clarify my initial vision for the work keeps me focused as I work through resolutions on the canvas or paper.

Looking back at your trajectory as an artist, how would you say your work has developed?
Hmmm…My work now has the comfort in using any medium. I have absolutely no fear to take a risk, to make an error, to use a medium in an unorthodox way, to fear judgement or rejection, to no longer need the approval of my audience to know when my work has found resolution. My clarity in what the vision of my work is, has become second nature. I now work in tandem with my materials, my artist hand, my creative vision and my heart. It truly sometimes feels seamless in the execution of my work. The process has become my language. There is comfort in creating my works that I never experienced as a young artist.

What role do you think the artist has in today’s society?
The Artist’s role is so very important in our society, especially in our world today as it is. Art keeps tab on our present day and who we have become or are becoming. Art often brings attention to social injustices, it brings healing to the artist and to those engaged as an audience, it creates commonality among despairing societal groups, it brings attention to the sacredness of Beauty, it creates cultural bridges, it softens the hardened heart, it has the potential to unify a broken world, it invites others to be empathetic and to become “listeners”.

What’s the most important advice you could give to an aspiring artist?
The best advice for an aspiring artist is…Show up and do the work. Keep doing your work no matter what life throws at you….even if on a given day all you can do is prep your canvas. Also be patient with yourself and know that your lifelong passion may never pay all your bills but it will change the way you see the world and how you live in the world.

Does age matter in art? Why or why not?
Hmmmmm….Indeed, as a younger artist I was full of energy, I could take on multiple tasks and still find time to do my work extravagantly. I knew I had a window of time to be considered as a young emerging artist the “du Jour du faire”. Many decades later, I have physically slowed down. I am more apt to stay home working in the studio, rather than go to a crowded Opening Event. Unfortunately there is “ageism”. Older artists are perceived as such…Older. It is a curious life stage…because in your heart you are the still same 25 year old with the same dream of sharing your art with the world!!!! As an older artist your wisdom and creative clarity is finely honed and your esthetics are defined.

What can we look forward to from you next?
I keep working and working daily in my studio, trying to work in a smaller format with different materials. I have gone back to drawing. Curiously I have rediscovered my first love, 100% rag paper using soluble graphite. I am simultaneously using these same drawing techniques, acrylic transfers and drawing materials in tandem with my acrylic transparencies on my large 7″x 4″ canvases. I am very excited about these new works. As I stated earlier, with age, I am patient with myself and allow time to let my creative resolutions take form.

Is there anything else you would like to share about being an artist later in life?
It is both a blessing and a curse to be a lifelong artist. There is still so much more I would like to do with my art. I would love to be 30 years younger so I could have the stamina and time to do everything I want to as an artist. The best is, I know there is no other life path I would have chosen. Being an artist has given me the gift to live life fully…for that I am forever grateful. The greatest gift of all is that I seek “Beauty” in everything.

angelicasotiriou.com
@angelica_sotiriou_artist