Feature Artist Interview:

Fixation

Holly Bynoe        Described as a "colorist, visual solider and timid soul," Holly Bynoe considers her photography to be a "self-reflective medium, through which she can see herself objectively, where she can rationalize how she feels and makes sense of her way of life."        You can find more of her work at http://www.hbynoe.com, or browse her prints for sale at http://hbynoe.deviantart.com/prints/

SM: What inspires the odd themes and surreal nature of your work?

HB: My dreams, the faces in my dreams that are conjured up by a fascination of being a part of the human race, a part of something so miraculous and all-encompassing. Coupled with a heart that speaks, inspiration is often limitless.

SM: Can you tell us a little about your creative process?  

HB: My creative process starts with the urge to make something new, that “new” thing can be conjured up through dreaming, through visions, through daydreaming and through a want to put myself in a vulnerable position. Whenever I feel the urge to create something, I put myself in a position where the possibility of failure is pretty large. After going over how the concept would come to life and making new connections, removing the cliché and the dishonesty I then approach the idea in mind. After much deliberation about costuming, time of day, what I want to portray, colors, the mood, my feelings and my current muses’ feelings we travel together for hours like us two exist on this planet, we explore, we manipulate, we share, we smile. We are both spent at the end, happy, tired and thankful. I always approach post production with a blank mind, I look through each photograph and I choose the ones that move me, the ones that look different, the ones that speak in a new language to me, the ones that have taught me something new about myself or my relationship with the world and those I connect to. I then take that emotion and paint a color scheme that reflects my emotion.

SM: Do you have difficulty sleeping?

HB: When there is a lot on the brain I do, I used to be an insomniac when I was a young adult, now sleep has become a necessity for me, without it I am a grouch.

SM:What famous piece of art do you wish you'd made?

HB: Where do I start? About a month or two ago, looking for inspiration, I stumbled frequently upon Zdzislaw Beksinski’s paintings, much of his work is unnamed so I can't really say which piece, other than the profile of a man's face with the every emotion coming out of it and spilling down the sides, you have to see it.

SM: Do you often get so irritable that you shout at people, or start fights or arguments?

HB: I am often full of mood swings; I have a bruise on my right upper arm as I type this.

Night Thief

SM:What role do you think the culture that you live in plays in your creative efforts?

HB: Where you come from and what you have been exposed to always plays a big part of what you see, how you see it and how you feel about certain themes and aesthetics. The culture that I currently live in is starved of artistic endeavors, I grew up with that starvation, my heart however counteracted learning to feel correctly about emotions like compassion, empathy etc. This fight back taught me resilience and taught me how to wait for things to be in its right place, mostly my creative efforts are put under massive amounts of patience. Before moving back to the Caribbean I had no clue what patience was, now I am a woman and an artist that can wait for the right time, the right moments when everything aligns and causes a little bit of that magic that you see in the final product of my images.

SM:. If an illness or disorder were named after you, what would it be called? What are its symptoms?

HB: Habnoitis. Symptoms include green discharge from the rear end, nausea coupled with euphoria, ague, hemorrhoids, and a mischievous bellowing dry cough. Want to catch me?

Overwhelmingly Warm

SM:What's your favorite book (or top five)?

HB: The Wasp Factory, 1984, A Tale of Two Cities, Brave New World, Lighthousekeeping.

SM: Are you concerned about physically harming a loved one, pushing a stranger in front of a bus, steering your car into oncoming traffic; inappropriate sexual contact; or poisoning dinner guests?

HB: Not as concerned as I am about tomorrow, but I am always distracted when I drive, when I pass next to a passerby I always get the vision of blood on my bumper, very distracting.

SM:. How many cameras do you have?

HB: One on me, two under my bed, one at my muses’, so that makes it four, one of which I know like the back of my hand. It is my workhorse, my mechanic medium, and my first very important gift.

Retro

SM: Do you often eat to the point of discomfort?

HB: I can and I used to, but I try not to practice it much anymore as the pound have crept up. I now eat salads until my stomach protrudes. After I don’t suffer from much of the self-hate I was used to. A logical trade off I think.

SM: What's the relationship between your portraits, fashion photography, and conceptual photography?

HB: They are one and the same really; the only thing that sets them apart is the final intention. I don’t consider myself a fashion or portrait photographer; sometimes the images just veer off in that direction, I would love to experiment more in the genre of conceptual fashion work but so many things have to come together to make that happen successfully. The relationship between everything I create is the emotion linked to creating that image, the images spin out and are coerced through the endless imaginative and realistic zones. This is really too much of an involved question, I'll end up repeating myself.

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