BERNADETTE PASCUA

Name: Bernadette Marie

Age: 26
Country: nyc, USA
Website: decadediary.typepad.com

At which age did you start creating art? And why do you feel compelled to create?
I’ve seen old letters that my mom wrote to my dad when they lived in separate countries and each one has a mess of scribbles made by me at four years old. Each one is labeled by mom with what I said they were – faces, socks, cookies. And it just went from there, it wasn’t until I was 15 years old and into punk music when I started to share my drawings via xerox copied zines that I made. That’s when I really realized that drawing truly defined me as I made it my own, I feel one hundred percent when I do it. So I guess this all can answer the latter of the question because it is still true for me now.

What are you inspired by?
Right now my drawings are heavily influenced by fashion, as I am wrapped in it myself. I love that there is a high and a low to it, it includes the lowest common denominator of the ordinary day in which you pull things from your closet to satisfy how you feel or want to express. And on the other high extreme end of the spectrum there are these delectable pieces of clothing designers like Dries Van Noten or Margiela are creating, or designers like Yves Saint Laurent or Elsa Schiaparelli have created, real life fantasies, and the windfall of things that come in between: model muses, fashion photography, costume designs for films, both new and old.
I am forever fascinated by what went on in the earlier decades, like
the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. I love going on image hunts to find photographs of the past, going to used book stores to see if I can get lucky with some old finds, trolling through thrift stores to find vintage pieces.
It all comes full circle though as fashion is so much inspired by art. So my mind runs through the full gamut for inspiration: everyday, anything.

Which influential artist would you like to ask for advice?
I would only want to ask Egon Schiele advice on how to draw hands.

If you had to put up one piece of artwork on your wall and stare at it for a year, who would it be by and why?
Cy Twombly, The Four Seasons. It would serve as a beautiful calendar for that one year.

Tell us about your creative process.
When I’m working on something more structured like a textile design or commissioned piece, I envision the final project in my mind and just work towards making that happen. When it’s for myself, drawing becomes an improvisation of an image I like and I just sit down and let my mind wander.


Do you ever find weird connections between life and art?
Always.

As an artist, are you Technical or passionate?
I think it’s important to be a little bit of both.

How do you determine when a work is finished? Or is it ever finished?
I try to find that right balance, when it feels right I just let go and that’s it.

Do you think there are boundaries you would never cross in your art making?
I don’t think there should ever be any limits in making art but in taste, sometimes. Naturally I just keep myself within a certain aesthetic, I know what I like, but even once in awhile it’s good to shock yourself.

What frightens you most about your art?
That I’m building a little universe full of images that I love but will never really get to live in.

Do you have any magic cures for creative blocks?
I take a walk around New York City.

Do you dream about your artwork?
I have a really boring day job, I do dream about the time I have for making art.

Which of your own works are you most proud of/ is most meaningful to you and why?
I haven’t made that one yet.

Which art mediums and brands do you prefer to use?
I love just a simple mechanical pencil with refillable lead accompanied by a full box of good old fashioned pencils in a range of grades. Caran D’Ache makes gorgeous colored pencils. For more color, I like watercolor, just tubes of Winsor & Newton Artist's Water Colour will do. I’ve been trained to use gouache for textiles, but for my own work I like the looseness of watercolor and how spontaneous it is.


What kind of art education do you have? Do you think it is important?
I took a couple years of Fashion Illustration and I have a BFA in Textiles. The years I spent in Fashion Illustration were the most important, though in hindsight it made my work a little too precise maybe. It’s important if you have the right teachers who guide you and break you in the right way without masking your own natural style, which is really rare. It’s also important to educate yourself in art history, which is so multifaceted that it may lead to you things you had not thought of doing before.

What kind of career do you ultimately want? And what kind of career do you think you'll end up having (or already have) realistically?
It’d be too dreamy to say at this point what I would love to have at this age and in the place I live in - living in New York City there is only so much room to be starry eyed. To be completely blunt, it’s expensive and competitive. I’m proud that I’ve made it this far in a place this extreme, though it’s not what I want to be doing, I make a really good living working a full time day job in fashion. I’d rather be in my home studio just drawing for hours on end, but I have a decent cushion of time to create my own stuff on the side and have a small freelance career from that.
Is your family supportive of your art? Who influenced and nurtured your creativity most?
I’m really lucky to have had creative parents - my dad has a great talent for drawing and he’s dabbled around photography with a brief stint as a photojournalist, so he’s passed on to me not only the artistic genes but some fantastic old photographs and cameras as well. My mom really loves fashion, she can sew with her eyes closed and when I was growing up she had the panache to wear Halston or Chanel but also loved vintage. She’d treat us to nice things and at the same time take us thrift shops and encouraged me to wear whatever I wanted. So it was just the perfect storm.


Which direction do you see your art heading in the future?
Moving away from pretty faces, pretty things and being a little more less literal, away from the little sketchbook and on to the entire wall.


Who are some of your heroes outside of the visual art stream?
There are so many people I admire outside of art, mostly in music, literature and film. My personal favorites are always the ones out there on the fray and carry the same spirit of a brooding musical loner like Neil Young or a gypsy dreamer like Stevie Nicks, a decadent writer like Sidonie Gabrielle Collette or completely opposite literary theorists, a traipsing muse like Charlotte Rampling or Ana Karina, too many to name, doing what they want to do.