Meet the Artist / Mateja Kavčič
Meet the Artist/ Mateja Kavčič
Who are you and what do you do?I am Mateja Kavčič, a painter, lately more of a drawer and creator of spatial installations from materials found in nature.Describe your work in three words / adjectives.Of course, circular, fleeting.Best advice on the art world you've received?... maybe my conclusion: keep your skin as hard as possible to survive and persevere.Artwork / author / music / movie that has been your favorite lately?I was very taken by the (just published) collection of poetry by Saša Pavček Zastali čas. Because I did illustrations for her, I read the poems many times and each time the author's incredible beauty of expression aroused new and new strong feelings.What do you fear when you create?I’m more afraid when I’m not creating, before I start or when I can’t ... that my work won’t be good enough, that it will be pathetic, that it will say too little, that it will be too illustrative… But when I really “fall in”, fears always disappear.What creation tool would I not be able to live without?I don't have one selected tool. Lately I have been working withgrass, branches, ferns ..., I can draw with a stick in the sand ...What do you consider to be the biggest success of your artistic career so far?I dedicate myself to every preparation of the exhibition and the implementation means success to me. Considering that artists in our country don't have it easy, my constant exhibiting is obviously a kind of success.How do you view the positive or negative critique of your creation?Positive criticism lifts me up, boosts my self-confidence, and makes new plans. Well-meaning negative criticism, however, makes me think it can help develop something new, even if it hurts my feelings at first.Name an artist you would like to be compared to?Andy Goldsworthy's work which I rediscovered years ago is very close to my heart. I watched a documentary about his work and cried. But I wouldn’t compare myself to him.
How did the pandemic mark your work?
At the moment, I am more marked by pandemic measures. They restrict me from planning exhibitions, shear my ideas, and interrupt the flow of thought.
In my opinion, the pandemic is too present in the media, so this topic is currently repulsive to me, and the consequences of the alienated situation will affect my work in one way or another.
Relay question by artist Saša Bezjak:
Why do you create?
Out of some urge to make sense, to self-affirm ... and because of the precious feelings of complete freedom when you “move” into a state of creative pleasure, when you surrender so that there is only a trace of your hand and nothing else.
Mateja Kavčič, born in 1970 in Novo mesto, spent her childhood in Brestanica. After graduating from the High School of Design and Photography, majoring in Graphics, in 1989 she enrolled in the painting department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana, where she graduated in 1994 and a year later attended a painting specialization. In 2007 she obtained a pedagogical-andragogical education at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Since 1995, she has had the status of self-employed artist. She works as a visual artist in the fields of painting, drawing, graphics, photography, spatial installations and land art. She participates in restoration projects and runs creative workshops for children. She has been living and creating in Škofja Loka for the last 18 years.
