AITCH LIKES IT CUTE AND DARK

aitch is a romanian artist and the world she creates is wonderfully feminine. her work is occasionally confessional and often simultaneously dark and cute. her range goes from drawings and painting to book illustrations, clothes, jewelry, murals and clay work. and those are just some of the mediums she uses.

last but not least, she shares a super cool creative symbiosis with life partner and fellow artist saddo.

i like her so much i just had to introduce her to you, via an interview:

why do you call yourself aitch? is aitch any different than heliana?

aitch is supposed to be h, the sound, h as in heliana. i don’t think aitch is any different than heliana. i just felt it was better if i had a pen name.

what are your favourite themes? what inspires you?

i use my personal life to draw inspiration sometimes. but not necessarily. i don’t do research specifically for eventual pieces, and inspiration can come at any moment, from any source. i mean i don’t plan to spend today checking out some images hoping for a spark, but the material accumulates in time – the books i read, the stuff i see on the internet, during my travels, food, botanical gardens, anything goes.

what is your work ethic?

sometimes, i start working well ahead of time. for instance, i have been working a lot to make sure i have enough pieces for the upcoming shows.  when i’m excited, i work a lot and in advance.

it happens that i procrastinate sometimes, if the job feels more like work and less like fun.

you seem to be hugely productive and you use so many different mediums. how so?

i am not always very productive, i have my high or low periods. but every once in a while i like to alternate drawing with making things, be it clothes or clay work or whatever. i just need to make things.

after i graduated, some girls from hamburg invited me to do a show in their black and super shiny gallery. we went over for the opening and didn’t come back: we moved to berlin for the following 2 years. it was a very exciting and productive time. but i like it too that we moved back to bucharest.

do you have a day job or are you a fully independent artist?

i always have several projects and jobs, commissions or just stuff i work on myself. i don’t have a day job, but i do work with ad agencies quite regularly.

how do you work with saddo?

we have always collaborated, it’s quite easy for us to do so. we started working together when i was still a student and we have done it ever since, more or less often.

do you have a secret talent?

the only thing i can think of is what i did once in high school. i focused my thoughts  intensely and i “ordered” a cute dog who was far away and couldn’t see me. i asked him to come over. i repeated the order like five times.  “chocolate (that was his name), come to me, chocolate, come to me….” and he came!! and he never strayed from his master!! omg or what?! 😀

tell me about your upcoming shows.

in april, i will have a solo show called o jardim do bem e do mal (the garden of good and evil) in portugal, in viana do castelo. the gallery objetos misturados contacted me and we settled all the details online. i am going to be there for the opening, on april the 13th.

and in june, we have two shows in canada, together (with saddo). we chose a theme together so that it would fit both of us. thus, each could draw inspiration and still do our own thing.

we are going to be in canada for a month, traveling and being present for the opening of the shows. we planned to take along supplies in case the works are sold out, we can make them again for the other show. we are excited!

do you have an agent?

no.

what are your favourite spots in the world?

i like lisbon a lot. a great spot is the wavy field in the back of the oceanario. or the little botanical garden in belem. i also liked sintra.

i love boesner in berlin, it’s this place for artists supplies.

and i like the copou park, in iasi, the town where i went to high school.

thank you very much, heliana!

find aitch on her website and on facebook (in case you dream of owning an aitch original, find the available works folder). for tees with her drawings, click here.

photo credits: aitch

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