Meet Magda Love | Visual Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Magda Love and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Magda, why did you pursue a creative career?
Personally, I believe creating art isn’t really something that you choose. It choses you and when you truly feel that artistic calling , you no other option but to create. It is like chronicle condition, there is not a single day that I go without either creating artwork, or thinking about creating new artwork. I have been thrilled, excited, enamored, inspired, disappointed, heartbroken, and then hopeful all over again. Making art isn’t a linear career like most, it is a fascinating endless rollercoaster ride, so if you wanna create, make Public Art, toy with ideas, you need to buckle up and push through all those emotions. Because at the end of the day it is all about the work you make and what is your work doing. So relax and enjoy the ride!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Making art has been the way I live my life, I wake up, eat, sleep and dream about it. My profession has been to learn to love, accept the challenges, being more decisive when it gets harder and practice kindness along the way while doing it. Art is the way you choose to live your life creatively and full-heartedly. I have encountered many hardships on the way but they have only motivated me to grow and be more creative, adaptable and come up with better strategies. Making artwork in community projects, educational organizations, has taught me the true impact that art can have in others. I am very proud of the massive mural I painted in partnership with City As School in New York, how not only transform the landscape of a neighborhood but the impact that has had in the students, the school staff and the community.

I have been given the opportunity to visit many places while creating murals, like Cambodia, Mexico, an Apache Reservation, Flint Michigan, etc, an has helped me recognize that beyond culture that teaches us to feel separated, humans we truly wish for the same things across of all geographical borders: dignity, love, safety and well being for our family. I invoke on all those experiences and spiritual feeling when I sit in my studio and I create new paintings or sculptures.
I have spent lots of times, reading, listening to new music, growing plants, all these things make you understand that everything in life and art has a rhythm. That it is important to be diligent, constant and determined but everything takes times and things eventually flow naturally.

I was very proud also to participate in Ted Talks on stage, create a huge art catamaran in Miami for the Impossible Dream project, speaking in the United Nations with Street Art for Mankind, where I shared how art can help those in despair. I believe every project is important and brings a small lesson. I don’t look back often. I like to be focused in my present and my future.

Currently, I am excited to be exploring different mediums, I am utilizing textiles, embroidering paintings and sculptures. After my son went to the military, I have had lots of time to introspect and reimagine of the possibilities of my life and my artwork. I am excited to start showing those artworks and I preparing for a solo show in New York City.

I am also planning some murals in Ghana, where I will be collaborating with Beauty For Freedom, an organization that works across the globe supporting and empowering victims of Human trafficking through art workshops.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
South Florida is such a incredibly diverse place to have so many different experiences. I love wondering around the Everglades, spending a day on a boat in the water, Blue Moon Outdoors in Fort Lauderdale has beautiful full moon kayak tours, I like Jazz at the Corner Bar. I love to check out art at ICA, Mindy Solomon Gallery, the Girls Club and NSU Art Museum, the beaches and lighthouse in Jupiter. Taking a weekend trip to Saint Augustine, so many things to do here ! Versailles arroz con pollo and mojitos, Katana for plates of sushi floating around in boats and Mandolin Aegean Bistro for wine and tapas outdoor.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I believe the idea of celebrating those who celebrate us and support us is still highly undervalued, especially in the art world. I have been so fortunate along my art making journey. There were people that believed in me when I didn’t believe myself yet . A fellow artist Kristen Schiele was one of them, I interned with her for several projects, she was such a great mentor and example, she was kind, encouraging, generous and just created amazing projects and environment in her studio. She was truly inspiring and a clear evidence of how exciting was manifesting ideas into physical projects.

My friend Smadar Mizrahi, basically forced me to show some of my early photographs, she literally printed them, framed them and help me hanged them. Like get it together. I was really terrified in the beginning, being the daughter of an artist and growing up around so many talented creatives and musicians, I understood very early on the toll that being focused in your art takes on your personal life and those around you. It also made me very self critical of what I needed to make in order to show to the world.

Ashley Hildreth, offer me my first solo show in New York while I was doing an art residency in Gowanus Print Lab. She offered me a wall where I created my first mural ever, than led to my next murals and made it become my thing! It just all organically unfolded. Then Lori Zimmer, a great published author, wrote the first article about my art in Art Nerd New York. Followed but a great article by Noah Callahan-Bever who was the Editor in Chief of Complex Magazine at the time. It silly but specially in the early stages, having great people supporting and working along you, really gives you boost of confidence, you just think to yourself , I might be doing something right, Ha!

Website: Magdaloveart.com

Instagram: @magdaloveart

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/THIS.IS.MAGDA.LOVE/

Image Credits
portrait photo: Drew Gurian boat photo : Taimy Alvarez Media