MAKER OF THE WEEK - LOUKIA RICHARDS

LOUKIA HELENA RICHARDS

Jewellery designer and painter.



My jewellery is a game of inventing something precious in form and meaning from an unexpected material. I work with textile a material of sacred character in my hellenic heritage -- the sacred character is evident both in the uses of the material in the ancient world as well as in the religious ceremonies of the present.

I am inspired by the shapes, colors and motifs of embroidery tradition of Greece, my mother's country of origin. My recent work is inspired by the neolithic figurines and the cuneiforms of the cycladic civilization: white, simple, very basic.

Crafts Council Listing


1 Money spent on education is never wasted;
even if everything is lost, someone who has learnt to use his/her brains will always find a way out.

2 Favourite living artist
Cy Twombly. Because his art is both emotional and rational.

3 One favourite living craft maker?
Rei Kawakubo, although she is not exactly what one thinks of a 'craftswoman', she is a great (fashion and textile) designer and artist.


4 Favourite historical artist ?
Domenicos Theotokopoulos (El Greco) because of his stunning vision: he lives in the 16th century and paints like Cezanne.

5 Favourite historical maker?
The Mycenean jewellers (appr. 18th century BC) for being very contemporary in their designs.

6 Last best read ?
'Twice a stranger' by Bruce Clark on the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, the first 'ethnic cleansing' in history.


7 How much do you bend your 'vision' to suit the marketplace?
I think 'vision' always pays off at the end.

8 How do you set about starting a new project?
I walk a lot; if I lived in ancient Greece or Rome I would have joined the peripatetic school of thought.

9 Are you able to switch off from art work?
I do not think there is a boundary between art and life. What I do is my life; everything is connected.


10 What one word would describe your feeling of doing your work?
Focus.

11 Do you think art and craft has any real importance?
Even cavewomen wore jewellery and decorated their caves with murals showing their husbands hunting edible animals. I think art is a mixture of magic, metaphysical hope and vanity.

12 Guilty secret?
I worked as a financial reporter for Reuters News Agency for two years.


13 Most underated artist
Kazimir Malevitch -- he implemented the 'eastern pictoral idiom' in modern art and sketched the directives for all 20th century art movements; he is astonishingly contemporary.

14 If you could exhibit in any gallery which would it be?
Tate Modern