Hello Dear Lena Goral. Thank you for giving us the chance to Interview with you. Our first
question is how the “Covid-19” affects your art and what is your expectation for the year
ahead of us?
“Covid-19” didn´t affect my art that much. See, I am already spending my time with dark
subjects, so death is always my companion somehow. And I have always enjoyed my own
company, especially on long walk where I am usually totally lost in my thoughts. But even I
had to fight a lot against the depression from which I suffered as a teenager and young adult
and which still tries to enshroud me again when I am vulnerable. And the long lock-downs
made me vulnerable because of a lot which happened to me in my working and private life.
I think it´s better not to expect that much from 2022. I will light up the path ahead from me
step by step and see where this journey will take me.
What is your creative process like? Has your style changed over the years?
It always starts in an idea in my mind which can be either something I developed step by step
or a spontaneous spark. It often happens when I see an expression, perspective or just a
certain kind of lighting which I find interesting. The next step is a rough sketch on a separate
paper. Sometimes I have to do a lot of changes until I´m satisfied with the result and if I make
a mistake on the final paper, I don´t have to start completely from zero.
I would definitely say yes. In my teenage years I used to draw a lot of colorful manga and
cartoon stuff – which is absolutely not my taste anymore. When I look back through the
years, I would say the horrors in my art have become more subtle – and definitely darker.
What was the most memorable response you had for your work?
Somebody on Instagram told me once that she can´t say if I received my talent from God or
from the Devil. Well, I don´t know it either. I am the only full-time artist in my family and I
don´t know about any artist ancestors. Whoever gave me this talent, he must have had a
plan with me because a lot of pictures in my head are suddenly appearing from nowhere and
I can´t explain where they´re coming from. This must be fantastic for an artist you might
think. Yes, it is. Mostly. But a too vivid imagination can be a curse too. Sometimes it ends in
incredibly real nightmares which even follow me when I wake up in my bed. I´ve learned to
embrace and use them as an inspiration for my art, but I still can´t say where these pictures
are coming from.
You have been influenced a lot from the area you have been living. What was the first idea
that you decide to turn it into an artwork?
The sky on a stormy or foggy day! If you ever have visited Northern Germany, you have
noticed the mostly flat or hilly countryside. And when you´re standing on a field and seeing a
big, dark grey or almost black cloudbank racing towards you – it always impresses me so
much. Or when you´re having a walk on a foggy day – the world seems to become more and
more unreal, it seems to be dissolving into the grey sky...I am still practicing to capture the
special atmosphere in my illustrations.
What was the most challenging project that you worked on?
The short illustrated story I created for my senior thesis at my art school two years ago. İt
was a short story about a haunted house, written in short diary entries, newspaper articles,
police reports and testimonies. I had to capture the specific language for all these different
kinds of texts, but it was a lot of fun since I love writing. The illustrations were done in ink,
but I edited them in Photoshop to gave them a look of some old photos you might find after
years on a dusty attic. This was definitely a challenge for me since I usually don´t work
digitally and I had to search for some fitting tutorials.
Since you enjoy ghost stories and thrillers, do you have anything in your mind that you
would like to make an artwork completely based on it? And it would be great to hear why
you would pick that specific one.
Oh yes! I started to create some illustrations for my favorite German mystery thriller radio
play series besides my other projects. I´m so in love with the series for the story, the
characters and the great soundtrack! In the whole series it is barely told how the characters
look like and I couldn´t find any artwork of them (neither official nor fanart). It makes me so
happy to be able to finally give them a face! My favorite voice actor has the role as my
favorite character in this series, perhaps he will see my version of the character someday,
who knows…?
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Follow your dreams, even if everybody is telling you to enter a “real” profession! I was always
told that I can´t make a living from art. This is the reason why I was a mostly self-taught
amateur artist for a very long time and I started with my illustration studies only in my late
twenties. I would still say it´s a hard job and it requires a lot of initiative of your own, but I
love it and I don´t want to work as anything else.
Anything else you would like to mention or add for the readers?
In conclusion I want to give this advice to all artists: Create what YOU like! Tell YOUR stories,
don´t follow any trends. Whenever I´m flickering through art on social media I notice that a
lot of art always looks the same in always the same popular styles and subjects. It bores me.
Also, the number of likes and followers doesn´t say anything about the quality of an artwork.
I stopped caring about what others might think about my art for so long now and it really
takes the pressure of pleasing everybody away from me. I wouldn´t be the artist which I am
now if I would have listened to everybody saying “Stop drawing this” or “You could be so
popular if you would draw XY instead of your stuff“.
Thank you for your time!
Personal Links;
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lena_goral_art/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lena.goral.fairytales/