The truth is that I don’t even know where to start with telling you about the art and entrepreneurship of Illyanna Maisonet. That’s because this chick (who was Mission before Mission was cool) has got so much going on and she’s doing it all well. She’s a graffiti artist, a fashion line produced, an illustrator for various projects including stuff affiliated with bands and her own upcoming ‘zine. Really, there’s not much this girl isn’t doing. And somehow, she finds the time to set goals related to using art to help latchkey kids. But I’ll let her tell you all that herself. Check out more work at her website and her MySpace page.
What’s the story behind your work?
Both of my parents are artists, if that helps. I used to be a writer, a poet … as a youth I had some of them published. Then I just needed to do something new which is bittersweet because I can’t write a poem to save my life now. I started canvas painting at 20. After I started doing exhibitions and selling paintings, I definitely knew it was something I was addicted to. The new habit had replaced the old habit.
I moved to SF in 2002 after I graduated from college, met a boy, moved in with boy, a year later boy left me. Then I decided to go to grad school, which was a total waste of time and energy. I didn’t start painting on clothes until 2006, and it’s interesting how it started. I was apprenticing as a silk screener with a guy who owned his own silk screening business. He was (is) a major flake, he’s always saying he’ll go to something, or commit to something and never come through. I mean never. He said I could print shirts of my own in the shop at no upfront cost, but when the shirt sold I’d have to give him half. Half of $10 is nothing, especially when I bought my own shirts and did all the work.
I’m giving him half of each shirt to use his equipment. I said fuck it, instead of depending on some one, I find other ways around what I need from them. I can kind of credit him for my starting the clothing “line.” I approached painting on clothing the same way as a canvas, the exact same way, but on a smaller scale. I make more money than I ever did with my paintings, and I create the exact same paintings on the clothing. It’s nuts. Maybe people are less intimidated by purchasing clothing because it’s something they have been doing almost their whole lives. I don’t know. Did I mention I was crazy?
Damn, that was a long answer.
What can you tell us about your different mediums and how they express different things for you?
My clothing line definitely expresses my vanity; if you’re not into the fashion business for money or vanity, you’re lying! I like that people are my walking billboards and they advertise for me, but it’s also immediate gratification. They can touch it, grab it, put it on and walk out the door. My easel painting however, is where my heart and soul emerges. That sounds really cheesy, but it’s so true. It’s too bad that I’m inspired by destruction and pain; that’s why most of my pieces are about heartbreak. Not just the heartbreak you get from investing intimate emotions with a person and not receiving the same in return, but also the heartbreak you get from being out in this fucked up world. Many believe artists are exceptionally sensitive to the fucked up things that happen in this world. And it’s hard for us to ignore most of those things, that’s why we create about them.
*MORE FROM ILLYANNA FOLLOWING THE PHOTOS*
What are you working on right now?
I’m really trying to hone my “Urban Sprawl Devours Nature” series. Doing a lot of designs about debt peonage, law-mart (world jumble that one) and the disappearance of rural America. I’m starting a mural this week, nothing major, just a few walls in a new salon. Recently, I was asked by Sam Beam’s (Iron and Wine) manager to submit a few designs for consideration for their Fall tour t-shirts. I’m also working on some shirts for Mr. Beam as well.
Umm…doing some cover art for a band called Agent Ribbons. I always have at least one show a month. Oh yeah, I’m also really close to getting a zine of short stories published, “True stories of a painter’s dating experiences.” It’s not like the Bridget Jones Diary or anything, it’s all no-holds-barred shit of all the psychos I’ve dated in SF. Erotic Asphyxiation, under-cover cross dressers, guys who lost one of their balls to cancer…things like that. I also had to do the illustrations myself, which I was trying to avoid.
In my experience, graffiti art is a male-dominated community but one in which there’s not a lot of sexism. Would you agree? Or how has being a woman in that community been an issue?
Oh, of course there’s sexism. Anytime anything is male dominated, there’s a place for sexism. And I wouldn’t even really say it’s a community, to me, community means people coming together harmoniously and sharing resources. That’s not graff. It’s dog eat dog, which is why it dwells successfully in busy urban areas. Graff is like the “big” city: grimy, fast paced, temporary and always in transition. Being a woman, you are already looking up at the glass ceiling in life anyway. There are some chicks who flaunt their shit out in the yards with heels and miniskirts, while that’s all good…you can only expect to attract the wrong attention. And everyone generalizes female writers based on those exact chicks, the ones who learned from their boyfriends or whatever. I think if you can stand your own, without leaning on someone or something, you should be alright in this game.
Finish the sentence: Art should be … affordable and available to the masses
Where in the city do you spend your time? Get inspiration? Meet other creative people?
Well, I live in the Mission. I’ve lived here for five years, since before the “hipster infestation.” I rarely find a reason why I should leave the Mish. Haha. Everything I need is right here: galleries, bookstores, shoe stores, thrift stores, video stores, great food, dope bars, familiar faces and languages and most of all…cheap produce. I find inspiration, the good and the bad, right from outside my door. Meeting creative people is a little different, no one really pays attention to me because I don’t ride a fixed gear or wear my pants skin tight with a bandana wrapped around my leg. I usually meet people at my shows, because they have a better chance of “figuring” me out in my element.
Where would you like to be a year from now?
In Juxtapoz Magazine. Haha. That’s my temporary goal for the time. I’ve submitted twice and haven’t heard back anything. They don’t like me. Naw, I’m working towards opening my own after-school art program again. Only this time it’ll be on a larger scale with lots of different creative mediums: silk screening, painting, mural workshops, multi-media and culinary classes. Working with a lot of youth from financially deprived populations, I notice a lot of them are latchkey kids from single parent homes. Like me. And those parents are working two or more jobs just to sustain a barely comfortable lifestyle for their families, so the kids are eating bullshit. A lot of fast food. So, I’ve been slowly showing the youth I’ve worked with how to prepare a healthy and not so labor intensive meal, and the positive outcomes of consuming fresh fruits and veggies. And for the silk screening, painting and other classes offered, we’re not just going to teach them these skills. We’re also going to teach them how to become successful entrepreneurs off the skills they learned in the program. And their exit evaluations are will be them throwing an event that’s totally organized and coordinated by the youth. Of course they can ask the Program Leaders/Managers questions and for assistance, but the majority of the work will be done by the youth.
Name one other thing that we should know about your work.
It’s cheap. Haha. No, seriously. I’ve been in many a situation where I liked someone’s work, but they were priced way too high. That old belief about how if you price you work high, people will more likely buy it? That’s bullshit. When I see people pricing pieces between $300 and $1,000, it sits. Meanwhile, I price my paintings at under $100 and it flies out the door. I want people like me, who enjoy art the art that I create, to be able to afford it. The people who can’t afford art are the one’s who appreciate it the most, anyway.
And tell people they can buy stuff directly from me at: www.myspace.com/siyaclothing.
