- Title: ‘Moulin Rouge’. Medium: Black ink and colored pencil. – Dakota 21.9.09

‘Moulin Rouge: A cabaret in Montmatre, Paris, a favorite resort of poets and artists around the end of the 19th century.’

Here is what I have been working on most recently over the last couple of days…

A commissioned piece? Perhaps. This is the next set item following the boutique collection… Featuring: Exotic ruby beads, white pearls and Chalcedony from Afghanistan. ~ Dakota Rico

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When did you start drawing – and can you remember the moment in your life when you recognized: That’s what I want to do!

I started to draw when I was five years old and I was nine when my family noticed that I had quite a noticeable talent for design, thus they encouraged me to continue regularly. Looking back at my past work is inspiring, in the sense that it shows I have had an individual style through out the many years past.

From the age of nine I continued design and developed my skills, before incorporating my talents into interior design and photography years later in my early teens, of which I accomplished completing an interior design project, whereby I furnished and decorated an entire house.

Following my endeavor’s in interior design and textile work I started to delve more into photography and advertising mediums, as well as my own design collections. After traveling I returned to New Zealand and I started to work further on my design work, incorporating my art into fashion accessories and jewelry. 

- I don’t think that we always know the exact answer to where or what is going to happen in our lives, or the things we are going to end up doing. 

You’re also multi-talented – you’re great at photography and designing jewelry. How did you develop all your creativity?

Merging all of my creativity together has been a gradual but very rewarding process. I am constantly developing new inspiration and new ideas… Photography, designing, jewelry, and other projects that I am involved in leave me with many avenues to find inspiration and development.

You have multi-cultural roots – how are they giving influence to your work?

My cultural background is part of my design identity.  My work is a portrayal of how I see things, from my perspective. From my identity. I like to think that this aspect of my design style gives my work more character. 

Strong cheekbones are a typical character in your drawings – where does the attraction come from?

Strong facial features are a typical feature in my family, and I’ve always found this feature highly attractive. 

There are so many things I admire about your work – one part is your love for the details, small patterns, accents for hair etc – they give your pictures a very unique charm!…

 
When I’m looking at your women’s eyes I always have the feeling that there is something mysterious about them. How important are eyes to you? 

Eyes are one of the main focal points in my designs. Like people say, eyes are the window to the soul.

Artist Anish Kapoor said: “I think that art which is giving answers is kind of problematic. We have to ask elegant, beautiful and difficult questions.” Do you share that kind of view?

I do, and I can relate to this perspective of art my self. I started to have a similar view point during my years as a student…

I was often removed from art classes, and in some situations, my work was even thrown away or ripped up in front of me. Simply because… I didn’t want to create art that ‘gave answers’. While the teachers tried to force me to draw fruit and landscapes, I was taken by drawing nudity, and faces. All of which, the teachers viewed as ‘much too overt’, unacceptable, and too odd for their taste. My art has always never been of a subject, it has always been an expression from my self, which I retain in all of my design work. 

Do you think there is a difference between drawing by heart / by mind?

I definitely would have to say that there is a difference. That is why you hear people say “never rush the designer”. Although, I wouldn’t only share this opinion about designing, I think that there is a difference between doing things by heart and by mind, in life, in general.

Are you calling the ideas or do they come to you?

The ideas always come to me. They come in periods. Often I won’t design anything for a few days, or even a week or so, before the inspiration hits me… When it does, I can draw a series of thirty pictures over five days, or I can spend the entire night of twelve hours with coffee, designing and creating new pieces for my collection.

Is drawing a way to express passion for life to you?

It absolutely is. My drawings are fragmental snippets of how I perceive things, culturally, artistically, and aesthetically. They are also expressions of what my culture and my identity means to me… All of my designs contain this influence. 

How do you see life?

Remember how I said I was working on a  collection for a boutique specializing in vintage artwork and couture in my post featuring the Milano Droplets? Well, here is what I have been working on most recently over the last couple of days…