Today we sit down with artist Honey Forestier to discuss her different interest, where she gets inspiration from, and most importantly about her unique style of drawing.
Jacob – Where are you from?
Honey – I am originally from France. A city called Rouen in Normandie and moved to NYC about 4 years ago.
Jacob – What do you like to do for fun outside of art?
Honey – I love to sing, write music. Needless to say, I very much enjoy the New York karaoke scene, feels very different than the one back home which is almost inexistent. A lot freer. I also do a little photography, love the idea of documenting my life for my future self.
Jacob – Do you have any favorite tv shows or movies at the moment?
Honey – I am big on scary movies, I thought Hereditary was absolute magic. For shows, unfortunately, I’ve been watching a lot without getting too invested.
Jacob – Do you listen to music while you work and if so what kind?
Honey – Yes definitely, I can’t really work without music but it has to be music that keeps me focus so I’d go with a style not always my playlists. Like I’m really into Bossa Nova at the moment, there is a very positive energy to it.
Jacob – What do you gain inspiration from?
Honey – Looking at more art and learning about art history to start and then it extends to me focusing on things that strongly speak to me visually. It could be something from a photo I took, a friend’s outfit or a discussion we had. I like to think my work permanently resonates with what’s around me at a specific time and that it has the capacity of putting together things that even I wasn’t thinking about.
Jacob – What age did you start to create art?
Honey – I don’t know about art but I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Copying everything. It kind of became my thing at school I remember when I was 6, I would get asked to draw the whole class and so on, so I really started to get into it from there.
Jacob – When did you start with your current style of artworks?
Honey – It’s still evolving for sure but I’d say I got closer to this style about 4 to 5 years ago probably when I started my Instagram account.
Jacob – Did you go to school for art or are you completely self-taught?
Honey – I did go to art school but only recently, just finished my BFA at SVA in NYC last year. Before that, I was in fashion design in Paris for two years but felt like I would be missing on something if I didn’t study art.
Jacob – What effect do you think Instagram has had on the art community and has it helped you as an artist?
Honey – I think like any ‘image based’ kind of searching tool, it does help as a way to see what people are doing with their art, see them experimenting. It can seem quite intimate like that. Before that, I’d be on Tumblr, before that on Blogspot, etc. But today Instagram does feel like a very large community and that tends to alienate what would be considered good. Not everything can be coherent for a larger public eye to receive until it isn’t. I just don’t want Instagram to become a sanitized version of itself. I try not to get fooled by anything on social media in general. It’s sometimes easier said than done. More importantly, I feel like my relationship with it did change over the years. I did have more fun using it in the past than I do now and I sometimes wonder why. But I’m a positive person or trying to be so maybe I’ll come back.
Jacob – What is your creative process like?
Honey – I usually try to work from photos I took as references and kind of go from there. I like to mix them up with other references pictures either found on social media or other sources, it could be a simple line that caught my eye, even a weird object, anything really. I like to associate incongruous things together and force a dialogue even if it’s absolutely not obvious visually. I find it inspiring.
Jacob – Why do you choose to leave most faces unfinished in your paintings and sketches?
Honey – I absolutely don’t know how this started. I feel like I was already doing that as kind of an unconscious drawing style that I acquired over the years and then I did this first ‘head’ sketch couple years back emphasizing it and kept going.
Jacob – What are some of your goals in the art world?
Honey – Being able to call myself an artist sounds good to me, or even a painter dare I say. But I’ll add this taken from my artist statement: ‘I wish to be an honest painter, able to explore my own feelings, relationships and intuitions with paint while surrounded by life in both its absurdity and preciousness.’ Hopes that works.
Jacob – What artists inspire you the most?
Honey – A lot of them. Very hard question. Cause they all have something special of their own. I do love Elizabeth Peyton. Always have, always will. Teachers hate her, I don’t really see why. Formats, techniques, subjects everything’s works for me. She was kind of my first painter crush when I started with oil so I’ll just name her for now even if the list goes on today.
