We’re so excited to welcome Sofia Schizas to the Odd Pears family! Sofia is a Barcelona-based artist who is pumping out all kinds of wonderful, colourful work in the forms of paintings, prints, sculptures and now… socks!
Autumn came a-knockin’ and we thought it was well worth celebrating. Hello cool change, and hello cool socks! Read on to learn more about our mate Sofia and shop the limited edition Sofia Schizas X Odd Pears collaboration socks here.
Hey Sofia! Give us the low-down. Who are you / what do you do / where are you based?
Hello there! My name is Sofia Schizas, I come from the lovely Mediterranean island of Cyprus but at the moment I’m living and working in Barcelona, Spain. I’m a visual artist and work with different mediums like sculpture, painting, printmaking etc. and apart from my artistic work I have a side project, a brand of fun and functional handcrafted items, including notebooks, wall hangings and limited edition art prints, all sheltered under the name Hey Sosi.
Can you explain your working process? What are your essentials? (for example, tools, materials, tunes, snacks etc)
Well, it varies depending on the project I am working on. Each project requires a different approach, which makes it real fun because it means I don’t have to stick to just one type of working process. But it all starts with an early wake up! I divide my time between my home studio - where most of the Hey Sosi production happens and my shared studio with friends (Barba & Lentejas Press) in the Poble Nou district here in Barcelona. Most of my tools and materials are there, brushes of all kinds, all sorts of paints, fabrics and canvas rolls, papers, books and the list goes on! As for music I’m not really picky, any kind of music is welcome. But when a project requires my concentration, then I tend to listen to classical piano music, jazz or something along those lines...it never fails.
You’re all about the bold shapes and bright, primary colours. Who or what inspires you in your practice?
Yes, ever since attending art school my work has gone through that path. It obviously changes as time goes by, but the essence of keeping it visually simple is always present. The work might seem simple and direct but it has a lot to it in the background, lots of textual and visual reading, a stimuli that helps me develop my work. I get inspired by different artists’ artwork, modern and contemporary, their work, their lives and peculiarities, in the end I’m coming into terms that I also get a lot motivation -rather than inspiration- from people. How we behave with ourselves, with each other, with our surroundings, with nature.
Tell us about the super-cute-sunny-cloud-like designs you came up with for our collaboration!
Many shapes and compositions came up whilst drawing in my sketchbook for this collaboration but I particularly liked this pattern of the sunny clouds. I fell in love with the idea that you get 3 Pear socks in a pack, one sock being totally different to the other two! Although they look like clouds they are actually abstract forms of people who are resting their head on their hands and thinking, thinking about how we are different from each other, sometimes these differences unite us and some other times they separate us. Being different is what makes us who we are and we have to learn to tolerate each other.
If you could send anyone in the history of the world your Pears to happily wear forever and ever, who would it be and why?
That’s tricky! There are so many people that I would like to send my Pears to wear but if I had choose one person then that would have to be artist Joan Miró. Putting high standards here, but he is one of my favourite artist!
What else is in store for you this year? Any projects we should keep an eye out for?
I’m pretty busy working on personal projects, preparing for a few exhibitions and hoping to start in a few months with the designs of the new Hey Sosi collection.
See more from Sofia Schizas —
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