Self image,La ballade dans le Val d’Enfer, drawing, Apollonia Saintclaire

Apollonia Saintclair is an artist whose artwork posses a significant balance between raw sensuality and artist aesthetic. Her drawings express an intense atmosphere and always seems to tell a story. Controversial and bold she counts numerous fans at social media both because of her rare talent and her mysterious persona.

 Q:Apollonia how you decided to get involved with art? Which were your influences?

I’ve been drawing things for a long time without particular artistic training. I had a rather sporadic drawing activity, sometimes intense, sometimes dormant; but the quality and ambition never really exceeded the level of semi-serious doodle. The breakthrough happened at the end of 2011, when without warning, I began to believe a little more what I was doing. Beside the great masters of comics like Noebius or manara, my strongest influence has always been literature. I was breast fed with authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Guy de Maupassant, H.P.Lovercraft, Richard Matheson, Gustave Flaubert, Frank Herbert - and of course, Henry Miller and Anais Nin. During my first twenty years, I read everything I could get my hand on, from the Bible to Sade. Reading is for me a way of painting with my mind. All my readings have left me a number of latent images, just waiting to collide with an observation of real life or a photograph to be revealed.
  Amalia Cipriani Saint d’Archangelo,drawing Apollonia Saintclaire

Q:Where you currently live? Why you chose to locate yourself there?

I live in the Old World. I like the relative freedom of speech, especially about sexuality and gender themes. I also think that it`s obvious that my graphic influences and my understanding of eroticism come from here. Btw, I would like to take this opportunity to point out that I do not live on Pitcairn Island - unlike what you can read on my Behance site – Just in case someone thinks about booking a flight. I picked that place because I had to and because that island is far from everything... It is a way to say metaphorically that I’m not available for a meeting...
 
Q:You are of the very few, widely known, female artist that express such an intensive sensuality through their art. Is your work a way to make a statement about sexuality?

I do what I do mainly because it’s a pleasure. For me, aesthetic pleasure and erotic desire are closely linked. I do not know the reason, but it is in these areas that my emotions reach their peak. It was natural to combine them into one activity. There is an obvious relationship between the sensuality of a curve drawn on paper and that of an erect penis. I was not aware I was making any statement until I began to receive feedback from admirer and/or detractors. I guess it’s a important part of art that you have an audience who sees things in what you do. However I’m persuaded that the statement is more the product of the viewer’s mind than the artist’s. In
fact, I like to create images which, depending on the mindset of the viewer, can be interpreted in many, sometimes even opposite way.
 
Q:Your artwork contains both male and female figures, although you seem give to focus to female figures more often. If there is something about female sensuality that fascinates you ,what would that be?

Woman is ubiquitous in the history of art, but it has too often been confined to the duality Pietà/Whore. The fact that a woman can feel the desire - or even that she has a soul - has been carefully ignored. Without detracting the male desire, I think female fantasies are eminently complex and therefore eminently interesting to represent. Exploring sexuality is ultimately a lonely journey as it is the brain that is the biggest erogenous zone. During evolution, woman has developed very sophisticated strategies to achieve its goals and this makes her desire’s archipelago rich and extensive to explore.

Q:How would you describe yourself in few words?

I’m dedicated to what I do but I don’t not want to be in the stagelight. I can understand that I’ve become a fantasy for some but I’ll keep repeating that only the drawings really matter and that one can not forget their other author.
  La Dame du Lac,drawing ,Apollonia Saintclaire

Q:Are you into other forms of art? For example music?

I would like to write a novel, but, as with many things, I’ve not come up yet with enough time –or pressure – for that.
 
Q:What is your next project about?

Right now I’m working on commissions for books and LP covers, but I try no to take to much commissioned work since I enjoy drawing freely, just following my mood. I think it’s also about time to start planing for a book with collected drawings of mine.

Le baiser du deux fois ne drawing Apollonia Saint claire

Info:
For more artwork from Apollonia :
http://apolloniasaintclair.tumblr.com/
http://society6.com/ApolloniaSaintclair
http://apolloniasaintclair.bigcartel.com/