Artinject Conversations with Roxi Giuliano | Episode 1
Studio Artinject Blog is starting a new series featuring an artist every month. Through the Artist Interview Series, I hope to highlight the different ways of being an artist and the multitude of creative entrepreneurial journeys.
Artinject Conversations is intended to break the fourth wall and bring you into the virtual room where two creatives talk about being an artist, running a creative business, and everything in between.
About Roxi Giuliano
Roxi is a Mandala Artist living in Los Angeles, USA, with her second home in Nepal, from where she is joining us for the interview. She creates conceptual mandala artworks inspired by life experiences and the deep connections between us all and highlights our journeys through life and how they intersect.
Roxi started making mandalas in 2017 during a period of intense healing. Creating mandalas acted as a refuge and a tool to process her journey ever since. She launched the Mandalas of the Path Website in March 2020, through which she offers original works of art, commission artwork, art prints, and products such as t-shirts, phone cases, mugs and such with her artwork printed on them. She wants her art to make people feel happy, understood, and at peace.
Tracing Roxi’s journey from the start of her art practice to selling her art
Roxi has always loved art and has been creating art since early childhood. It was her happy place and was always the thing that felt safe and enjoyable to her.
She started making mandalas in 2017 as a new method of meditation and finding a way to heal and process something that was too intense for her mind to go through.
At the time she had no intention of sharing her art, and she didn’t in fact share it for about two and a half years when she was creating a huge volume of work just for herself.
But it was in Nepal at the end of 2019, when she was creating mandalas at a monastery, the community of Westerners she was living with, saw her art and were deeply inspired by it. She could see that they benefited from seeing the imagery and the messages in her art. They asked her where they could find her and her art, and that was an aha moment for her and made her think, ‘oh, I think I could be beneficial in the world by sharing this‘. This interaction prompted her to create her website.
After she left the monastery, she dove into becoming a public artist and creating a space to share her art. In March 2020, she launched her website and social media, and Mandalas of the Path was born.
Soon after launching Mandalas of the Path, the pandemic hit and gave Roxi a chance to settle into being a full-time artist and business owner. It felt to her like, ‘I don’t have to try to figure out where I want to go in the world or what career I want. It was like, I can focus on what I want to do right now, and I’m being really called to be an artist.
And so that was a really beautiful thing, for about 14 months or so I was just completely dedicated to being an artist full-time. It was wonderful, it was one of the best times in my life. And I had to go back to the U.S. after that, so it kind of brought a transition.
But I still create and I still really enjoy sharing my art. It’s just kind of changed how it looks now meaning the sharing, and the art. But I think it’s an evolution that grows with us. Like everything we create comes from where we are in that moment. So it’ll keep growing with me and that’s really fun to watch.‘
I think what’s really special about how Roxi transitioned into her art business is that it came from a place of ‘it can help people’, not from a place of ‘how can I make something out of this? How can I make this into a business and how can I monetize it?’ It came from a place of generosity and from a place of sharing her own healing with others.
How Roxi navigated the challenges of not having a permanent studio and creating in spaces that are not akin to an artist’s studio
Roxi remarked on how important it is to discuss this because it can become an obstacle to people’s art practice, ‘Like thinking, I can only do it if I have this, this and this’.
‘For about a year or something I was creating without even a desk or a table, I didn’t even have that. Especially during the beginning of the pandemic, I was living in a tiny room that only had a bed and no other furniture in it. It didn’t even have floor space. And so I was creating sitting cross-legged on my bed. That was my creation space.’
When the lockdown eased up, she would occasionally step out to create. She would go for a walk, sit on a bench and create looking at the mountains. But that too was on her lap. Or sometimes she would go to a cafe where there might be a table to create on. But it essentially was a portable setup and she would create wherever she could.
She would carry a drawing pad and a small box with ‘a couple of nicer art pens and a couple of nicer pencils that wouldn’t smudge. Yeah, I wasn’t really able to get that many “nice supplies”, but I did find the bare bones of what would work.
And I think it was a really fun aspect of the creativity to try to find places. I’m remembering sitting in a field when I needed to make circles or do very specific line work, I would find the flattest place in the field to do that. And that was part of the creativity and the process.’
When she moved to the village with her partner, she had a desk and got a desk lamp. ‘And then I felt extra grateful for even having that. So the less you have, the more you’re grateful for, I think. And when I ended up having access to a really lovely desk and a space where I could have my art supplies out all the time, I noticed that didn’t inspire me any more or less to create. It was the internal inspiration that drove it, so I think that’s important to remember. It’s wonderful to have a space like that but it’s also wonderful not to because it adds to the creativity.’
In fact, when she went back to the U.S. and had a really nice creation space, ‘that was a time that I kind of was less inspired to create and I didn’t create as much. So it’s really important to realize you can create wherever you are and be flexible about it because it’s really in your mind that it’s not possible to create in other places. And I mean, if your medium is clay or something like that, you probably do need a more specific type of place to do that. But there are so many different ways to create.’
She added, ‘Don’t let the space itself become an obstacle because that could prevent you from creating something really amazing that would really connect with people.’
And I couldn’t agree more, I too believe that limitations make us more creative. Our creativity is first and foremost and the space is secondary. It does help, but it always comes secondary to our own creative process.
Roxi’s thoughts on archival art supplies in the context of our impermanence as humans
Roxi discussed how the attachment to creating with expensive and archival art supplies can actually become a hindrance to the act of creation itself. She shared how creating with expensive art supplies can create a roadblock in her mind by creating pressure for the artwork to be perfect.
She shared how for the 18 months when she was living in Nepal, she was primarily creating with a random black pen and some colored pencils she bought in Thailand. And that constituted the first generation of mandalas she created. She then found glitter pens, which are meant to be used for children’s craft projects, and incorporated them into her work because she loved creating with them. Professional-grade, archival art supplies were not available where she was in Nepal, so she created with art supplies available to her. ‘You can actually make some really elevated-looking things with supplies you wouldn’t really expect.’
She expressed how she hopes that ‘people, especially those who either don’t have access to those types of expensive supplies for money reasons or geography reasons’, it doesn’t prevent them from creating. ‘It really does not matter as much as people make it out to, it doesn’t matter as much as people think. It’s good to care about what you’re creating with, of course, but it’s also good to make sure that that’s not preventing you from creating.’
Thoughts on Impermanence
‘I think that we are all impermanent. Everything is impermanent, everything is going to change. And embracing that part of the artwork too can be a really beautiful practice.’
She commented that a lot of the art that she has created that she loves the most is in fact not created with expensive art supplies. She added that some of them have seen some changes over time like the paper has yellowed a little, but she doesn’t see that as a bad thing. ‘It shows that it’s aged, it has character.’
Commenting on selling artwork not made with archival art supplies, Roxi stated how she would not decrease the price of an artwork simply because it was not created with and on ‘fancy’ materials. She would mention in the listing that it’s not made with archival materials so that the customer is aware, but she won’t devalue her art because of it.
Thoughts on Detachment
Roxi shared a story about how one of her two artworks displayed at a friend’s restaurant in Nepal got damaged by a storm and flood in Nepal. She loves those art pieces and believes that a lot of people have had joy from seeing them. When she went to the restaurant the next day of the storm, she saw that the frame had collapsed in a little bit letting water and black soot go into the frame. Her friend and restaurant owner was scared for her to see it expecting her to be heartbroken. But she saw the mandala all messed up with sludge covering it and her reaction was just to laugh because it was a reminder that everything changes.
‘Human bodies change, places change, things change. But that’s all right. The flood took that one, and I felt like part of the process of being an artist is reducing that attachment to your creations and realizing it’s going to change.’
She recalled another story of a clay piece she worked really hard on which came out of the kiln with a huge crack down the whole thing. Her artist friend suggested that she use glaze to seal the crack, but when she tried doing that, it made the crack worse.
She recalled how it was a helpful lesson for her and being like, ‘No, I don’t have control over anything here. I can just put my love into it and not attach to the outcome. And for that art piece in my friend’s restaurant, I can practice love and non-attachment for that too. The other one’s still fine, but who knows in the next storm.
I think it’s a wonderful thing to remember. Our bodies are going to change, but we should continue loving them. Our art pieces are going to change, but we should continue loving them. Impermanence makes things beautiful, and just because your painting won’t be perfect for 300 years does not mean that it’s not wonderful. You know, it’s really important to realize that.’
One mindset shift that has been a game-changer for Roxi’s art practice
‘I think what’s coming up is the mindset of rigidity in thinking that there’s only one way to create.’ Roxi elaborated that she fell in love with creating mandalas in circles. And so she developed some rigidity around her process and that prevented her from exploring other ways of creating. Now, she says that she does love her mandalas, but she has started exploring other mediums and developing a sketchbook practice.
She also commented on how it’s in fact healthy to explore other mediums for fun without an agenda of selling. Today’s social media world can create the pressure of keeping up on the content hamster wheel and constantly showing up with our best, but it’s important to remember to take care of your well-being in the process.
This feeling of, ‘Oh, my social media audience is expecting something every so often and I need to keep up with that. And I don’t want to waste my time creating something that’s not good for public sharing. It’s not a waste of time to create things for fun, it’s so not. That rigidity and that feeling, it really probably prevented me from a lot of exploring and kind of adventuring within my art practice.
Now when I’m creating something, I kind of just feel it out in the moment. Do I just want to draw right now? Do I just want to mess around with clay? Do I want to try making a sculpture or do I want to make a circle? Creativity is so limitless. The limits are only within your mind.’
How to Live Your Truth
Roxi shared how when she was a full-time artist and living in Nepal, she was surrounded by open-minded travellers who made her feel comfortable about her profession and encouraged her. But when she returned to the U.S., she was met with a lot of scepticism. She was asked invalidating questions like, ‘Okay, so you did your vacation job and now what are you really going to do? What are you going to actually do in your career? Are you going to go back to school? What’s your serious life choice?’
She commented that ‘it’s really inspiring to live your truth and not be ashamed or insecure about that.
And I think it’s so important to remember to keep kind of like a fence around your mind, protecting your garden, your mental garden. Because otherwise a cow might come and eat your flowers and then you end up feeling so discouraged and your passion is decreased. And that’s so sad.
It’s so important for us to stay very confident and strong in what we’re doing. And usually what happens is other people around us will catch up. They’re not conditioned to think of art business as a serious life career, but it is.
And you can make such an amazing life with that and thrive and create a lot of benefit in the world. So having a closed mind about what can be, you know, a real-life adult career, that’s a disservice to yourself and to others.’
It’s important to create art just for the sake of creating art. And I think it’s important for everyone to create art in some capacity. It’s very important, as humans, to practice creativity because we are inherently creative beings.
As artists creating art professionally, it is important to remember that there needs to be an art practice that is just our own, separate from what we are creating to see.
As Roxi said, if your profession is based on passion, you ought to make sure that you’re still cultivating your own inner creativity, your own inner world. ‘It’s not like you’re wasting time not creating professionally. You are actually creating, you’re creating a richer inner place that your art is going to come from.’