My first blog post of 2012… Enjoy!

I had the pleasure to conduct an interview with an amazingly talented Vancouver designer and photographer Beata Kacy.

 

Tell me more about your background. What made you become a designer/photographer?

After graduation from The Vancouver Film School New Media Program and getting my Emily Carr Fine Art Certificate, I started my career as an artist in web and interactive media for several years. Then I moved my interest to console gaming industry working for Electronic Arts and currently Ubisoft.

Six years ago, together with my partner, we decided to run a non profit art studio for local artists where I could fulfil my hankering to be a hands-on artisan. Octopus Studios became my Mecca for exploring several different media for wearable adornments like mixed metals, ceramics, fusing glass, felt, leather, cement, found objects and recently metal clay. Currently I teach, together with guest teachers, the art of jewellery making.

My love for photography was born during my travels, exploring the world and needing to capture the moment.

 

Looking back, how did you two get started in a creative profession?

I like to be creative in many ways and once you start one thing towards a profession it is easy to add more. My daily work in Computer Graphics led me to hands-on jewellery making, and designing in the evenings, my underwater photography gave me more great feedback and lots of interest that came from all around. As well as my wish to share it with others.

 

 

We all have something that started the spark. What first sparked your interest in design and photography?

I think that wealth of creativity and ingenuity goes all the way back to my grandmother. Bronislawa  Klimek, was a passionate artist and teacher. In 1922 she settled into a career as a teacher in a female-exclusive high school called. Bronislawa, was an expert in several different mediums of arts and crafts and home economics. In her former years, She herself established a preparatory school for girls that featured courses in home décor, sewing, good manners and cooking, which also included subjects like wine and liquor distillation. It would be the lessons she learned in school that she would choose to pass on to others. Bronislawa was a highly sought after and respected teacher.

 

What was the very first piece you created?

My creation goes back to when i was a 5 year old kid. Together with my dearest friend Veronika, we digged clay from the ground, making pots and drying them in the sun. I had no idea that it needed to be fired properly. Afterwards we painted them with acrylics. I guess I could call that my first piece I made. We always explored media and tested our creativity the passion just grew in us as we got older.

 

 

What were your favorite projects you ever worked on?

Designing and making mixed media jewellery and accessories is an ongoing project where you discover new materials, explore new ideas and grow together with the project. I may have favorite materials I work with but not a favorite project. I love working with felt and metal clay.

 

What started Soigne, your jewelry studio and what is it all about?

A few years ago, being part of art studio, there was a window of opportunity to begin running it. Together with my partner, Nik Palmer, we created Octopus Studios. (www.octopusstudios.ca) Where we currently have around 18 artists on board. Soigne was born right after as a place where anyone’s artistic fantasies and crafting desires can be fulfilled by taking courses in felting, and various techniques of jewellery making.

 

 

How did you get started in underwater photography?

The idea of taking underwater portraits was drawn from my pregnancy.

I wanted to capture my 40th week of pregnancy in an environment that defied gravity and water was the perfect medium to do so. I found the peaceful, rhythmic movements of the water to be serene and the perfect mirror to the amniotic fluid that my yet to be born baby was suspended in. The experience left me feeling as if I had truly bonded with my baby. I wanted to share similar experiences with other expectant mothers and than I expanded to taking photographs of anybody willing to get their feet wet.

 

 

What draws you to taking underwater photos rather then ones on land?

I like taking both. The underwater ones opened a new spectrum, new challenges, new things to learn, new results, something fresh and still gives me lots to discover. It also allows me the opportunity to go off the beaten track.

 

What do you think is the most important factor in taking the perfect picture?

It depends what and where you are photographing but overall I would say: Be there at the right time and be passionated.

 

 

From underwater photography to running a jewelry studio, where do you draw inspiration from?

The inspiration comes from passion for learning and from the process of creating. One feeds the other and leads to new ideas.

 

Did you always know you were going to be a designer/photographer?

No. I always wanted to be a Math teacher. And I did follow the plan until I graduated from my Bachelor in Computer Science, then I closed that chapter and followed my eyes.

 

 

If you weren’t working as a designer what would you be doing?

Maybe a Math teacher as I had planned since I was little, or an Art teacher. But who knows? I love teaching, this is why part of Soigne are classes. hmmm or maybe a National Geographic photographer 

 

Living in the Vancouver do you feel cultural influences play a role in your designs?

Definitely, especially when I am teaching in the studio, I meet students from different backgrounds and cultures and I see the impact of their culture in their pieces. Very often I get inspirations from them.

 

If so, which particular cultural differences do you feel are most beneficial?

All of them have an equal impact.

 

 

Do you feel living in Vancouver has made an impact in your designs or photography in anyway?

I’ve had opportunities to meet lots of great people here, which influenced me in many ways. Vancouver itself as a city is definitely not a centre of art culture, but I feel like I had more opportunity here, than big cultural places back in Europe, to meet people in my field. It seems like Vancouver, maybe because of it’s size, has a small town mentality where everybody knows each other, smiles to each other and are willing to share, teach and inspire others.

 

Everyone appreciates a good compliment every now and then. What is the best compliment you have received from someone regarding your work?

I don’t remember any particular compliments, but the ones I value a lot are about me being passionate about my work.

 

 

What is your favorite Art, Design, Fashion or Music book?

Manufactured Landscapes: The Photographs of Edward Burtynsky

 

Art, Design, Fashion, Music, what does that concept mean to you?  How do you see them intertwining with each other or you seem them in their own separate wholes?

They are like garden tools, they are in the same shed, they can be used separately each day but the biggest advantage your garden gets is if you use them all during your gardening.

 

 

If you were to sum up your underwater photography, what would you say it about?

Get Wet, Hold your breath and Be free.

 

Do you feel your photos have a certain style to them?

No, not necessarily, however when I look at them I do hear the ‘sound’ of underwater. They seem very silent and yet powerful.

 

 

How does being a photographer and designer influence your life?

It doesn’t influence my life, it is my life. Working as an artist at Ubisoft, running an art studio for 20 artists, making and teaching jewellery, taking underwater photographs, travelling and the most important being a mother and wife.

 

What is your design philosophy?

Learn, Explore and Never stop.

 

Lastly, what is currently the most played song in your music library?

Emily Jane White. Album – Dark Undercoat.

Beata Kacy
Email  beata.kc@gmail.com
Soigne Director www.soigne.ca
Undersee – Underwater Photography www.undersee.ca
Octopus Studio Director  www.octopusstudios.ca