Today we’d like to introduce you to Monika Blichar.
Monika, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I started drawing, being imaginative and was very social at an early age, I remember doodling always in my school books, dreaming up new worlds in my work, and getting scolded from my catholic school teachers as being ‘a social butterfly’. I was born in a refugee camp in Latina, Italy and looking back at our childhood now, I see that I gravitated to the creative and imaginary worlds because life was hard for our family growing up. Art was always there when I wanted to dream and create something wonderful for myself. I remember watching one of my favorite art teachers on PBS Mark Kistler religiously so I could learn how to make those 3D imaginary worlds.
After I won my first drawing contest at 11 for the “Just Say No” campaign, my dad took me to the art store and bought me my first set of paints. I was hooked after that and even though I didn’t officially go to art school at University, I found myself once again gravitating back to arts after I started my ‘real world French Teacher adult job that I was supposed to be so proud of’. I remember having a vision one day sitting in a lonely basement, dark, dungy and dusty. I was marking a pile of papers and had this awful long white hair, hunched over and tired. I remember at that moment thinking “this can’t be it!” And there it was-a revelation that pushed me into the art world out of the fear of ‘being an adult’ and losing the opportunities because we are scared or run out of time.
I should also add that when I completed my two degrees and teacher’s certificate from the University of Victoria, I had a series of close deaths within the span of three years. Losing people really close to you at a young age really made me think a lot about what I was doing with my time and how important it is to follow your passion. My mother passed away and she was only 49. I like to think that even though she didn’t live that long, her legacy lives through me being able to truly do what I love and inspire others to do the same. One of her wishes for us when she took a leap of faith to come to a new country was for us to have the opportunities that she hadn’t when she was growing up. I feel a sense of responsibility and fortune to dream big and strive for greatness which I owe to her and my dad bringing us here from Poland.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I started by drawing and then got into painting. My main medium is acrylic paint but I have been working on all kinds of different things over the 10 years I have been really practicing. Murals, body painting, event production, fashion, jewellery and even mixed media and sculpting. I know that when I do something for too long I get bored and I think I am a little like that with my art and projects. I like to keep things interesting by dipping my toes into lots of different things.
I think we all ought to be more like that too. When I started teaching, I worked with a lot of different kids, youth and adults. I was teaching languages and briefly worked as an employment coach for at risk youth. I hopped around from various ages at private schools, public schools, government offices and community centers. You know, trying to keep up with the ‘adult’ thing that everyone expects you to do after you graduate!
What I noticed was that when we are really young, we have huge dreams and nothing is going to stop us. We can do anything and BE anything! One little boy told me he wanted to collect things that people throw away so that he could have a huge collection of things that he could save. A not so imaginative teacher piped in when she heard him saying this and called that ‘a garbage man dear!’ He was obviously crushed.
Slowly, getting older, peers, the system and society’s expectations wear on us and our once big, strong and unstoppable dreams feel silly, irrational, and impractical. By high school, we decide to toss out those deflated puddles of dreams and strive to be accountants, lawyers, doctors because ‘that’s what my parents think I should do’ or because that is what we will make a good living doing. Even though we LOVE drawing, acting, dancing, we push those passions aside because we’ve been convinced that we can’t make a living doing something that we really love to do.
With art, I feel like we can go back to dreaming big, playing with imagination, and coming up with worlds we love. In fact, I think art is one of the arenas we can really express ourselves without judgement or fear. I would encourage everyone to dabble in any art form. It’s very liberating and I think it helps a lot of people explore sides of themselves that they haven’t since they were kids. And isn’t that what we all need in life? A lot more creativity, imagination, joy and possibility? I think art runs the world. If we didn’t have music, fashion, designers, innovators, creators…we would live in a pretty boring world, now wouldn’t we?
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
I started the Art World Expo which is an annual art show in Vancouver as a response to the earthquake in Haiti. We fundraised for an organization called Safe Water Nexus and each year since 2010, I have continued the show to feature artists, body painters, musicians, and talents of all kinds. Each year, we help hundreds of artists show and sell their work and also encourage local businesses to take part. This past year, I themed the show “Eco Sustainability” and we had everything from an eco-fashion show, speakers from the David Suzuki Foundation to upcycled art, fashion and jewellery. We also had local eco-friendly businesses participate and promote products like the Tower Garden so that people can garden indoors in their small spaces to adventure resorts like REO Rafting where people can go to enjoy nature. The reason I chose that theme for the show was that although it is nice to have a gala once a year, as artists who have a platform, we have to send messages to others to inspire them to act and do the right thing.
I try to do this in my own practice as well. Weather it is creating things that inspire others to take time for their own self-care, mental health and relaxation to political pop art pieces, I think that being an artist is one of the best ways to get messages out there in a unique way.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I run a boutique studio and gallery in North Vancouver called “Monika’s Art Boutique”. I do a lot of shows and also produce Art World Expo. I am also online and can be found on my website www.monikablichar.com and on all the social media platforms. I love social media because it helps connect me to people all over the world. If you want to support me, follow me, get in touch, let’s collaborate! I love hearing from people and working on all kinds of projects!
Contact Info:
- Address: Monika’s Art Boutique 3063 Lonsdale Avenue
North Vancouver, BC - Website: monikablichar.com theartworldexpo.com mabartstudio.com
- Phone: 604 999 6177
- Email: info@monikablichar.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monikablichar/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/artworldexpo/?hl=en https://www.instagram.com/monikasartboutique/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monikaannablichar/ https://www.facebook.com/ArtWorldExpo/ https://www.facebook.com/MonikasArtBoutique/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MonikaBlichar https://twitter.com/ArtWorldExpo https://twitter.com/MABVenturesInc
Image Credit:
Monika Blichar
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