Renowned - A Place For Artists

Venus Artist !

In this edition of Venus Magazine, we had the extraordinary privilege of sitting down with four remarkable artists whose work pushes boundaries and speaks to the heart. From bold visual storytelling to deeply personal explorations of love, beauty, and identity, each artist invites us into their world, sharing the inspirations, challenges, and passions that drive their craft.

Their stories—filled with creativity, resilience, and insight—are as captivating as their art. Dive into these intimate conversations below and discover the voices behind the masterpieces. We hope their journeys resonate with you as much as they did with us.

Ariadne Urania

Hello, my name is Ariadne, and I am an expatriate hailing from the planet Baltya in what you call Cosmos Redshift 7 (CR7), a galaxy on the farthest reaches of your observable universe. I’ve been traveling for a very long time (though hard to say exactly how long; I still don’t understand Earth time), and although I don’t usually stay on any planet for longer than a few cycles around its solar host, I’ve decided to stay on Earth for the foreseeable future in order to complete my current aesthetic experiments.

As an intergalactic artist, I have made my artistic debut six separate times on as many planets, spread across five solar systems throughout three different galaxies. Although I expect each time to be easier than the last, this has yet to be the case.

Art is intrinsically vulnerable. Even if the subject matter is devoid of feeling, a piece of the maker’s ego is inevitably bound up in the resulting product. You are as alien to me as I am to you. I offer you this work in the hope of finding enough commonality to bridge our differences. What I’ve made may not be what you consider music, but in my time here, I have expanded my definition of the form to include yours. Perhaps you can expand yours in order to incorporate mine.

All these pieces of art are part of my album SellOut which is available on Youtube, Apple Music, Tidal, Spotify, and Amazon Music, and is best experienced in video format. Visit earthtoariadne.com to explore and learn more bout Ariadne’s work.

I recorded the final IIKY dialogue the same way I recorded the demo: jogging around Manhattan, one sock over an iphone mic in order to reduce wind noise. I knew after only one take that I’d hit on something, dispelled something, professed something true, all while telling only lies. Catharsis happened at a distance. I wanted to hear my hurt in someone else’s mouth.

And I want you to hear it, too.

Seven More is one of the most personal, near confessional tracks on the album. I wrote it in between shifts at my first job here on Earth (during the summer of 2021.) The research I was conducting dredged up memories of the first job I ever had, serving emahka to the bustling crowds under Baltya’s red sun. I spent my commutes writing something akin to poetry. It was as meditative as it was creatively productive, an outlet for the angst of adolescence—which I now know to be universal experience, a necessary rite of passage for all intelligent life forms.

“Seven More” is the product of these mirrored experiences, told through a human lens.

Milly Aburrow

You’ve mentioned previously that you leaned toward art because it was more accessible than, say, sports. But I’d love to know what made you connect with art beyond that it was accessible to you.

Did you have any community activities growing up or during secondary school that challenged you and helped you see things from new perspectives?

I didn’t do much in that aspect, I just went through the education and did the work. I did what we call an arts award, which is basically something to put on your CV. I did a bronze and silver arts award. It’s basically “going back to school but not school”. We had different bits and bobs, modules, learning different mediums and such which I did in the local gallery during high school.

I was introduced quite a lot then and especially in the gallery setting as well. I used to walk around after hours and go and look at paintings. I think that was a nice introduction to art outside of being a hobby and more of a professional career.

Did you end up finding community within the gallery at that time?

Not necessarily. I’m not in contact with anyone from that time at the moment, but it’s really weird connection-wise. When I was in university in my second-year I was talking to my tutor about where I’m from, and I was saying that I got the arts award. He happened to have a couple shows in the gallery where I was doing it. Around the time I was doing [my arts award], he was showing his work. It’s really weird that coincidence and link where my tutor from years on—I was drawing his work when I was doing my arts award and not even realizing as well. It’s really weird how paths cross.

I know you’ve gone through a change of more regimented artwork to moving into sculpture and following your creative senses. What phases of experimentation led you to your current art style?

I think it was more, sort of, accepting who I was as a person and as a lesbian and fully embracing that. Before going into uni I wasn’t really out at all, and so when going into uni I was like “Right, now is the time to actually experiment with things and just try to be as authentic to myself as possible.” Weirdly, I thought I’d dye my hair for fun and it’s been like this for four years now. Hasn’t changed. I started trying to represent myself in a different way. I started dressing in pink clothes. Do you know what? As a child, I hated pink. I despised it. It’s that tomboy thing you go through isn’t it? But I fully embraced it going into university. I think it was from there that I really started to see my practice and style change into things I wanted to look into.

You’ve mentioned that your consumption habits and lesbian identity influence your art. How do you see your personal narrative intersecting with broader societal themes in your work?

I think the personal narrative comes out naturally and organically through my fabrication of the work, my stylization, and my preferences of how I want the work to be manufactured in all aspects. But on the wider commentary and how it all interlinks, mainly my themes and my works surround food. Not only do I have a personal connotation to it, so many other people have personal relationships, connotations, and meanings linked to certain different foods.

When I was filming “In Sandwich Counter” I had labored away for a year just making this work and it was basically my child. When I was showing it to an audience and trying to explain my own personal likenings, it was a really lovely conversation. It really highlighted other peoples’ thoughts and links to the work as well. The work is interactive, like, we made sandwiches together and we had a discussion while making the sandwiches. It really became apparent that these everyday tasks—going to get lunch, going to get a sandwich—how interlinked they are into everyday life and what they mean to people. So I think it’s more that the theme is a universal language.How do you see your role as an artist in today’s society? What responsibilities, if any, do you believe artists have in addressing societal issues?

In a way, I think it’s really an interesting one because I think that art can really create change. It creates that conversation of looking at something in a different perspective and a different way through otherwise, say, the news or a serious media. So it does really bring light to all these different issues around the world. I’m really grateful to have my say on different aspects and things that are going on. I don’t know, it’s quite pressurizing in that sense because you are trying to make the world a better place. You’re really trying to implement, even if it’s really small, just a bit of change. That change of attitudes as well. I think it’s a really important role for artists to engage with what’s happening.

About your art, I’d like to know what mediums and what else you draw inspiration from when you're working on your sculptures.

Inspiration-wise it can be anything and everything. A few months back I was absolutely obsessed with pickled onions. I went through a phase where I was just eating so many. This is really weird, but I was eating like four pickled onions a day. Just spooning it out the jar. It was flippin’ insane. Now I’m doing this show about a pub and I’m turning the gallery into a pub. I was thinking about condiments and ketchup and salt and vinegar. Then I thought, “Oh, pickled onions! I could make some pickled onions.” I thought back to when I was eating a lot of pickled onions and the texture and the liquid and the transparency of the onion. It’s basically like weird little everyday things that I go from. Then a lot of my sculptures are made through drawings so they’re more stylized. A lot of my works are a lot bigger than they are in real life. They’re a bit skewed. They’re a bit wonky. They’re a bit more organic. That’s taken from a drawing of how I want it to be represented.

I feel like everyone I know that came out in university had a complete flip. Especially if they came to college femme, their look became like a “Hello, hi… I am queer.”

Yeah, definitely. Do you know what? My parents used to be like “oh we never knew, we couldn’t have guessed.” But I think it was like year eight in secondary school, and I was rocking this pixie cut. There were so many things. The pixie cut, flannel shirts. It’s just hilarious how we go through these changes to try to figure out who we are. And then it just really clicked through the trial and process of who I am as a person. That’s sort of embedded into my work. Pre-university, I think I’ve deleted it from all my socials, but you’d see still-life paintings, really classical paint brushes and pots. It has really evolved.

On the hair topic, I really respect that you found exactly what you wanted and stuck with it because my hair changes like four times a year for the past five years.

But I agree, finding yourself is definitely the biggest thing. With writing music, it became so much easier for me once I was no longer suppressed living at home.

Yeah, no, literally. It’s a really freeing experience to go out on your own. Especially me, with my experience no longer living at home [during university].

Hair-wise, I love my hair. I don't think I’ll change it for a while. It’s really become my identity. It’s really weird to think about because I get recognized at parties by my hair. So people from social media will come up or directors and I’ll get “Mille!” and I go “Oh hi! How are you!” Every time I’m like [gasps] “what?”

Do you see your art going in any particular direction? Do you have any ideas or inclinations on things you want to explore or evolve on in the next few years?

So, my work is more about creating an environment and a space at the moment. I look at the entire picture. That’s not to say I don’t focus on the smaller things like small sculptures and little elements, but I’d really like to hone in on the small sculptures and isolate them outside of the installation. I’d like to learn new skills and techniques to improve my sculpture. Hopefully that’s how my work will progress.

Looking ahead, what are you most excited about in your upcoming projects?

I’m currently working toward a show here in February, which is going to be my debut solo show here in Bath. I’ve been working on it for over a year now. Either way, I’m going to be very relieved when it’s done, but also very sad because it’s going to be like a part of my life is just gone. I might revisit looking at other galleries, but that’s not necessarily like making new work. But I’m excited for the reception of the work and I’m hoping that it goes well. Apart from the other projects, I haven’t got anything going on yet after the show. So I guess it’s going to be nice to have a little bit of a break, do smaller works and sculptures, and focus on maybe not big installations because outside of uni they do take up a lot of time. I think I was using a lot of the university’s resources. All the wood workshops and stuff. Outside of uni when you don’t have that, it’s been hard to manufacture and a bit more money, unfortunately, to try and get things made. It’s all about balancing art and life outside of art. I think it’ll be quite nice to go on hold though.

Marta Leszek

Hello, my name is Marta. If I have to describe what I do very generally, I would say that my artworks are miscellaneous and I am self-taught artist. For as long as I can remember, I've had a hard time choosing just one thing. Life is like a buffet with so many things to taste and I am still tasting writing, drawing and painting and who knows what will be next? Discovering, testing new things and breaking barriers is the best part of it all. Maybe at first you are afraid and scary but also so excited and then you feel such great pleasure.

Can you describe your early experiences with art, particularly during your childhood? Were there any pivotal moments or influences, especially when working with markers, that sparked your passion for creating?

I learned to draw very early. My mother told me that as a very small child I liked to draw, especially people - with details that seemed interesting to me - like nice clothes, makeup, something that made them stand out from other people I knew and saw. I think I'm doing exactly the same thing now. Unfortunately, my passion faded a bit at school, because the lessons killed creativity. everyone had to do everything exactly the same. And for someone who has their own ideas and methods it is a real torture

How has your artistic style evolved since you first began your current work? How do you balance planning versus spontaneity in your creative process?

I think that spontaneity and a kind of mindfulness are the most important in my creative process. As an overthinker and a person who for a long time was afraid to leave the comfort zone, I needed a space where I could feel good, safe and be spontaneous.

What themes and emotions are you trying to explore in your work? What draws you to explore these themes and emotions? How much of yourself is reflected in your art—do you view your art as a form of self-portraiture, even if the figures don’t directly represent you?

Actually, there is a lot of autobiography and own experiences in my art. I literally drew myself many times - with my hairstyle, clothes and places I was when I felt some emotion. But even if I'm not directly in the drawing, it's about me in some way. Because it is my perspective, my observations. Even if a story didn't really happen, I created it, so it's about me in some way.

In works such as 'BeautyCheck,' 'Secret Lover,' and 'Where Is the Love of My Life?', markers create a sense of permanence in your art. How does this impact your connection to the pieces? Do the technical constraints of the medium push you to make different artistic decisions compared to other mediums?

I really like the fact that the creative process using this particular medium teaches self-confidence and makes everything more authentic. The traditional, durable, analog medium is not suitable for many corrections. There is only here and now. It requires confidence, spontaneity, creativity and naming a specific emotion very directly. It's very important to me.

Before we conclude, is there anything else you’d like to share that you think is important for people to know about you or your art?

I think that in today's world, where there are many problems and the authorities and the media often do not want to speak out on them, art is an important channel of communication.

Additionally, I would like my art to teach self-confidence, a sense of youth and love.

Your pieces often have an underlying narrative, communicated through body language and posture. How do you decide on these poses, and do you consider your drawings as complete stories or part of a larger interconnected world?

Our bodies are our main communication tools, so I like to use them in this way. They are supposed to show a specific state, emotion, feature, but at the same time I leave a lot of space around because I know that these elements are changeable.

What response do you hope to evoke from viewers? Do you leave space for interpretation, or is your narrative vision more fixed?

I am very open to the viewers' feelings, emotions and interpretations. As I mentioned, there is a space and universality in them. Therefore, even if they contain specific symbols, features, etc., everyone can freely add their own story to them.

Your work displays a distinct blend of visual and emotional depth. Could you share some of the key influences—whether they’re artists, movements, or personal experiences—that have had the most impact on your style? Additionally, are there any unexpected or unconventional influences, such as a book, place, or moment in your life, that have left a lasting mark on your creative direction?

I guess it's because I am just such a mixture, often consisting of extreme emotions, styles and aesthetics. I love the atmosphere of the city, its modernity and architecture, but i also need deep, wild nature. I can't point to one style of music that accompanies me most often - I love alternative, techno, ambient, but I'm also a child of the 90s who loves vintage rock and grunge. One day I'm at a rave and dancing with the crowd, and then I'm a typical scorpio, siting at home, listening to Radiohead or The Smiths or Nick Cave and overthinking about life, and then probably writing or drawing something.

I like observing the world around me and I think I'm good at spotting things that some people will never notice. These things often become my inspirations - directly or indirectly. Sometimes I just draw what I see, and the other times something forces me to think and leads me in certain ways to the point where I know what my work should look like.

I’m also a very big fan of polish aesthetic. As a child I soaked into this type of aesthetics, to stop liking it for some time as a teenager. Now I love it again and I think that Polish ugliness can be the most beautiful and I see incredible authenticity in it.

You’ve worked with both markers and photography—have you ever thought about combining the two, perhaps by drawing over your photographs?

There were situations when I first took a photo of something, and then it inspired the drawing. I also used to make collages that were a patchwork of many elements, but that wasn't really for me.

Lastly, how can people support your work and where can they find more of it?

You can see my drawings in posts and featured stories on my Instagram. come there in droves. my name is @marthyev and you are very welcome. Everyone is welcome!!

You can also see my artworks in beautiful magazines and zines that you can purchase to support me and other unique, shining artists. These are such brilliant titles as, for example, „Girls and Queers To The Front” and many others. When the next issue of a magazine with my works will be released, I will definitely inform you on my Instagram.

Alayn Kirk

I’m Alayn Kirk! I’m a Milwaukee artist and I express myself through clowns, bright colors, and whimsy. I mainly work in textiles and fibers as well as drawing and painting, but I love to explore a large variety of mediums when telling my tales. My main body of work seeks to explore my identity as a neurodivergent lesbian and better understand myself and my inner workings.

“Scurria the Soft Footed Clown” has a unique design inspired by the elephant hawk moth, blending elements of nature and fantasy. How do you incorporate these natural and whimsical influences into her costume, and how does this connection to nature affect the viewer’s or wearer’s experience with the piece?

Having a connection to the natural world is very important to me, and being conscious about my own impact on the world is even more important. I take very careful steps to make sure my art practice is as environmentally friendly as it can be, and I always make sure to incorporate that message into the meaning of my artwork. It’s important now more than ever to not only appreciate nature and its beauty, but also be conscious about how you personally affect it as well as how those in power affect it. In order to completely appreciate my works such as Scurria with a theming in nature, the viewer must be conscious about how our waste impacts nature and be active in cutting down their own waste. In my perfect fantasy world where Scurria lives, she doesn’t have to worry about the impending ecological disaster affecting our lives in the real world, and wouldn’t that be nice to not have to worry about that either? I hope that at least subconsciously, people see that kind of a message in my artwork underneath all of the frills and makeup and actively work toward an environment that we can all safely inhabit without worry.

Were there any artists who inspired you early on and continue to influence your work today? How did their work resonate with your own experiences and aspirations as an artist?

A big artist that has inspired me since I was a teenager is Sebatian Masuda. He is a Japanese artist that specializes in big colorful installations and collaborative art, but the first time I saw his work was in a music video. He was the creative director behind Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s Pon Pon Pon, which was very popular in 2011, and around the time I started getting really into Japanese music. That music video was so weird and captivating, it made me really fall in love with Masuda’s art later on and appreciate his passion for spreading love for kawaii culture. His artwork is still very important to me and I always go back to it when I’m lacking in inspiration.

Were there any artists who inspired you early on and continue to influence your work today? How did their work resonate with your own experiences and aspirations as an artist?

A big artist that has inspired me since I was a teenager is Sebatian Masuda. He is a Japanese artist that specializes in big colorful installations and collaborative art, but the first time I saw his work was in a music video. He was the creative director behind Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s Pon Pon Pon, which was very popular in 2011, and around the time I started getting really into Japanese music. That music video was so weird and captivating, it made me really fall in love with Masuda’s art later on and appreciate his passion for spreading love for kawaii culture. His artwork is still very important to me and I always go back to it when I’m lacking in inspiration.

The concept of transformation seems central to your costumes, both in their creation and their use. How does the idea of transformation play into your work, and what does it mean to you personally?

Transformation is central to life itself, everything goes through its metamorphosis before it becomes the best version of itself. To change is to live, I’ve come a long way to accepting and appreciating change in life. Each costume I’ve created transforms the wearer, myself, into a new character, someone who didn’t exist before the costume. Being covered head to toe in a new skin gives me a different perspective and changes the way I view myself and my life. Each of the costumes I have created inspired me to have a new way of thinking. Scurria helped me realize my potential and made me grow as an artist, Looney taught me to take the things I want and not be so passive, Pidlwimple showed me how to just have fun and get sillier. They all helped me change and develop both as an artist and as a person, making me learn new techniques and work with different fabrics, as well as shifting my perspective and teaching me new things about myself.

Can you take us back to when you first became interested in art? Was there a particular moment or influence that sparked your passion for creating, specifically with fibers and costume design?

The first major instance I remember having a real passion for art was during summer school between fourth and fifth grade. The summer school I attended had a lot of classes centered around creativity, and a lot of free time to run around outside and draw, which really sparked a lot of creativity I had as a kid. I created comics about a little macaroni noodle named Noodle Dude, his adventures, his life, his family. They became very popular at school and I created a lot of art around Noodle Dude, and even inspired other classmates to create their own comics about him. Collaborative art with my classmates about this little character I was so passionate about really solidified my love for creating and making artwork.

Your pieces each have their own personalities and stories. If your characters had their own talk show, what kind of topics do you think they’d cover and who would be their first guest? Do you think they’d interview you and If they did what do you think they’d ask you?

Looney would absolutely adore having their own talk show, and she would be nicely balanced out by the company of Scurria, a more soft spoken individual, and Pidlwimple, a jokester. They would definitely joke around as friends, suddenly jumping into serious, deep topics about the political state of the clown kingdom or the ecological issues of the surrounding wilderness. Their topics would be clashing, off putting, and chaotic, with Looney railroading the show with Scurria trying desperately to stay on topic while Pidlwimple cracks jokes and completely derails the whole conversation. Looney would be insistent on having members of her royal family on as guests, with Scurria trying to have conversations with local environmental experts and Pidlwimple telling all of them ominous things about their future. I would love to be interviewed by them, I would expect deep, personal questions from Scurria, gossipy topics from Looney, and once again, ominous things about my future from Pidlwimple.

Your series "Welcome to the Big Top" features clowns with distinct personalities and roles, each telling a unique story. What is it about clowns that draws you to them as a subject? How do you develop these characters, and in what ways do they serve as extensions or reflections of different parts of yourself? Do you see the clown as a metaphor for expressing deeper, perhaps more hidden, emotions or aspects of your identity?

Clowns are so special to me because they are just here to make people laugh and spread joy. Their job is to be silly and entertain, that’s it! They all have a fun and whimsical design in their own ways, but a clown is so universal and recognisable. Every culture in the world has had some sort of clown or fool to entertain their community, we as a people just love to have a laugh together. The best part about them, though, is they also can have a lot of development and deep stories as characters, they’re very flexible in how different feelings and aspects of yourself can be reflected onto them. Clowns are an exaggeration of real life, which helps me understand my emotions or aspects of myself in a larger than life way. It can be difficult for me to put my feelings into words and express myself in a conventional way, so projecting myself onto clowns helps me understand myself and what I’m going through in order to make sense of it all. I develop each of my clowns based on where I am in life and what kind of change I need at that time. All of this work is subconsciously, but it really helps me work through my feelings and problems and understanding it after it’s all done.

What impact do you hope your work has on those who experience it? Are there particular reactions or interpretations that you aim to provoke, and how do you measure the success of your work in achieving these goals?

I simply hope that viewers get some sort of joy from seeing my work, although I certainly don’t protest more negative or scared reactions from the art. Overall I want the viewers to take away their own interpretations of my art and come to their own conclusions, and most of all I would love viewers to walk away inspired. I only measure my success through how happy my own art makes me, and how many people I can inspire with my work. Everytime I hear about how my artwork has provoked creativity in someone else it makes me overjoyed, and that’s all I really need!

How do you see your artistic journey continuing to evolve in the future? Are there any new directions or mediums you’re curious about exploring?

I have always been one to try a variety of different methods of art making and expanding my knowledge as far as I can. I am currently working on more illustration, but I am also exploring more sculptural, interactive work as well as tattooing!

Before we conclude, is there anything else you’d like to share that you think is important for people to know about you or your art?

My overall message through my art is to find your passions and have fun! Life is all about finding what you love, having fun, and spreading joy to others, so find out how to do that in your own special way and get out there!

Lastly, how can people support your work and where can they find more of it?

My main body of work is documented and organized on my website, alaynkirk.com but if you’re looking to follow me for more updates and other projects that I’m working on, please follow me on social media, on instagram I’m @laynedollart and everywhere else I’m @laynedoll ! I’ll also be around at local Milwaukee art markets if you’re ever in the need for something cute to buy!

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