Miki Lowe

London based illustrator & printmaker Miki Lowe’s work is featured in an array of major publications from The Atlantic to The Daily Telegraph. Miki’s work is insightful, imaginative and effortlessly modern.

How did your interest in art begin? Did you always want to be an artist?

I think so; yes, as far as I can remember. I always liked drawing, or making things, and I was always attracted to imagery. My parents were not artists, but both were involved in the arts in different ways—my mother is very talented and taught me watercolours at a young age, and my father had spent his life working in museums, art colleges and then writing, so even if there was never any particular pressure or demand for me to go in that direction, I was very exposed. 

What are your most treasured design tools? Are there any that have become essential to your work?

Well, I’d say the Adobe suite design programmes are pretty essential work tools. I do the bulk of my work by hand, but I also do a huge amount on Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator. The internet is also an amazing tool for my illustration work—it gives me instant access to pretty much any subject matter I want to practice drawing or work on, no matter where I am (provided there is Wi-fi).  

How do you stay creative? Do you have any routines, resources, music that gets you into the creative flow before starting a project?

Actually, not really, not in terms of routine or music or things like that. The only ‘method’ I have is basically just to start working, start doing something, even if I don’t feel like it or if I don’t know how to tackle the project. It might not always lead to a flow—actually trying to stay creative can be quite frustrating sometimes—but that’s how I manage to generate ideas. 

What does a typical day look like for you? 

Even if I try to keep some regularity, my days vary quite a lot depending on the workload I have, or on the type of job I have to do. But I guess in general, I have the terrible habit of checking my emails when I wake up—which I want to stop doing—and then have a coffee (that never changes) and try to get the most challenging and intense parts of work done in the morning if possible. I can spend the day on my computer, or with paper, pens and brushes depending on what I’m working on. 

Pre-Covid I spent a lot of my evenings and free time out and about—this year I’ve replaced that with a lot of reading…

Have there been any challenges for your work during  COVID? How do you overcome them?

Hmm. I’ve actually been really lucky; considering the huge impact COVID has had on a lot of people and on their livelihood, I haven’t been too badly affected, which I am extremely thankful for. There are some jobs that I lost, and there were no possibilities to have exhibitions, but I ended up having enough illustration work coming in to compensate. I usually move around and travel a lot, and I think I get a lot of ideas from that way of living, so I have had to adapt, be more sedentary, find new sources of inspiration or stimulation. But then that hasn’t been a bad experience at all in the end—staying put in one place has enabled me to focus in ways that perhaps I hadn’t until now. 

I love your work. Your artistic style contains beautiful elements of printmaking, drawing, abstraction and digital manipulation; who/what inspires your visual aesthetic? 

Thank you. 

I think my visual aesthetic is fed by the world I see and am surrounded by, instead of a handful of specific people or a movement in particular.

I’d say I’m quite a product of my generation. I’ve grown up—and live now—exposed to such a vast and eclectic range of imagery from different times and cultures that, inevitably, my visual world has been influenced by a mixture of a lot of different sources, so it’s hard to say what exactly it has been shaped by. 

 But if I were to name a few concrete examples… other artworks (paintings such as Matisse’s, but also film/TV, photography, fashion, graphic design imagery) the cultural references I have from my half Japanese background, the architecture or natural landscapes of places I have visited…

What advice would you give your younger artist self? 

 

“Value your work more. Not just in terms of money, but also in terms of how confident you feel about it, even if things don’t always work out how you want or if not everybody likes it. I think I’ve given myself a lot of bad times because of self-doubt…“

…not that I don’t ever do it anymore. I do it less, but actually this advice is still valid for my present self.

What would you say is the most challenging part of your work? Do you have any mantras that help you stay focused?

The irregularity and the unpredictability of freelance creative work (or dealing with it well) is what I have found consistently most challenging over the years. 

 I haven’t found the solution to it yet, but I remind myself that I have chosen this type of career path, that these challenges come hand in hand with it, and that I am willing to deal with the difficult parts because the upsides of it are worth it for now. 

When do you feel your most inspired? 

It’s difficult to pinpoint any single or specific moments, as my inspiration seems to strike quite randomly.  A lot of the time though, I am working on a project with a brief or with supporting material, so it’s not so much about inspiration striking, but more about generating it by digesting the brief, researching and experimenting. Perhaps when there is a concrete deadline, or when I am quite alert and active, my brain works faster on a creative level. 

However, I do tend to have great ideas for a future project lying in bed, when falling asleep at night, and then strain to remember them clearly in the morning. 

Dream project?

I’d love to do an art residency one day in a country I don’t know much about. Where and what I would produce, though, remain quite abstract. 

Best advice anyone has given you about pursuing your dreams?

 “I’ve often been told about (and witnessed in others pursuing their dreams/goals) the importance of perseverance.“

But I’ve also been told and have noticed to be true, that when one arrives to the dream, it’s never quite what we thought it would be like, and that another dream forms immediately to take its place. So basically, the pursuit never ends.

If you could have dinner with any artist past or present who would it be? Where would you go?

There is this beautiful restaurant in Barcelona called Els Quatre Gats—the four cats—with painted and tiled walls. It became famous for being the meeting point of many artists like Picasso and Gaudi, but I would love to have dinner there with Leonard Cohen. 

You can see more of Miki’s work:http://www.mikilowe.com