Discovering Art | Sofia Sousa

At Beyond Snapshots we recognize photography as an art form, connecting people all over the world. We also celebrate art in many forms and want to go BEYOND photography, and bring you inspiration from many different areas. ‘Discovering Art’ is what we hope will be the beginning of a new monthly feature for us. Our goal is to bring you art, not only in photography, but through other mediums.

You may recall us posting pictures of hand-painted cameras on our Facebook wall and Twitter, by Sofia Sousa, an artist we discovered on Etsy. If you have fallen in love with her creative designs, then you will also fall for her beautiful sketches and illustrations. We are excited to have Sofia be the first artist featured in this particular blog series, and we hope you are to.

To celebrate, Sofia is generously giving away one of her cameras (your choice!) to a lucky reader. To enter, please like her on Facebook and comment on the post below. We will randomly draw a person’s name to receive this awesome prize, on Wednesday, June 13th.

WANTED! If you are an artist who is creating art using photography with another medium and would like to be featured, contact us!

Sofia Sousa | www.sofiasousa.com

Where are you from and where do you currently live?
I was born in Portugal but I’m currently residing in London.

What’s your art background?
Since early I knew that my life would be surrounded by art, either by singing, drawing or dancing. I’ve always liked simple and different things and I’ve been drawing shapes with lines using black pens. I’m in love with patterns for as long as I’ve known myself and that’s where I’ve based my techniques on. Later on I graduated in Communication Design, in Porto and worked in that area for the following couple of years.

How is your art connected to photography?
Photography is another passion of mine, I love keeping memories of my “history”, and on the other hand I like to experiment and try different things.

What inspired you to create these cameras?
One day the idea of painting these underwater cameras just popped in my mind. I tried on one I had, everyone loved the result, and I began to paint and sell more and more.

What is integral to the work of an artist?
I think it’s fundamental for an artist to develop a unique style, be creative and try to surprise people.

What role, do you feel, an artist has in society?
From my point of view, the job of each artist is to make others a tiny bit happier, by expressing and sharing the beauty we see in the world and in ourselves.

What type of art do you most identify with?
Feminine, romantic and passionate patterns always touch me the deepest.

What work do you most enjoy doing?
I really love to find and be inspired by patterns I find in the environment, and then apply them into something completely unrelated. One of my favourite patterns was inspired by a bath sponge.

What is your strongest memory of your childhood?
It was definitely when I was told that my sister had been born!

What is your favorite art work?
Everything Mucha! It feels like a rebirth of life’s exotic beauty, sensuality and magic, in every drawing.

What inspirational to you?
Because is like a reborn of beautiful, exotic, sensual, and magic things in life in one drawing.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
I work as a freelance Communication Designer doing corporate image, catalogues, print layouts and alike.

What food, drink, song inspires you?
A have a few bands and musicians that always inspire me, such as Muse, Lissie, Nouvelle Vague and Dido, and perhaps even more some portuguese ones, like David Fonseca, Ornatos Violeta and Rita Redshoes, which I totally recommend listening to!

What is your dream project?
My dream project is to be able to make and sell my own things, on my own shop and to inspire people with them!

Name three artists you’d like to be compared to.
Honestly I wouldn’t like to be compared to any other artist, as we are all different and unique, but there are several artists that inspire me. Some of these are Alphonse Mucha, Niki Pilkington, Marynn, Holly Exley, Courtney Brims, Maria Herreros and Mattias Adolfsson.

Favorite or most inspirational place in the world?
My own city! Porto, Portugal!

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
To be positive and believe in myself!

Professionally, what is your goal?
That my work makes someone else’s life a bit happier!