Sunny Koch Shares Insight Into Making Unique Art

Today I had the extreme honor of interviewing collage artist, Sunny Koch. Sunny has been a working artist for fifteen years and an illustrator for the past ten years. She believes that success comes in many forms, not just the elusive-or not so elusive-paycheck. To Sunny, success is in the balancing of listening to and hearing one's own intuition, the ability to create, the completion of goals, the making of friendships, and most importantly the ability to make a difference with ones' art-regardless of how large or how small. Today, she's going to share with us what makes a piece of art unique and how we can cope with constructive criticism of one's artwork.

There's a lot of mixed media collage work on the market these days, how do you differentiate yours from the rest? In other words, what do you feel makes your work unique and truly your own?

What makes my collages unique are the subjects, or the themes of the pieces, first and the natural materials I use, second.

I began creating my collage as a need to express myself. I started creating art in my journals when I was around 21 years old. Although I've studied many art mediums, I've never taken a course or class in the collage medium. It developed and unfolded organically. The medium suited me perfectly, working together in its layered manner with my many layered feelings.

At the time I began my collage, I didn't know anybody who created collage besides the masters, like Joseph Cornell and Hannah Hoch. But I didn't search for artists as inspiration, either. I looked inward towards expressing what was happening in my life, and around it.

I have always been inspired by the environment that surrounds me, amongst the wildlife and trees in the Santa Cruz mountains. I studied horticulture at one time, after a love for gardening grew into the possibility of a career. As I began collecting and pressing botanicals, I decided to use them in my collage. I use these natural materials because it's what I know. (When you write, or paint, or collage what you know, it can only be unique and true to yourself.)

Then one day my brother Jonathan Koch (a painter who was working as an illustrator at the time) mentioned that I should give illustration a try too. So I put my work in a directory for illustrators and began receiving calls for illustrations right away.

Art directors would call me for projects, most of them had not worked with a collage artist before and they were not familiar with the process, especially when working with some of the more dimensional materials. But they all mentioned that the reason they chose my work was because of the elegant style, subtle tone, and natural materials I worked with-because at the time it was difficult to find an illustrator who was creating collages with such materials.

So I became known for the natural materials I used, such as pressed botanicals, tree bark, butterfly wings, shells, etc. It is also the reason why my students take my classes: to learn how to incorporate these materials into their collages.

Eventually, I also became known for using antique and vintage ephemera, in my illustrations. I almost completely use materials just in their natural form-as is, without alterations, paint, or techniques. There was an opening for this kind of work because there wasn't a lot of it. As collage, mixed media, scrapbooking, etc. has become more popular, it is common now to see these materials being used often.

Everyone has a different and personal story to tell so although we may have similar materials to work with, everyone's art varies.

As you know, art is very subjective in nature. What some people like, others do not. I'm sure you've received both positive and negative feedback in your career, but what I want to know is how you handle the negative criticism, especially when it hurts deep down within your soul?

I haven't personally had negative criticism regarding my collage but I've had situations where someone just didn't understand it or connect with it. It's not one of the more traditional arts so I often find myself explaining what it is that I do.

As an illustrator, working with art directors, I learned quickly how to accept constructive criticism. With tight deadlines, you can't afford the time to hold onto your ego. I learned how to pull myself away, or detach myself, from the collage being created. It's much easier to do this when it's a collaboration and there's no connection, bond, or personal expression to the collage. You're simply illustrating a concept, a story, or an article.

You also have to offer many ideas and concepts and sometimes the one you like the best doesn't get chosen. And sometimes a not so great idea could lead to another great idea so speaking up is a must.

The part that can be frustrating is when you receive a phone call from an art director who says, "I love your work, BUT..." and then asks, "Can you do it this way?" And "this way" is completely not your way. It's another style altogether. I think the more you know yourself as an artist, and feel confident in who you are as an artist and the work you produce, you can overlook the hurtful or negative situations and focus only on the positive.

Just this year, my first book was published, Vintage Collage-Works, which was a collaboration with my artist mother, Maryjo Koch-who has over a dozen books published. The book reviews will be another level of criticism, hopefully good, but you never know. I teeter-totter back and forth regarding whether I should read the reviews but then I remind myself that it's only a matter of opinion and everyone has a right to their opinion.

You just have to hope that the same level of thought and care that you put into creating your artwork goes into critiquing it. As an artist, you step in knowing that you may feel vulnerable, you take that risk or you don't. You have to make a conscious choice that allows the positive experiences to over shadow the negative ones.

What's the coolest art tip you've ever received?

In terms of technique tips, I'm not much of a technique girl. I love tools. One of my favorite tools is a very simple one inspired from book makers: a brick covered with paper. This covered brick is used to weight down paper ephemera after it has been glued so that it doesn't pull up or wrinkle while it dries. It's such a simple thing, but we use it so often! There are a stack of these bricks in the studio ready to help out.

In terms of inspirational tips, I love the one about asking yourself "How can I help people using my talent?" I think that your passion becomes successful when you're sharing and helping-in even the smallest way.

Visit her at http://kochstudios.com/ or stop by my blog to read my review of her book, Vintage Collage-Works at http://www.alyiceedrich.com/2008/11/20/vintage-collage

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