Paolo Puck
British born but currently residing in the US, artist Paolo Puck’s enchanting and bizarre felted sculptures bring to mind fairytales or ancient fables. Here, Paolo’s gracious and honest responses shine light not only on pieces of his process but also the reality of surviving as a working artist: “It’s a wonderful and magical thing to take something that only existed in your mind and make it real for everyone to see. I feel proud that I’ve developed the skills to bring that about successfully and the imagination to make intriguing work.” Additionally, I love his big dream: “I want to live in the woods and grow fruit trees and make big sculptures for moss to grow on.”
How would you describe what you do?
I usually just say, “I mostly make big fluffy heads”, and then show some pictures.
When is a time you felt really successful? Or a time you felt like you failed?
I feel successful looking at my work and thinking to myself, yeah that’s exactly how I’d imagined it. It’s a wonderful and magical thing to take something that only existed in your mind and make it real for everyone to see. I feel proud that I’ve developed the skills to bring that about successfully and the imagination to make intriguing work.
As far as times I felt like I failed, last year was difficult for me. I felt guilty because I was earning so little while my partner was working a low wage and exhausting job to keep us afloat. I lost faith in myself for a while and started looking for work elsewhere. I thought seriously about giving up on my artistic career and just doing it as a hobby. My partner is a star and never stopped believing in me. I kept trying and things came round after I changed the way I did things, and some good opportunities came my way too.
What is your biggest struggle as a person in creative industry?
Figuring out how to get above the poverty line as an artist. Showing my large sculptures somewhere.
How do you motivate yourself to actually get things done and/or maintain some level of productivity?
Deadlines are good for me. I’m naturally all over the place and I start a ridiculous amount of projects that don’t get/haven’t currently been finished. I know that’s pretty normal for artists, but I suspect I’m a lot worse than average. I recently read an article on adult ADHD and said to my partner, “ I think I might have that.” She said, “Well, yeah! What did the article say?” But I got distracted and never finished reading it.
How do you manage the internet/social media?
Honestly, I don’t do too much. I ignored all that advice you find about posting all the time. I mostly keep myself to myself, and I’m pretty intimidated by how many followers I have! It’s almost like I get social (media) anxiety about posting, so maybe I’m less silly and carefree than I’d like to be. I really like making friends with other artists on social media though, and that’s been the most exciting and surreal thing for me. I’ve got to chat with artists I’ve admired for years.
What’s your big dream? Do you have one? How do you set goals/set yourself up to achieve?
I want to live in the woods and grow fruit trees and make big sculptures for moss to grow on.
How do you deal with people not liking you, liking your ideas or being jealous of you?
At times I can be a bit of a sensitive soul when it comes to that. Other times, I’m unfazed and think the criticism can be fun, especially the weird comments I get from time to time. My work involves mixing the ugly and beautiful, so it’s always nice to see that a piece I make can be described as either one of those things by different people. One thing that did hurt me personally is that when my work started to get more attention, I really didn’t have many close friends who were rooting for me. The opposite in fact, I noticed that things soured with some friends and I didn’t really know how to fix that, other than giving people space and time.
For more of Paolo you can check out his website or follow him on instagram