Conversations with Mia Krystyna

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mia Krystyna.

Mia, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
It all began with photography and filmmaking, I started taking pictures and working in various darkrooms over the years producing what I felt was something that felt as close to how I saw the world as possible. I then moved into sculpture and photography became my vocation, so things shifted a bit but it’s always been more or less my creative North Star. At the moment, I have been shifting focus toward building a business and planting seeds in my own art practice to harvest later on.

Through observation and taking photographs, my life as I know it today has unfolded. Through this initial practice, I’ve gotten to do so many things — for example–I was cast as the lead actor in a 40-minute short film called A Brush of Violence (that just came out on Youtube in March, by the way, definitely go watch it!) because the role was for a film photographer, which I just happened to be. I have gotten to meet and work with amazing people who have subsequently become my closest friends, and I have gotten expressed permission to look at people and experience them in a way that they probably haven’t allowed many if any, others to do. To me, that feels like a great honor and privilege and something I try not to ever take for granted.

That being said, I am at a turning point in my life where I not only want to continue creating for myself but inspire others to create as well in whatever ways I can. I am launching a new project this month called An Interest, which will be a place online where people can come and get inspired to create more through learning about what other artists are doing and have done in the past. I never had a chance to go to art school so during the pandemic, I took time to learn a lot about art history and felt compelled to compile that information and share it online in an organized, relaxing-to-watch way. The channel will explore art, design, materials and the senses and you can find it on Youtube (@AnInterest).

Eventually, I’d like to use it to build community in LA and beyond through sharing not only what people have made in the past but what they’re making now. Doing interviews and showcasing the brilliant creative energy I get to witness by being a part of this community would be a really gratifying way of giving back what I feel like I’ve received from others who create content like this and just amplifying it all.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Has anyone had a smooth road? Haha. I don’t know, things have been really crazy for everyone, I think on a personal and macroscopic level. I don’t think my road has been any more or less challenging than anyone else’s, but I will say that in terms of where I am now, I have had to try and “fail” about 100 times to even get to this point.

There has definitely been a fearful bone in my body about trying again in these new areas of my own work and of the business I am creating since I feel like now that I am older, I can’t afford to fail anymore. Of course that is not true, but it’s an honest feeling. I think you just have to work past that and ignore the voices of fear and anxiety as much as possible. Also, just like anything else, if you fail enough times, you do become kind of immune to it, which is actually very freeing.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I have done photography, filmmaking, acting and sculpture. I am also currently learning more about the sense of smell and how to incorporate that into an installation or experiential exhibition. I think for me art and the act of creation is a holistic practices. In some way, it’s like taking each part of the body and working on it separately for a while in hopes that one day I will be able to have a more clear picture of the whole. The photography is the eyes, the sculpture is the hands, the smells are the nose, the acting is the emotions, the filmmaking is the stories that bind all of us together collectively. To me, it all flows and makes sense and builds on each other.

What I can see is that we are moving into a very new state as a species, one that is filled with technological advancements and possibility and it’s a very exciting time to be alive and witness. The shadow side to that is there is a tendency to forget who we truly are, which is physical beings here to have a physical experience, so I think in a way my goal is to try to understand eventually how to bring people back into their bodies with my work but still have an experience that is of the now and not contrived through methods of the past that no longer feel like they belong. That’s sort of why I have left film behind, it just doesn’t feel useful anymore. But that’s the challenge of the new wave and the thought process I have at the moment.

So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
So I have a few things going on at the moment, you can always send me an email if you’d like to collaborate in some way ([email protected]); you can subscribe to the new Youtube channel @AnInterest and follow me on Instagram @miakrystyna @an___interest. You watch the film I was in on Youtube called A Brush of Violence, or you can work with me as a creative coach and I can help you with any creative projects you have going on. All of the info for that will be on aninterest.studio or you can simply send me an email if you’re interested.

All the links are here:

IG
@miakrystyna
@aninterest_

Youtube
@AnInterest

Websites
miakrystyna.com (portfolio)
aninte.rest (An Interest landing page)
aninterest.studio (creative coaching landing page)

Contact Info:

• Website: miakrystyna.com
• Instagram: miakrystyna
• Youtube: @AnInterest

Image Credits
(film stills) A Brush of Violence – Daniel Lawrence Wilson, Darren Streibig