Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophia Wolfe.
Hi Sophia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a rural town and existed more so in my imagination than in reality. As a lonely only child, I spent all day daydreaming, writing stories, drawing, exploring the hills behind my house, and befriending all the bugs I found along the way. My dreams have always been vivid and bizarre, and I find myself eager to go to sleep to see what kinds of stories and imagery unfold throughout the night.
At seven or eight years old, I started spending hours in the home computer room obsessively googling. What do animals dream about? Do snails fall in love? Can trees talk? The resulting answers would be fascinating research articles and educational YouTube videos. I just love learning the science behind the magic of my world.
I am now a working artist, animator, and filmmaker based in the San Fernando Valley. Much of my work is made in collaboration with the nature that surrounds the Valley, primarily Malibu State Creek Park. These artworks have been featured in over 40 art exhibitions across Southern California and four international film festivals. I am currently finishing up my undergraduate studies at California State University Northridge. I roller skate to class, work at an art gallery, and visit the Creek whenever I can.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I am just 22 years old at the time of writing this and still learning what it means to be a young woman in this frantic world. It is hard living on your own! Juggling full-time school, multiple jobs, roommates, landlords, a complicated love life, and practically living on the 405… Even something as simple as remembering to feed myself was a skill I didn’t realize I lacked.
But, whenever I feel overwhelmed, I turn to visiting the Creek and making art. It always shifts my energy and recenters my focus.
Appreciate you sharing that. How would you describe your work?
My pieces range from experimental animation videos to narrative films to sculptural installations with projected video. I continue to research the workings of our world, just like when I was a little girl, and I explore my curiosities and findings through the process of making my artwork. For example, animating plants allows me to become familiar with their structures and their surroundings, while working with paper puppets for my mathematical film Fantastical Revelations of Art Math and Romance helps me conceptualize two-dimensional realities. The materiality of the presentation is equally considered; Icolette, a film about a girl’s battle with a fish, is presented by projecting the movie onto the surface of a pond. The driving force behind every work is a curiosity about our natural world that compels me to explore it scientifically and creatively.
I am proud of my unique quality to push my projects beyond the expected. For example, Icolette began as a short film co-directed with my good friend Christopher Powers. The Icolette Premiere was a theatrical release that served as a community event, bringing local artists together to celebrate our recent projects with a curated show lineup. Then, I made the Icolette Pond, an installation suited for a gallery space, turning the movie into an immersive and interactive sculpture. My future projects will all have similar levels of expansion.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
The only thing we have in this world is the connections that we make. Friendship, family, mentorship, collaboration, networking, these all are essential to fostering a fulfilling life. It goes beyond human connections. The breeze upon your flushed cheeks, the invisible tether between your eyes and the beautiful cloud formations above, the thoughts that your brain creates, the blood’s dance through the heart, the relationship between you and the ladybug that has landed on your shoulder… These connections are just as important. Open yourself to beyond the human world, pay attention to your reality and how far it truly reaches. Life is magical; all one must do to unlock it is notice it!
Contact Info:
- Website: sophiawolfestudio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sophiawolfestudio/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPKno9ohKAp8iBSksTg0dyQ
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4og5VZCawk
Image Credits
Christopher Powers
