Today we’d like to introduce you to Sophie Roessler.
Hi Sophie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started taking drawing seriously in high school because I wanted to be a fashion designer and needed to learn how to sketch my ideas. I slowly lost interest in sewing and spent a lot of time reading underground comics in my parent’s basement and started emulating that style of line work. I went to art school because I knew if I went to a state school, I’d end up dropping out. In college, I focused on printmaking, which is also drawing-based. It’s the medium that feels the most natural to me, I love the immediacy of it. I’ve been playing with different ways of mark-making since then.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t been ideal. It’s hard to keep up an art practice when you’re working full time, especially jobs like retail when you’re on your feet all day. Right now I have a really good work/make balance where I promise myself I’ll draw for two hours every day. Two hours is really manageable, and while I end up doing it only three or four days a week, before you know it you have finished a new piece.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I like to describe my work as a teenage fever dream. The adolescent girl’s world is filled with crushes, yearning, escapism, sadness, angst, and rage. It’s a tightrope walk, a radical ambivalence. The works are a stylized childlike fantasy, the emancipation of the teenage spirit through dark humor. I capture these feelings of confusion within my drawings through a personal collection of iconography extracted from popular culture. My work isn’t exactly mainstream, so I’ve had to figure out who the audience is that likes my art. If you didn’t fit in in high school, or if you like underground comics you’ll probably like my drawings.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Put in as much time as you can into it. Even though it’s a creative pursuit, you still need a lot of discipline. Build a community with other artists who support each other.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.sophieroessler.com
- Instagram: @fakesophie
