meet art wall artist: mina georgescu of depuis

Just in time for a little beach weather. Mina Georgescu is the creator of these lovelies, and she's the mastermind behind the Depuis shop. Looking for something summery to go along with this spring weather? Search no more.

(AW) First things first: the colors, oh the colors! how do you do it? You mentioned a plastic panoramic camera from girlhood in your artist bio...do you still put that to use?

(MG) It's a combination of darkroom techniques and digital painting, I probably break all the rules in the book and I'm ok with it. The end result is what matters to me. My plastic panoramic camera...sigh...it drowned, poor thing. But it was the best gift I ever got and it holds a special place in my heart.

(AW) What inspires you to click the shutter and capture something on film or digitally?

(MG) It's not always the same thing, I also have a love-hate relationship with my cameras so I'm not always strapped to them when you see me about town. I guess its like a calling, I love hunting for places that I think are magical. Sometimes I come home with no game but...other times I come home with enough to keep me busy for weeks, you just never know. Coney Island has been a great inspiration lately, it's just one of those places...it also reminds me of home and the Black Sea.

(AW) Have you always been a photographer?

(MG) The term photographer doesn't really describe me at all. I spent my entire life capturing moods, awkward family moments, places I've seen and almost everything else around me. I have a small collection of vintage and digital cameras and I've used all of them and still do. If I were to come up with something more descriptive I would call myself a visual interpreter...hey that sounds pretty good. I do it for the love of it, don't consider it my job, don't plan to be creative and don't give myself deadlines on when to finish a project because I can't control my creative mood. Did that even answer the question?

(AW) Ha, yes! Spoken like a true artist. Could you talk a bit about marketing vs. making, and how it effects your work, or doesn't?

(MG) Spring, summer, and fall are when I am most inspired and most creative, so I'm left with winter for the more cerebral part of being an independent artist which is marketing. But I guess you have to do a little bit of marketing on a weekly basis, being on your own as an artist is not easy; nobody is going to know who you are or what you do if you don't put your work out there and promote it a little bit. I hope I'm going to reach a point when everything is going to grow organically but I'm far from it. I have to say, though, that with all these wonderful online galleries I feel like there's hope for the independent artist that has little to no budget at all for advertising.

(AW) Who inspires you most of all?

(MG) My mom was my biggest inspiration growing up. I was fascinated by how crafty she is; my earliest memories are of her hands doing stuff like measuring and cutting fabric, sewing, tying my shoelaces in the pretties bow. Also Lucas, my extremely talented and endlessly creative husband, is also one of my inspirations. He pushed me to go public with my works and to stop hiding them from the world, and I am glad he did. It's been a fun and interesting ride so far.

(AW) Well, cheers to Lucas for that one. We're glad he nudged you, too.

Depuis's "Summer Fun" can be found in Art Wall's Nursery. The entire collection can be viewed in the Depuis Etsy shop. More photographs can be found in Mina's Flickr photostream. She also authors a blog, tweets, and has a facebook page.