Alden S. Hicks (ASH): Are you painting right now?

Alexandra J. Karalash (AJK): Yeah. I am. I've been really not getting along with her, but we're getting along now.

ASH: Oh, good. Wait. She's cute. Who is she?

AJK: Brigitte Bardot.

ASH: Oh, Brigitte Bardot.

AJK: Brigitte.

ASH: Of course.

AJK: Of course.

ASH: Okay, so I would love to start with you. And I wanna know about you as a person, but I also wanna know about your art and where you started with it. Do you have a first memory of doing art?

AJK: I feel like what's funny actually, I was just in Tahoe, and my mom showed me this random scrapbook that I had glued in shit. Random pictures, that was the first half of the scrapbook. But then the back half, I must have been mood boarding or something because I used to always wanna redo my room. And my mom was like, yeah, you've always been a little weird. You've always had that weird eye. I looked at it and it was weird. I was just like, what on earth? But I feel I used to always draw rooms. Oddly. I used to think I wanted to be, like, an interior designer. At one point, but that is way too much for me.

ASH: You could totally do that.

AJK: No. God. No.

ASH: Was it the view of being in the room or, the architecture, or top down?

AJK: No. No. Not even anything that high level. It would be a little cafe or pullouts from magazines and then drawings of the kind of lights that I wanted. I wanted those hanging lights.

ASH: You know what's funny is I saw something the other day that was, like, if you're into art, you are typically into fashion. You're typically into design. You're into interior decorating. And I think it's more of just you have this eye for wanting something to look good. And for detail.

AJK: Yeah. Yeah. Totally.

ASH: And I feel like you kind of encompass a lot of that. I would say your style in art is very distinct. Your style in clothing is very distinct. Your style in decor is very distinct.

AJK: Did I tell you that my apartment right now is accidentally jungle themed… but Amanda [my friend] said she didn’t notice it until I pointed it out, so that’s good.

ASH: See, it's your eye for design. Okay. Well, so now that you look back on some of the early work that you've done, do you wonder why I did that or some of this stems into what I'm doing now, or is all of it disconnected?

AJK: Funny enough, I actually texted my dad for a picture of it, I'll send it to you. But the first, big canvas painting I ever did, it was a girl that didn't have a face. But there was, like, stuff in it [the face]. It was in high school in art class. And it was [inspired by] this artist – I can't remember her name, but she's this collage artist. And I saw her stuff, and I thought it was really cool.

ASH: I feel like the theme in your high school art or at least the common thread was those crazy eyeballs.

AJK: Yeah. Yeah. For sure. They all had those crazy eyes. And I always did interiors because I hated painting landscapes. I've just I have never been good at it. Maybe I just always have loved interiors. I don't know.

ASH: I was thinking about this the other day. Some of the art that we worked on even together in Nashville, you had those crazy eyes. And then you went no eyeballs at all – no face at all.

AJK: I know. And it's funny because it was like that's just how I paint eyes. I think I'm just so bad at painting eyes, so they look crazy.

ASH: So then going into the work that you have now do you feel like you pull from a lot of what you learned in high school? The hair is the exact same style. And the fact that this is the same shape and profile of your other pieces is crazy.

AJK: It's funny. I guess I pull, like, the techniques. But I don't know. I mean, it was school, so it was graded, obviously. Just having to have certain parameters around it. You know? But I get it. I mean, it literally it teaches you how to paint when you learn like that. I feel like it literally was just I love painting hair, and I hate painting skin. So that was genuinely part of it. And they have more personality, I feel like, these girls.

ASH: Why do you think that is? Like, even without their faces, their personality can really shine through, which is interesting. And where do you come up with your phrases?

AJK: I have a list in my phone of when people or when friends say something funny or, in a book if it's something funny or in music or whatever it may be. I just have kind of have a running list of them. I'll usually have a certain idea of the saying for the girl, but then, like, once I finish her, sometimes it'll change. And then yeah. That's kind of part of their personality.

ASH: I guess with art, where do you see it going? Why do you do what you do?

AJK: I don't know. I feel like it's good to have, like, a creative outlet in a different way. But honestly I don't know where it'll go.

ASH: Okay. Well, one question I am actually very intrigued about is when you are working with these high profile artists, and sort of seeing them be so successful in their craft and also be so confident in what they're doing. I'm just intrigued what have you learned from being around people like that?

AJK: I feel like the biggest thing I've learned from working with them is definitely just the more authentic you are, and you stay true to your authenticity that will always make you the most successful because nobody can copy your point of view. You know? And if I think about the artists that I work with that I admire the most, they're so authentic in everything from their music to who they are as a person, it's all cohesive. It's also just cool to have a job that does see people that are so creative and able to be so successful opt their creativity in all different forms. I mean, whether that be, like, Tiffany, the stylist I work for or the artist themselves that are making music or photographers or makeup artists and hairstylists, all that, like, it's just cool to see everyone's point of view. And especially when it comes together on a project, like, how people can interpret interpret one thing, and it's all collaborative. That's always been cool to me. That's what I like about being in that field.

ASH: One thing you mentioned about the people that you do hang out with and how they are authentic in all the different facets of their lives. Do you feel like you try and do that?

AJK: Do I try to be authentic? Yeah. I don't know if it's in intentional. I definitely – I'm not good at pretending to be something that I'm not. I just I'm not good at – I guess I'm not very good at conforming to things. I've always just done what I wanna do.

ASH: If you could talk to your collectors directly, who would you want them to be? Like, if you could describe your ideal collector, who is it?

AJK: Oh my gosh. I don't know. I feel like it's cool women that are successful and, like, know who they are. Yeah. I feel like it's definitely art for the girlies. And it's I don't know. It's basically – I think it's meant to make you feel good, and it can be deeper if you want it to, but it's also at the end of the day, it's not that deep. It’s just funny. It's funny, and I think if it connects with you in a deeper way that’s amazing.

Thank you for joining us in this story. We’re grateful you’re part of this collective.

Faceless Girls

Cacti

Credit the Muse