Renoir, Renaissance, and Marriage to Khalil? Lola Talks Art History

We’ve got one final “meet the team” post with the questions you’ve seen time and time again. This time, Lola is center stage.

Q: What made you join 3PP

A: It was a concoction of things, I believe. I used to work as a journalist in my high school magazine and it was such a great formative experience for me. Later on, I did think I would study Journalism, as it is something that I felt I’d enjoy immensely, and it seems like it would gel well with my personality. However, I did and still do have lots of interests. So, I ended up studying languages and their respective literature. Another important reason to join as an editor was the topic of this wonderful magazine—art. I am simply taken by art in any form and feel it deeply. I don’t know if one is born that way, or we acquire it growing up, but I was always into art. Whether it’s in the form of music, paintings, poetry, sculpture…. It’ll steal my attention. Long story short—this magazine is right up my alley.

Q: What’s your favorite art period? why ?

A: Now we’re getting to a good part. :) I am absolutely always and forever taken by Impressionism, it just does something to me emotionally. The beauty of colors and the light, hope and love, playfulness just jumps out towards me and pulls me into those paintings. It becomes alive to me. I was never happier than when I visited Renoir’s house in Montmartre in Paris. First of all, I am in desperate love with Montmartre, I don't even care about the rest of Paris, y’all can have it. Montmartre is where it’s at for me…but to be in the same place where Renoir actually created some of the pieces was extremely meaningful to me. I know his paintings so well and some of those paintings were made in the backyard of that house and I could find the exact spot where the subject was standing and where Renoir was standing painting it. It was such a surreal moment for me. I've spent years and years looking at his paintings and living in his little bright world and suddenly was transported to the origin of that particular painting. Perhaps this is what people feel when they're meeting celebrities. I don’t usually get starstruck, many are not nice nor kind people anyway, but Renoir was my celebrity, I guess! That experience did leave me speechless. Apart from Impressionism, I do enjoy the drama of the Renaissance. Creativity will always catch my attention.

Q: Why is art history important today?

A: Art history connects us to the past which is rich in so many ways. It offers a unique perspective of how people lived, thought, taught and breathed. We often have this depiction in our minds that people from the past are some kind of neanderthals and were not as intelligent. Show me one art era that was more inspired, spiritual, explosive, breathtaking than the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. We are talking about one strip in time where people were supposedly savages, unhygienic, crude, no mannerism, etc…. yet we witness the most beautiful pieces in both architecture and paintings. Something’s truly amiss with that. History is not, perhaps, as clear as we were taught it to be. To compare it to nowadays when we are supposedly ahead in so many ways, art is often devoid of that capturing beauty. It still exists, but not on the level of dark ages and especially not the Renaissance.

Q: What are you doing when you are not working on things for 3PP?

A: That’s a solid question which really depends on the time of the season we’re referring to. I do write poems and dabble in other creative stuff like painting, drawing, playing with polymer clay. I'm a pretty active person so I walk a lot and go to the gym several times a week. Read books. Occasionally, you’ll find me in pottery cafes where they let me play. I spend a lot of time with kids, too. Well, one at a time because one child is delightful, but a group of kids is a migraine 😀 (prove me otherwise). At this very moment I reside in Los Angeles so my scope of exploring exploded massively in various directions. I’m learning new layers of myself, remembering some other layers that I've forgotten about, too. It’s been magical so far, I feel like I live in some fairy tale for real.

Q: This or that? Explain why.

A: I’m sorry, but this is Sophie’s choice for me.

Picasso or Van Gogh:

I guess I'll go with Picasso because he was quite mental in his art expression and I'm fond of his abstract era and misshapen heads and bright colors. Van Gogh is wonderful but many people forget, or perhaps are not aware, that he had an extremely dark period, and most of his paintings was occupied by his depression and feeling inadequate. But if we are focusing on his brighter period, absolutely wonderful. His dark era was too dark for me.

Monet or Manet:

Monet and Manet are both closet to my heart.

Monet for his softness and romanticism. I know he is an Impressionist but Impressionism and Modernism were natural evolutions of Romanticism, and I experience his paintings through my romantic eyes.

Manet for being daring and the leader of the avant-garde. Just a bold guy who did what he wanted, I respect that. 

Both are spectacular in their own ways.

Dadaism or Futurism:

Futurism is more my beat. Dadaism is too busy for me, although I can appreciate some pieces for sure.

Rococo or Surrealism:

Oh my goodness, Surrealism is my go to. Magritte is one of my favorites along with Hundertwasser. Also Dali, vehement, humorous Dali, he was off the rails in a good way.. Joan Miro, rebellious Leonora Carrington had some really great surrealist mythological expressions. One of my dearest ones is Hundertwasser, he didn't adhere to any labels but he is so organically surreal. If you get a chance, visit his striking building called Hundertwasserhaus (Hundertwasser House) in Vienna. He was an architect and a painter. I discovered him when I was around 14 years old and my love for him hasn't waned, I marvel at it to this day.

Q: What is something we don’t know about you?

A: I am ambidextrous. Is that enough? 😂

I’m like crazy intuitive, I will always find things out without even trying. That one is super-useful.

Q: What’s a fun random art history fact that you love?

A: The couple in the famous American Gothic painting (which I was thrilled to see in Chicago in February) were Grant Woods’ sister and his dentist, and I just found this to be so funny and random. Granted, I have a good relationship with my dentist but never imagined asking her to pose for any of my paintings, perhaps I should consider. 

Another one would be that the radical change in Picasso’s style (somewhere in the mid 1950s, if I’m not wrong) was most likely induced by a rare form of migraine which caused visual distortions that were recognisably the same in other patients that suffered from the alleged migraine.

Q: If you could have lunch with one artist, living or dead, who would it be? Why? What’s the one thing you would ask?

A: Presumably Renoir. Would be lovely to meet the soul behind his work. 

But, I would actually really enjoy sitting down and conversing with Kahlil Gibran. 

The Poet  who talks to hearts.

We seem to have similar sensibility and sensitivity, or something along those lines. I understand every single word he’s saying and it resonates deeply on a soul level. I think the two of us would have majestic conversations and I would probably end up falling in love with him haha (let me just pull up his picture real quick) 😂 Nah, not according to pics , but “beauty is not in the face, beauty is a light in the heart”, as the man himself said long ago.

He was from Lebanon but he also lived in the US. See, you cannot beat an Arabic person when it comes to poetry and forming unbelievable statements. They have the flair, they are so overly-dramatic. There is no dry “i love you”, there’s “I would kill every single living being, I would lasso the moon for you, i would carry you to a well full of honey and dip your feet in it and i would brush your hair whilst feeding you figs” types of statements. You know what I mean? Guys used to go to wars to win our love, nowadays they can't shoot you a sensible direct message. We’re constantly heyheying in the DMs. Anyway, Kahlil Gibran for the win.

Thank you for these thoughtful responses, Lola! This concludes our series on meeting the team. Please check out some of our other blogs while you’re here.