20 Facts about the Artist GinAngieLa
“An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art.” This is how Wikipedia defines an artist. These are surely some facts about being an artist, but there’s always a person behind every artist.
If you’d like to find out more about myself as a person, then here I have 20 facts about the artist GinAngieLa for you!
To learn 10 facts about the art that I make, check out my 10 Reasons Why I Like Digital Art.
Fact #1 about the artist
I love parrots and parakeets and have two mini-parrots (aka budgies) myself.
My dad used to have pigeons since I was born, so the liking for little creatures that can fly must be a family thing. 😃 My two budgerigars are called ‘you two little cuties’ and I can just watch them for hours and hours cuz they are so cute and funny, and they always make me laugh!
Fact #1 about the artist
I grew up right by a forest.
Even though I’m living in a city, there’s a huge forest right behind our house. I used to play there a lot when I was a kid, climbing on trees, building wood houses, and playing hide-and-seek with other kids. This is probably what woke my love for nature. Forests, meadows, and nature in general still plays an important part in my life today. I believe this is also the reason why I love to photograph nature and include elements of nature in many of my surreal works.
Fact #3 about the artist
I’m a vegan.
Yeah. I never thought this was ever going to happen. But yeah. Over quite a bit of a transitioning period, I went vegan around three years ago and it’s absolutely great. Letting go of ice cream, cakes, and cheeses was quite a ride and it’s definitely not easy (just look up casomorphines). But I made it. And if I can, you can do it, too, if you wish to. I educated myself a lot about nutrition, factory farming and the impacts on the planet. And then I went vegan – for health and for ethical reasons. There are lots of amazing vegan foods (including vegan nice-cream) and it’s so much more healthy. It’s good for you, for the planet, and the animals.
Fact #4 about the artist
I’ve learned 6 languages and speak three of them fluently.
Languages were my first love (my second love is arts). When I started to learn foreign languages in school, I absolutely loved it. French became my favorite, and then English. I made languages my job, and now I’ve made art my second job. That being so, I guess I am one of the lucky ones who have two dream jobs… 😍 Yeah, English is not my native. But after loooong years of learning, a lot of hard work, and lots of practice it feels like my second native language. 😉
Fact #5 about the artist
I’ve traveled to 17 countries so far and worked in three of them for several years.
Something I would not have thought possible, too. At one point, I decided to break free from my daily routine, my usual work, and my home country. I came to think that the world is too big to just live in one country for the rest of my life. So I decided to go and work in a foreign country for maybe… a year, I thought. This year turned into ten years of traveling and working in three different countries. I’m very happy that I made that step. The experiences are priceless. It’s so good to live in different cultures, it really broadens your horizons.
Fact #6 about the artist
I prefer beach and ocean over mountains and snow.
I’m the typical beach person. I love sunshine, sand, and the ocean. I love taking long walks at the beach, a quick swim from time to time, sunbathing, and jet-skiiing for hours. On the other hand, I simply cannot make friends with mountains and snow. Too cold. Too steep. The only place where I liked mountains and snow was Beirut, because there you have both of them – beach and ocean on the one side and mountains and snow on the other side. If that’s the case, I’m pretty much ok with a quick hike and some random snowflakes… 😌
Fact #7 about the artist
I’ve learned digital art completely on my own.
I never went to art school, and I don’t want to. I kind of stumbled into digital art (to learn more about my journey, check out the 10 Reasons Why I Like Digital Art) and I enjoyed the process of learning immensely. While I was first just trying out stuff on my own, I later on started to go through Photoshop tutorials and deepen my knowledge of different editing techniques. Nowadays, I make Photoshop tutorials myself, hoping to be able to help new artists learn the craft. The type of art that I’ve come to enjoy the most over the years is surreal art. In my Surreal Stories, I like to create things that don’t (and cannot) exist. I don’t think of my art to be ‘nice’ or ‘happy’ art. There’s always a touch of the dark and bizarre…
Check out some of my creations:
Fact #8 about the artist
I’ve come to appreciate automatic cars during my travels.
The first time I got to drive an automatic car was when I started traveling. In my country, more than 80 percent of the people used to have stick shift cars. I learned to drive stick shift when I went to driving school, and getting an automatic car was somewhat out of the question. But… once you drive an automatic car, you never go back. Haha! It’s sooo comfortable. I wonder why people drive stick shift at all?! My next car will be an automatic as well!
Fact #9 about the artist
I used to be addicted to coffee.
I used to drink sooo much coffee. Like my favorite drink was coffee. I had coffee when I got up, I had coffee when I was working, and of course I had coffee when I was creating art! And believe it or not… I sometimes even had coffee when I went to a club 😆 I loved Starbucks a lot, and my favorite was black coffee with a straw. Haha! I still do that from time to time, but I cut down on coffee a lot. Nowadays, I go with one coffee a day for breakfast, or even no coffee at all. Way healthier.
Fact #10 about the artist
I was a gym rat for about 7 years.
I started going to the gym when I was about 16 years of age – and I still like going there. But in between, I had a period where I really took it to the edge. I used to work out five or six days a week, I took all these protein and keratin powders (no juice – just legit stuff), and I loved to lift heavy… and had fun with it. 😄 Well, nothing wrong with going to the gym and working out, I’m just not doing it so often anymore.
Fact #11 about the artist
I believe in the law of attraction and manifestation.
One day, my friend Sofia asked me: ‘Do you know Abraham Hicks? You should listen to them, you’ll love it!’ I didn’t know anything about Abraham Hicks and didn’t understand how Abraham Hicks could be a ‘them‘. Still, I looked them up quite grudgingly and listened to one of her speeches, and then to another speech, and another one… And then I saw that it actually makes sense. I’ve been manifesting things all my life – just without knowing it. I dived deeper into the law of attraction, read about it and listened to podcasts. And yes, it works! Abraham Hicks have become some of my favorite authors (my friend was right!), and I also like Dr. Joseph Murphy and Wallace D. Wattles, among others.
Fact #12 about the artist
I believe that freedom is the ultimate state of humanity and every living creature in general.
I’m actually quite astonished that some people don’t seem to see that yet. All human beings strive for freedom, and will ultimately be free. Just take a look back in history. The ancient GDR and Soviet Union, Mahatma Ghandi, and so on. All these people were seeking freedom. Also something about manifestation: you cannot manifest what you don’t want, you can only manifest what you do want. Always focus on what you want. 😊
Fact #13 about the artist
I hate reversing into parking spaces.
This is something that even automatic cars cannot fix. 😂 I never liked reversing into parking spaces – since I was in driving school. No matter how much practice, no matter how big the parking space, no matter how small the car… I’m pretty sure I will never be keen on driving backwards into parking spaces. What I like best is driving straight into a parking space, and driving straight out of it – which requires the parking space right opposite to be empty… 😏
Fact #14 about the artist
My all-time favorite singer is Mylène Farmer.
I discovered Mylène Farmer when I was still at school and my favorite subject was French. I randomly went into a music store, looking around for some new songs to listen to. That was back in the day, when music CDs were still being sold. I sifted through a couple of CDs and suddenly noticed this lady with the ginger hair on the cover of one of the disks. That somehow grabbed my interest. Upon a closer look, I saw that the name of the singer and the title of the CD (‘Ainsi Sois-Je’) were French. ‘My favorite subject is French, but I don’t know any French music at all. So why not try it?’, I thought to myself. I bought the CD and found the one singer who is still my favorite today!
Fact #15 about the artist
I’m a night owl by nature.
My natural biological rhythm is somewhat upside down. If I could, I would stay up almost all night and sleep half of the day all my life. Whenever I can, I am doing it like that. I’m way more productive when I can work at night (and I enjoy it way more than working during daytime). When I was a student, I wrote most of my thesis at nighttime… and by the way, I also put a lot of nighttime work into this website as well. Not the worst thing one can do, I guess…
Fact #16 about the artist
I like futon beds and sushi.
Two things from Japan – probably a good reason to make my next travel stop Japan. I haven’t been there so far. Futon beds are cool because they are low and I like to sleep close to the ground. I also like them because they are pretty hard, which is healthy for the back. And sushi just tastes good… Unfortunately, sushi is still quite expensive everywhere outside Asia, but I’ve learned to make it myself (of course I’m making vegan sushi since I went vegan). So even if my sushi rolls may look a bit awkward, they are yummy!
Fact #17 about the artist
My favorite plants are bonsais and palm trees.
Small bonsais and huge palm trees – can it be any more opposite? I like bonsais because they are so small and cute. They are also from Japan and I somehow connect them with Buddhism. For me, they radiate this calming zen feeling… And palm trees, I like them because they remind me of the beach and the ocean! There are some palm trees that you can even grow in your garden or have on your balcony in cooler countries. Once you have a palm tree in your room or around your house, I think everything feels more sunny and bright immediately!
Fact #18 about the artist
Every morning I do 6 surya namaskar.
‘What? She’s doing what in the morning?’ Surya namaskar is the sun salutation in yoga. I’ve been practicing yoga since I was around 20 years of age, and I’m still doing it today. I didn’t use to do sun salutations. I would practice Ashtanga Yoga in the evening, the standing and the sitting sequence. But a couple of years ago, I decided that’s it’s probably better to stretch your body in the morning, too. Since then, I’ve been doing 6 surya namaskar each morning – and believe me, it’s so good for the body. You are getting more flexible over time, and you’re feeling more energized and ready for the day!
Fact #19 about the artist
I meditate twice a day.
I was trying to make meditation part of my day for a couple of years before it really worked. Basically, meditation is all about sitting still and not thinking about anything for a while. Sounds pretty simple? Well, at the beginning, I wasn’t able to calm my mind at all, and it didn’t really feel relaxing. It was rather like trying hard to relax… But for some reason, I didn’t want to do without meditation, so I didn’t give up and went on trying. I also can’t let go of the notion that meditation needs to be done in the real meditation sitting position, the lotus seat. So I started sitting cross-legged. Now I can sit for around 15-20 minutes in the half lotus seat and I’ve come to enjoy the benefits of meditation. It helps calm your mind and get ready for the day or ready for sleep. And especially, when I’m not thinking of anything, that’s when the inspiration to create art comes…
Fact #20 about the artist
I like to watch zombie movies.
Last one of the 20 facts about the artist: I somehow have an inclination to zombie movies. 20 Weeks Later, World War Z, The Girl with all the Gifts, The Rezort, Extinction – you name it, I’ve watched them all. Why do I like zombie movies? Because when you walk out of the door, you can think: ‘Aww. No zombies. What a beautiful life…!’ 😃 Just kidding. But my real two favorite movies are actually Avatar and Apocalypto.
View some of my Art Collections:
These were 20 facts about the artist GinAngieLa. I hope you got to know me a bit better. Let’s mingle a bit. Give me feedback, or let me know some facts about yourself being an artist!
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