Interview: Diving Below the Surface of Sonia Alin’s Intriguing “Water Women”

The open water is full of con­tra­dic­tions. It can be a site of rebirth or intense dis­tress; the same place that deliv­ers an idyl­lic calm can become instant­ly tem­pes­tu­ous. Because of its con­flict­ing nature, every­one’s rela­tion­ship to the water is dif­fer­ent. Illus­tra­tor Sonia Alins touch­es on these unique con­nec­tions in her ongo­ing series titled Dones d’aigua (Water Women).

If you’re a long-time read­er of Brown Paper Bag, you’re sure to rec­og­nize Soni­a’s work. The allur­ing swim­ming ladies have cap­ti­vat­ed me (and many oth­ers) for years. They encour­age us to pon­der the sym­bol­ism of the water and specif­i­cal­ly, how we relate to her char­ac­ters. Are you the per­son that is tread­ing water? Or are you strug­gling to come up for air?

I spoke to Sonia about her work and what the water means to her. Scroll down to read my inter­view and then vis­it Soni­a’s Society6 shop.

What was the inspi­ra­tion behind your women in water?

The inspi­ra­tion to cre­ate my Dones d’aigua (Water Women) series came from sev­er­al ele­ments that had been cap­ti­vat­ing me for some time. Pos­si­bly, the main one was the work of Yves Klein and his blue sponges: I feel a hyp­not­ic attrac­tion to them and the spir­i­tu­al depth that they sug­gest to me. Joseph Cornell’s box-shaped col­lages were also fun­da­men­tal and real­ly inspir­ing to me: I feel con­nect­ed to his dream­like, sur­re­al, vision of real­i­ty, and the poet­ry in his works: he is the rea­son why Dones d’aigua are tridi­men­sion­al col­lages. Miquel Barceló and his ref­er­ences to the sea were an inspi­ra­tion to me too. And Jaume Pien­sa, with his poet­ic sculp­tures. I should men­tion Goya too, whose work I con­sid­er a recur­ring ref­er­ence in my life.

Apart from that, I love poet­ry as a medi­um of expres­sion and I like that my art­works feel like visu­al poems.

There’s the last ref­er­ence, which comes from the pop­u­lar cul­ture in Cat­alo­nia, where I was born: The Dones d’aigua are mytho­log­i­cal beings that live in water­falls, lakes, and rivers (a kind of water spir­it) and are linked to the life cycle, fer­til­i­ty and (espe­cial­ly relat­ed to my work) womanhood.

What does the water mean to you?

I was born near the Mediter­ranean sea and the influ­ence of it and water in my cul­ture is some­thing defin­ing. I guess it’s part of my DNA. The truth is that the sea has always been present in my life and has trans­mit­ted a spe­cial and pos­i­tive ener­gy to me.

When tak­ing the first steps of my Dones d’aigua series, water came to me as the per­fect medi­um to com­mu­ni­cate and expand emo­tion. So, the pro­tag­o­nists of my works inter­act with this mass of water where they are immersed and, there, their feel­ings are ampli­fied, their shouts are heard loud­er, their des­per­a­tion is felt more pro­found­ly… But also, when they are calm, it feels like a more reward­ing emo­tion too.

Some women are pic­tured floun­der­ing in the water while oth­ers seem at ease. How do you view these oppos­ing states of being?

They are oppos­ing states, but both of them are inside each of us. Water can be calm and qui­et but, in a moment, it can become dan­ger­ous: in the same way, inside us, there are moments of peace and relax, but also moments of great inten­si­ty when we can fear for our secu­ri­ty or, even, for our lives. To me, Dones d’aigua has become an aes­thet­ic research on emo­tions and water as a visu­al and sym­bol­ic ele­ment that helps to trans­mit these emo­tions: my aim is that, through the phys­i­cal rela­tion­ship between the char­ac­ter and the aquat­ic medi­um, the view­er can expe­ri­ence the soul of the char­ac­ter, an emo­tion, her ener­gy: anguish, fear, sor­row, peace, joy.

What mate­ri­als do you use to obscure parts of your fig­ures? Can you give us a peek into the process?

Every­thing in my projects is pre­pared man­u­al­ly. It’s great to see how only manip­u­lat­ing sim­ple mate­ri­als such as paper you can achieve a del­i­cate per­cep­tion of tridi­men­sion­al­i­ty and an ethe­re­al atmos­phere. The art­works look real­ly beau­ti­ful in the pic­tures but, when peo­ple see them live, they are sur­prised by the atmos­phere created.

You got your post­grad­u­ate degree in illus­tra­tion after work­ing for many years. What lead you to illus­tra­tion? How does your train­ing before inform your work today?

I start­ed work­ing as a free­lance illus­tra­tor after I obtained my Fine Arts degree. Years lat­er, I decid­ed to rein­force my back­ground with an illus­tra­tion post­grad­u­ate in Barcelona: this was an intense and instruc­tive expe­ri­ence that changed my view about my pro­fes­sion and how to approach my career in the future. It real­ly was a turn­ing point for me.