Natasa Kekanovic – An Interview

Natasa Kekanovic, from Belgrade, Serbia is a graduate of fashion design, but her big passion is painting, drawing and illustration. So far she has held two independent fashion shows, one in May and one in November 2014, at Balkan Art Fashion Event, where she also worked as one of the event organizers. She has also presented outfits at Serbia Fashion Week in April this year and has held an exhibition of her paintings and illustrations at The City Bookstore Gallery in Zagreb. She talked to me about combining her passions and arts.

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KALTBLUT: How did you get interested in drawing first of all?

Natasa: From an early age I loved to draw. I cannot name a specific reason why, because I believe it’s an unbreakable love for art which is given at birth, it originates somewhere deep in the person who is probably destined for that. When you want to do something, first you need to master the fundamentals of that call and drawing is the base of art, everything stems from the line. I am a devotee of the line and I really love to draw.

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KALTBLUT: What inspires you? Where do you get ideas from?

Natasa: My inspiration comes mainly from the events that left a big impression on me. To be specific, the participants in these events, people and their peculiarities, emotions that they carry and the emotions they show towards others, their happiness, goodness, vulnerability, fear, passion for something or love that they are willing to show unselfishly.

So, my biggest inspiration is life itself and people who live their lives without fear of the misstep. I try to do the same with my work, because when I create I am not afraid of mistakes, actually, I accept them wholeheartedly and I always try to pull out the best from them.
Inspiration is all around us, we just need to let the amazing feelings guide us.

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KALTBLUT: How do you combine your paintings with your fashion designs?

Natasa: Each time I create a collection, my wish is to make a little wearable piece of art. When I create I am drawn by the same feeling that I am led by when I am painting. Either way, I create unusual forms by using asymmetry, imperfection, lines, curves. I also like to use a large range of colors, patterns and I gladly use my paintings as patterns for my collections.

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KALTBLUT: What are you working on at the moment?

Natasa: Right now I’m focused on painting.

I am preparing a series of paintings, entitled Labyrinth. I use large-format canvases for my paintings but I won’t talk about my artworks in advance, because during creation I don’t have a specific story that I want to tell. What is interesting about my creative work is that the paintings speak later, they come to life with brush and color.

Interview by Emma E. K. Jones

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www.facebook.com/NatasaKekanovicArt

natasakekanovic.wix.com/natasakekanovic#!fashion-design/c1cyi

www.behance.net/NatasaKekanovic