In conversation with Lara Sylva
Hosted by Holly Barton at Beer Rebellion for Deer in Traffic
25th of November 2025
So, Lara. What inspires your work, how do you stay motivated?
Honestly everything around me inspires my work I would say, just the mental state I'm in, my feelings are the biggest point of my inspiration. A big part of my motivation to create is to represent those emotions, people, and things around me. Feelings and art affect each other and vis-versa.
Can you walk us through your creative process from concept to completion?
I work very inconsistently, I will start something and then not touch it again for like 6 months and then start back up, but sometimes I'll start something then finish it in 5 days. I don't have a pattern but if I really connect with an idea then depending on how big the painting, and how intricate the idea is, if I have a really clear vision of what I can see on the canvas then I can lock in for 5 days. I'll be in a whole other world where I'm just painting all the time and it's the only thing taking up space in my head. Or other times ill spend 4 months straight on a painting whilst simultaneously doing smaller paintings. It depends on how clearly I’ll plan something out and also how connected I feel to it.
What is your definition of success as an artist?
My definition of success is honestly being able to feel passionate and inspired. My passion doesn't come from monetary value it comes from something I just genuinely enjoy doing. Me failing at art would be me losing my love for it. I don't want to tie success to materiality because I don't think it's a good way to view something I am so passionate about.
What are your ultimate career goals?
Is to keep being happy about making art, me failing at art would be me losing my passion and my love for it. Because turning something you're passionate about into a career is something that can do that. So for me failing as an artist would be failing that. And to hopefully have some people around me who appreciate that as well, I am lucky I already do have that, I just hope I get to keep that.
What are you currently working on or excited about?
I've got an animation project at the moment, it's quite an ambitious one, through my research, it's not something that a lot of people can do in such a short span of time. But I’ve found a lot of ways to make it easier on myself. It's going to be a commentary on politics in a more satirical way and it's going to be all traditionally animated. Majority of it will be with paper puppets and stop motion. And I'm really excited to get started and I'm collecting my materials now for that. I'm making my friends be a part of it too. So, I think that's going to make it easier for me as well so I don’t have to go out of my way to find people to fill these roles. Those roles already exist and inspired by real people. It's got a lot of characters within it and I don't have to spend a lot of time having to flesh out each character. I already have these people, I don't copy past, it's not completely true to feel life but i have a point to start from. I’m really excited.
Can you talk us through an art movement in history that has impacted you? How and Why?
Surrealism is a big inspiration for me. Looking at things from a different, non real, absurd perspective and trying to represent it in a way that doesn’t really exist is quite crazy. Because art when it emerged, it was very technical. It was very much about representing the world as what it was with its beauty and that was that. Like wouldn't change much – very true to what it was. But surrealism takes that but messes with it so much and I love that I feel like surrealism is kind of like the satire of the art world. Looking at some of the paintings by Rene Magritee. I look at that and I don't take it completely seriously, I don't think he did either, and I think there's a beauty in not taking it seriously. Its playful. In my own art I don't take it super seriously. It's a big thing for my art, I used to but I'm moving away from that as i put myself in a box. I now realise i can make silly art and it still be cool.
Lara Sylva's show displayed from the 26th of November 2025 until the 17th of December 2025.
Private view was 6:30pm 26/11/2025.
Beer Rebellion, 129 Queen's Rd, London, SE15 2ND
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