Name/Location/Medium(s): April Werle, I am currently creating abstract murals in Malaysia.
Social Media/Website: www.aprilwerle.com IG @aprilwerle
What does art mean to you? Literally my entire life. I've made it possible over the last couple years to be nothing else than an artist. I live from dollar to dollar but I love it.
Are there any art events you are looking forward to in 2019? Any that I show up to hammered.
What projects are you wanting to work on this year? This year I've done 2 murals, one in Thailand and one in Malaysia. I'm about to start my third of the year in the next couple days. I've only done 4 murals since I started a year ago but I love the expression and pairing of fine art to building construction. (I paid my dues and worked in construction for a year. I'm a pretty femme girl.)
Who are some of your favorite local artists (local being local to wherever you are located)? Shit. That's tough. I'd say local is the US... since I am abroad. I am really crushing on these powerful women right now...Jillian Evelyn, Claire Prouvost, and Anna Koak.
Do you know your Meyers-Briggs personality type? Enneagram? Do you take personality tests? Why or why not? Nope and nope. And yes... Recently I figured out which That 70's Show character I am. All of them apparently, depending on the test. So that why's no.
Have you ever won an award? i.e. "most likely to crop-dust at a library" My senior year of high school, yep all the way back to high school, I won the Youth Electrum Exhibition Grand Prize at the Holter Museum of Art. It was a cash prize for a large charcoal drawing of an old man. That opening changed my life actually. I thought I wanted to be an architect from 6th grade until then. I dropped out of architecture school the next semester, moved to Missoula and started art school.
What is the worst song you can think of? Best? Oooo worst is anything Derek is forcing me to listen to. He likes to plug into my ear and share unsolicited. I just don't really like anything that sounds formulated. The best song that I am obsessed with right now is Radio Ga Ga by Queen.
Do you have any tips for emerging or debuting artists? Yes, keep making work especially after you've graduated. It's probably going to get shitty for a bit, you just might digress. But when you start progressing in your own practice outside of an institution you'll feel more like an artist than ever. Also, keep putting your work out there.
How can we make art more accessible? Honestly, buy more art. It will allow artists to keep making and putting it up in coffee shops, galleries, anywhere. A friend told me recently about a Ted Talks he listened to, I'm not sure who it was. But the point of it was science exists without us. It's already there. If Einstein wasn't born, we would still have discovered E = MC^2. But if Van Gogh never existed, if Michael Angelo never existed, no one would have ever created Starry Night or the Sistine Chapel. Just think about that when you consider buying an art piece. You are investing in something that is completely unique and would never have been created if that artist didn't live their life that exact way up until they created that art work.
What is something you have learned in your life that you think everyone should know? Nothing. I don't know anything that everyone should know. I think everyone knows what they want to know. Want, different from need.
Do you have a favorite album from 2018? Well... honestly none of my favorite bands released in 2018, or they did and the album was kinda shit. 2017 though...The Far Field alllll the way.
Define art. Art.
