Wisconsin Life

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Liubov Szwako

It's never about what it can be. It's about what it is when it's in front of you.

spray can hissing

spray can rattling

Liubov Szwako

What I like about art, it's that I'm allowed to be me and put me out there.

playful music

Liubov Szwako

My name is Liubov Szwako. Originally from Mexico City, born and raised. And I just really enjoy playing with paint.

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Liubov Szwako

I think my work is very abstract. I'm not a big fan of telling people what to think or what to believe or what to see in my work or what my work represents. And it's also more freeing and it doesn't have to fit any boxes. It doesn't have to fit any look. It doesn't have to fit any, anything, you know? It can just be whatever it wants to be.

spray can rattling

Liubov Szwako

Like for most people, what they relate to or what they see me at is with the mattresses.

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Liubov Szwako

You know, since I'm an immigrant, I have to comply with certain rules, and I have to go through certain things that most people don't have to go through. So, I couldn't get myself, I couldn't afford to get myself in trouble and do it legally, so I was like, how can I spray paint legally, without having the cops look for me or get my immigration status, you know, in trouble because I was spray painting. So, I think the closest thing to a wall was like, "Oh, look at all these mattresses "that are just sitting on the side of the road that literally are going to the trash, to the dump."

bold swagger-filled music

Liubov Szwako

There's a bunch of things that I got to consider. Like, 'cause believe it or not, all mattresses are very different. Some of them, like, some of them will have blood and some of them will have, you know, like, weird stuff on it. So, you don't want to get too close to certain mattresses. Will it absorb the paint correctly? Some of them drip. Some of them you can spend a lot of paint and they just soak it up and it doesn't show, so it's like literally a waste of paint.

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Liubov Szwako

I definitely painted over 200 pieces, between mattresses and couches, TVs, mirrors, all sorts of stuff. So, definitely over 200 of 'em.

brush rolling

Liubov Szwako

I don't see any limitations of the things that I can do. And I don't see any limitations of the things that, what other people can do. If I do this line this way and if I just do a twist here and if I add this dot or this line here, what will it create?

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Liubov Szwako

The one message that I encourage people to do, doesn't matter what it is. Even if it sounds like a pipe dream, it sounds like a wildest thing. If you really are curious about something, give it a shot. Just give it a shot, just to experience what it's like and just focus on not if you did it right, not if you did it wrong. Just focus on, on how it felt when you were doing it.

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Liubov Szwako

I found that by doing what I do, I somehow bring happiness to some people. That, to me, it's awesome. Like, you doing what you do, it's making someone else happy. Like it doesn't get any better than that, you know? So, yeah.