{"id":2388,"date":"2020-09-25T06:57:55","date_gmt":"2020-09-25T06:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tahneyalexandramay.com\/?p=2388"},"modified":"2022-09-02T11:29:52","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T11:29:52","slug":"gorkie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahneyalexandramay.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/25\/gorkie\/","title":{"rendered":"Gorkie Cartoons the Mundane Everyday"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gorkie<\/a> is a Melbourne-based artist and cartoonist created by Sarah Nagorcka centered on the moods of everyday life, living on Instagram with over 100 thousand followers.\u00a0<\/h3>

In this conversation, originally published on\u00a0In the Arts<\/a>,\u00a0Gorkie speaks on how her cartoons are spontaneously created, the anxieties around selling her work, the ethics of working\u00a0as an artist\u00a0on Instagram and the effects of climate anxiety on creative people.\u00a0<\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This podcast transcript has been edited for reading clarity. Listen to the audio podcast of this interview\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:<\/strong>\u00a0Broadly speaking, what do you enjoy in the\u00a0<\/span>arts?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:<\/strong>\u00a0I enjoy any art that is not mine, a bit like how nobody wants to eat their own food. I seek things that are very different. I enjoy watching performance, and I’ve been getting into physical theatre a little bit lately, which is the cross between dance and clowning. These people have amazing control over their expressions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

For reading, I always have a book on the go, but I’m terrible finishing books. I’m usually dipping in and out of quite a few at once. I finished reading\u00a0on us on earth we are briefly gorgeous<\/em>\u00a0by Ocean Vuong. I am often reading David Sedaris, who has lots of very amusing short stories.<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:<\/span>\u00a0Same here, I’ll be watching one TV show at a time, but with books, I’ll have six I’m reading over a year. I will feel like one this day and another tomorrow, and perhaps there will be one I’m devouring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:<\/span>\u00a0It’s about mood. People will ask you what you are reading, and you say, “If I am in this mood, I’ll read this book, if I’m in that mood, I’ll read that.” I don’t read them in order either; I open it up in the middle and read a few chapters. If I like the end, I might go back to the start. It’s a bit stupid. But\u00a0<\/span>I need them to win me over, and then I’ll read the whole thing. It’s rude, I should read the way the authors intended.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:<\/span>\u00a0As an audience or a consumer, rather than as an artist, what does art do for you?<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:<\/span>\u00a0It gives me a different angle. It’s a relief to get out of your brain, even momentarily to get a different perspective. It’s a shower for your mind. It’s so easy to have the same internal voice over and over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:\u00a0<\/span>Do you remember your first connection with art?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:\u00a0<\/span>It would have been a religious thing. I was raised as a conservative Christian, and my grandparents had this massive picture of an angel guiding two little children over this bridge. It was very green- I don’t know whether that’s a 70s thing- it caste this greenish hue over the fireplace. That’s pretty strong in my mind.<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:<\/span>\u00a0Growing up, did you naturally gravitate towards drawing and cartooning?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:\u00a0<\/span>My mother was very actively involved in my education. She started to teach me how to read before I went to school and made paint for me out of flour to encourage me to paint the walls (not inside but outside!). She encouraged creativity in me. I’m not sure about art exactly, but the expression of emotion was more the basis of my art background than fine art.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:<\/span>\u00a0How did you find your voice? Was it linked to\u00a0<\/span>being able to articulate your emotions?<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:<\/span>\u00a0It’s interesting that you say find your voice\u00a0<\/span>because I’d say songwriting was my first formalised expression. I was\u00a0<\/span>about 16 or so and loved music.\u00a0<\/span>I couldn’t sing ‘regular songs’ because I didn’t have a high voice, and usually, the female part is high. So, I would write my own that were relatively low.\u00a0<\/span>That was the first thing<\/span>\u00a0that was my own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I did a comic-strip when I was 12 called\u00a0Sharp Sheep<\/em>. I’m still quite dorky, so I suppose it’s fitting. But it didn’t feel my own like songwriting. In terms of finding a voice, that’s the first thing that felt mine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tahney:\u00a0<\/span>When was Gorkie born?<\/span><\/p>

Gorkie:\u00a0<\/span>Five or six years ago. I was trying to find a new identity because I’d been in another industry and trying to work out my new thing. Initially, Gorkie emerged from more commercial reasons. I was going to do informational videos and thought I needed to brand myself, but then it somehow turned into this personal outpouring of emotion. I called myself Gork; first, it’s a derivative of my last name, until I changed it to Gorky, which is a bit softer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u2b50\ufe0f<\/a><\/p>

A post shared by GORKIE<\/a> (@gorkiegork) on