Natalya Nova

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Nova: Hi. Teddy!

Carpazine: Hi Nat! Looking back, when I started writing Carpazine I did not know that Fernando’s genre was homoerotic art. I was seeing nothing but penises. Finally, your submission, images of a dreamy woman.

I have continued to follow your work. You continue to be dreamy. Would you do your self-portraits, projected into a dreamscape, photos - if you were not so dreamy? 

Nova: I think by dreamy you're probably referring to the way I look, but I think of the way I feel - the different states of being that I inhabit.  In photography and especially my self-portraits, I can track my own evolution, my hero’s journey if I may. It's a reflection of me, a mirror. So every time I photograph myself, I am recognizing certain things; where I'm coming from and where I'm going. I see my own evolution.

Carpazine: Putting a creation out there takes courage, how much scarier is it to put yourself out there as the subject?

Nova: The nudity? Tee-Hee.

Carpazine: Partially, the internet can be mean.

Nova: To me nudity is not about eroticism, it's about truth and authenticity. There's nothing between me and my Levi's! Nothing between me and my audience.

Carpazine: How do you set up and capture yourself as the subject?

Nova: It takes some preparation, I need a tripod, a clicker. Basically, if I'm painting myself in red I need some red paint, if I'm using projections I need a projector, obviously. I need all kinds of props to create my art. I'm also very good at post production.

Carpazine: What would Pierre Molinier do with today’s technology?

Nova: I love him. I can't even begin to imagine what he would do. He was pretty nuts and far out. His work is spectacular, a pioneer in the art of the “selfie”! He was actually before Robert Mapplethorpe but isn't as recognized­. I'm not sure why, maybe Mapplethorpe was really eager to be known and Molinier wasn’t.

Carpazine: Mapplethorpe and Fernando were in the Leslie Lohman Museum art book: Treasures of Gay Art. So, Molinier to Mapplethorpe to Fernando to Carpazine to Nova: You have been connected to Molinier!

Nova: Amazing. Awesome. What a small world! I love Charles Leslie and am a frequent visitor of the Phallus Palace.

Carpazine: In your first appearance in Carpazine we featured “One Fucked up Year,” how did that year compare to your 2020 and whatever we are living in now?

Nova: I realized that people inhabit all kinds of states of consciousness. Maybe I chose “One Fucked up Year” for myself because I wanted more trials and adversity in 2011. But as of right now I want more bliss in my life so I'm choosing a different state of being. More beauty, more success, more of creating a happy reality rather than being my own enemy. And again, I can track my progress with photography and through art. It's fascinating how it all begins with the self.

Carpazine: Despite Joseph Campbell not being well regarded today by scholars, we both had our imaginations sparked by his work. We are both aware of living our own personal myth because of him. What direction is your hero’s journey taking you?

Nova: Joseph Campbell blows my mind, he is an example of a life well lived, a force of inspiration and will always be at the top of my list.

My hero's journey is always inward. You are your own wonderful human imagination.

This is from the Hindu Upanishad: “In the beginning there was only the great self, reflected in the form of a person. Reflecting, it found nothing but itself, and its first word was, ‘This am I.'”