By Meg Jerit | September 2023
Natalie Arriola is a fine art photographer from Fresno who creates surrealist works. In her series Enantiodromia, she explores concepts about the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind.
When did your practice of surreal art photography begin?
I’ve been exploring surrealism in my photography for about fifteen years. I was always drawn to the dreamlike quality of surreal art... there is something about surrealism that lends itself to the symbolic expression of concepts.
I rarely remember my dreams, and when I do they tend to be a bit boring and lacking in the rich imagery and uncanny scenarios that often inhabit surrealist art. To compensate for this, I incorporate very specific concepts and ideas into my imagery and do my best to represent these through symbolism.
I rarely remember my dreams, and when I do they tend to be a bit boring and lacking in the rich imagery and uncanny scenarios that often inhabit surrealist art. To compensate for this, I incorporate very specific concepts and ideas into my imagery and do my best to represent these through symbolism.
Is there an overall message you feel your work conveys?
If there is any continuous thread I see flowing through Enantiodromia, it is probably that of the confluence of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind. The word “enantiodromia” refers to the point at which something becomes so extreme it transforms into its opposite. It comes from C.G. Jung... what he called “individuation” and the attempt to achieve psychic equilibrium. The idea that opposing forces are not separate, but rather two expressions of the same thing is an important concept for me.
How does inspiration function in your creative process?I don’t typically remember my dreams, so I think of these images as waking dreams. They almost always begin from something I’ve come across in my reading or sometimes in a film.
I majored in English and minored in philosophy, so literature and philosophy are huge influences. Most of my image ideas come from books, at least conceptually. I look to the visual arts for stylistic inspiration. Once I have a concept in mind, I start brainstorming how I will represent it visually. I plan as much as possible, but in the making of the image, things always change. The images are like little puzzles I create for myself. I rely on my subconscious to provide the answers to the puzzle... I often have to step back for a bit, but as long as I’m patient the pieces do eventually fall into place. |
What is your creative process like? How much time might you spend on a single piece?
Sometimes I work on a piece, and everything falls into place, and I can finish within a few days or a week. Other times I sit on something for weeks or months before I find a way to make it work. As far as logistics go, once I have my basic idea and know what my background is going to be, I start shooting the individual elements of the scene in my studio. When I have all the bits and pieces shot, I pull them into Photoshop and start building my image
Can you discuss how you view humanity’s relationship to the natural?Nature is the only place I truly feel at peace, yet it is also a place that makes me uncomfortable. A little over a year ago my husband and I took his Jeep off-roading down Mojave Road. It’s a 140-mile primitive road through the Mojave Desert that starts in Nevada and ends in California. It took us four days and three nights to make it to the end. It’s a lot of work being out in the wilderness like that. Throughout the day we would stop at various places to do hiking and exploring, then at night we’d find a place to camp, set everything up, make our dinner, and sleep only to tear it all down again in the morning.
It was magical to sit in the silence of a Joshua tree forest or look up at a star-filled sky and make out the Milky Way, but it was also frightening, and we were vulnerable out there all alone. This connection to the natural is something I crave. But I’m also insulated from it, because I know I can and will leave and go home. So there’s a sense that I’m only ever half in it. I’m a tourist, so to speak. I also think that we tend to romanticize nature, because we are so far removed from it. It is beautiful, but it is also cruel. That’s something we like to forget. There’s a great quote from filmmaker Werner Herzog regarding nature and specifically the Amazon jungle. He speaks of the jungle as chaotic, a place in which the only harmony is that of “overwhelming and collective murder.” But he also loves it. I think that’s about how I feel too. |
How does incorporating your face speak to your art as its own entity? Do you see art as inseparable from the artist?
I think that once you put your art out into the world it no longer belongs to you... My art has a very specific meaning to me, and I may admire my own pieces for different reasons than others, and that is okay with me.
I also think it’s almost impossible to know one’s true self; let alone to imagine one’s work is somehow an extension of that unknowable self. Certainly, I put a lot of myself into my work: my ideas about who I am, about human nature, and the way the world works. In the end, it is simply an object––and an object is not me
I also think it’s almost impossible to know one’s true self; let alone to imagine one’s work is somehow an extension of that unknowable self. Certainly, I put a lot of myself into my work: my ideas about who I am, about human nature, and the way the world works. In the end, it is simply an object––and an object is not me
What is your perspective as an artist facing artificially intelligent art—in particular as a digital artist?
I am conflicted about artificial intelligence. On the one hand, I want to condemn it as something awful—a threat to humanity. Yet on the other, I feel it is important to embrace technology and take part in this “wave of the future.”
I have seen other artists employing it in interesting and inventive ways. For example, Maggie Taylor, an artist I respect and whom I consider an influence, has begun using AI in her work.
Still, AI feels like a threat more so than any other technological advance in my lifetime. Perhaps this is how people felt during the second Industrial Revolution, when railroads became pervasive, and people spoke of the rapid approach of a speeding train as the annihilation of time and space. They felt the railroads were a threat, and they were, as this era spawned many of the environ-mental troubles we are now facing. At the same time, the advances that came out of the Industrial Revolution made modern life as we know it possible.
I am sure there are good things that can come from AI and the incorporation of AI in our daily lives, but there will also be a flip side, as there always is. Maybe it will be related to the warnings we are hearing now, or maybe it will be something totally unexpected. Either way, this change is coming, and I’m not sure if we can stop it.
I’m going to do my best to learn about it and see how it can be useful to me and my work without allowing it to do the work for me. That part makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would you want AI to take over everything that human beings do? What purpose could human life have if we eliminate the need for human thought and ingenuity? If this is the route we choose to go with AI, it will be a dark future indeed.
I have seen other artists employing it in interesting and inventive ways. For example, Maggie Taylor, an artist I respect and whom I consider an influence, has begun using AI in her work.
Still, AI feels like a threat more so than any other technological advance in my lifetime. Perhaps this is how people felt during the second Industrial Revolution, when railroads became pervasive, and people spoke of the rapid approach of a speeding train as the annihilation of time and space. They felt the railroads were a threat, and they were, as this era spawned many of the environ-mental troubles we are now facing. At the same time, the advances that came out of the Industrial Revolution made modern life as we know it possible.
I am sure there are good things that can come from AI and the incorporation of AI in our daily lives, but there will also be a flip side, as there always is. Maybe it will be related to the warnings we are hearing now, or maybe it will be something totally unexpected. Either way, this change is coming, and I’m not sure if we can stop it.
I’m going to do my best to learn about it and see how it can be useful to me and my work without allowing it to do the work for me. That part makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would you want AI to take over everything that human beings do? What purpose could human life have if we eliminate the need for human thought and ingenuity? If this is the route we choose to go with AI, it will be a dark future indeed.
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Natalie Arriola (she/her) is an award-winning fine art photographer who’s been published in F-Stop Magazine, Dark Beauty X, Lenscratch, Shots Magazine, IMIRAGE Magazine, and International Photography Magazine. She has exhibited at The Center for Fine Art Photography, PhotoPlace Gallery, LoosenArt, and Babylon Fine Art Gallery. YouTube @NatalieArriolaPhotography | Instagram @nataliearriolaphoto |