“I want my pictures to speak for themselves”

Liza Kaplan

It is all about protest.

Her pictures are doodles in her mind, her future will be all but a 9-5-job and her customers surprisingly prefer what she doesn’t really like.

22-year-young Liza Kaplan is a splash of color in the landscape.

Maybe that is why AYCM-author Peter Jagla picked her among others…

Infront of her pictures: Liza Kaplan

It is a warm and sunny Saturday, the temperature is rising and there are no clouds far and wide. Liza’s green colored fringe nearly touches her eyebrows. It’s just 2 pm and she is hanging around at the square in front of the Newtown Neighborhood Centre. She’s here every Saturday and Sunday, displaying her pictures and hoping to attract people who might buy it. Well, actually Liza is not selling her pictures. “It’s busking.” She is hoping to get a donation. Not because she thinks that people wouldn’t buy here pictures, but it seems that she doesn’t think she is ready to sell her pictures as an artist would do. “Well I’m coming on Sundays, too. There’s no one else here, so it’s no competition.” On Saturdays many people sell second hand goods and art at the square. It’s like a little market every week and a big one on the last Saturday of the month.

One of her displayed cartoons (c) Liza Kaplan

Liza was born in 1987 in Moscow where she grew up with her parents. In 1993 they left the communist country for a better life and ended up in Australia, although they did apply for a visa in several countries. “Australia was the only country who granted us the visa”, Liza says. But it wasn’t only for communist reasons why Liza’s parents left Russia: “They didn’t get along with their parents.” Quite contrary to her, who agrees with them and helps them out as often as she can. Liza lives in a flat in Leichhardt, but spends most of her free time in Newtown. “I do love Newtown”, she says with a smile on her face, “that is the only place in Sydney where I can be normal and no one is staring at me. That’s awesome.” She likes this spot, being open-minded for art and creative people. “But I prefer Europe, I think. I like it cold, I’m climatized.” But it’s not all about the weather: “No, no. It’s far more. I love the art- and music-scene in Europe. It’s fantastic.”

One of her displayed cartoons (c) Liza Kaplan

“I always enjoyed drawing. My mum is an artist. I never questioned it, just kept doing it”, the young talented says. She grew up drawing all the time, it’s her passion. “Cartoon is what I do for myself”, she says, looking on her favorite one on the ground. She uses different techniques and media as watercolor and markers for example. “But I don’t need any models. It’s just doodles from my head.” Egon Schiele is her favorite painter. The Austrian was a protégé of Gustav Klimt and is well known for his self portraits. “I like his dirty style”, Liza says, “unfortunately he died so young.”

Her favorite picture for today: The lady with the glasses, watching TV (c) Liza Kaplan

But Liza can not only paint Cartoons. Since February she is doing her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in Paddington. “It’s fantastic. That is the only school in Australia who teaches you how to draw properly”, she says.  Even though it’s still two and a half years to come, Liza already knows what she wants to do in future. Or, at least hopes to do: “Well, I want to do bigger works and earn more money. I definitely want to stay in Arts or Design. And one day, of course, I want to live on it.” The 22-year-old is very proud to be at the Art School as only a few people get the possibility to join the class. She had to hand in her portfolio first, which was a collection of her life drawings.

Kissing. A stranger? (c) Liza Kaplan

Find out what the National Art School thought about Liza’s portfolio and why they do not like what she is best at. What’s the most she got for one of her pictures and what kind of protest is on her mind when she thinks about art and community?

Just Liza.