AVI ODENHEIMER
9” x 9” Worlds
Avi Odenheimer is an aspiring architect, with a background in animation, currently living in Toronto, Canada. Avi found a great way to combine his architecture and animation interests through watercolors. His watercolor work is a beautiful collection of 9”x9” drawings that illustrate Architecture in unexpected and somewhat surreal ways.
For this interview, Avi Odenheimer will be talking about his illustrations, his process, inspirations and more!
Avi Odenheimer, in a few words, please describe yourself and your work.
I grew up in Israel/Palestine in a small town outside of Jerusalem. I did my undergraduate degree in the animation department at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem. I am currently living in Toronto, Canada where I worked in the animation industry for 4 years before doing a MArch degree at the University of Toronto.
My paintings are the way I formulate and document the thoughts I am having about architecture and occasionally other subjects. I try to keep them focused on aspects of architecture such as form, materiality, sustainability, use, and domesticity.
How do you define your artwork?
I would define my watercolor paintings as something between illustration and speculative architecture.
Your artwork remarkably illustrates elements of various architectural elements, in surreal compositions. Where do you seek inspiration to create these elements?
I am careful about what I let myself be exposed to because anything I experience inevitably works its way into my paintings. I am also aware of the way my art is being influenced by the act of posting it on Instagram. My architectural style is influenced by having grown up in the Middle East. The surrealism and occasional animal appearances are probably due to my animation background. My overall theme comes from my thoughts about the way in which humans and their buildings integrate with the natural surroundings.
How important is the element of narrative in your work?
The narrative is extremely important in my work. I start almost every painting with a short story that I tell myself. Usually, it is about a strange and wonderful person who is obsessed with something. Then I ask "what does their house look like". Almost every class I had in animation school was about the importance of narrative. I try to be very aware of my own.
Your watercolors often show a building in isolation, siteless, as if taken away from its context. Why do you choose to show them in this manner? What is the story behind these buildings?
I like to view buildings as objects. The same way you see a product when shopping online. When I am doing architectural visualization work, the context is very important, but in my artwork, I try to address very general ideas that are not to be seen in relation to their surroundings. I guess another reason is that I tend to draw these late at night when I am alone and feeling a bit isolated myself.
Have you studied illustration, or are you self-taught?
When I was around 10 years old my grandmother took me to her watercolor class and they let me participate. Afterward, she bought me a watercolor set and since then I have been painting regularly on my own. Even after doing an undergraduate degree in animation and a master’s in architecture, I still somehow feel like an outsider to the art and design world. I guess you can say I started out self-taught but then went through the meatgrinder of art school.
How do you know when an image is complete?
I am not sure that I do. Usually, I will add to the image until I reach a point where the fear of ruining it overcomes the desire to add more.
“I will add to the image until I reach a point where the fear of ruining it overcomes the desire to add more”
What are the biggest challenges to creating your images and how do you deal with them?
From a technical standpoint, the move between analog and digital has always been a challenge. I tend to do some digital editing but only to get the image on the screen looking more like the original. I really wish I had a good way to digitize my paintings.
A conceptual problem that I am trying to overcome is that I would really like my art to be more communicative. I have always admired artists who create very clear and strong work.
Who or what influences you graphically?
That is very hard for me to say. I am constantly looking at art, photography, and architecture on a myriad of websites. I keep a folder called "art I like" on my desktop and I have collected thousands of images so far. The images I collect are the ones I want to be influenced by.
The short answer is Josh Keyes.
Could you show us / talk about the process to create one of your images? What tools do you use? Do you experiment with different materials and methods?
I am constantly sketching on pieces of scrap paper. When I like a sketch, I will redo it with a very hard pencil on a 9" by 9" piece of Canson watercolor paper. Then, I use Dr. Ph Martins liquid watercolors to add color. I only have 4 colors: 28B Sepia, 15B Daffodil Yellow, 5A scarlet, and 21B ultra blue. I am not very particular about brushes and usually only use just one for the whole painting. Liquid watercolors are so concentrated that most of my paintings are made with only one drop of paint.
In everything else I do in life I am constantly experimenting but with the watercolors, I try to do the opposite and keep the variables to a minimum.
In any case, the watercolor paper situation in Toronto is pretty disappointing. I once had what my wife describes as an existential crisis at a Boesner's in Berlin. The amount of different watercolor papers was overwhelming. I took so much time looking at the watercolor paper that she eventually just walked out and I had to quickly buy what I had in my cart and run after her.
What advice has influenced you as an architect and artist?
I try to take any advice I am given. Probably to a detriment. Someone who I respect very much told me to paint more towns and neighborhoods instead of lonely little houses. Someone else who I also respect very much told me to only paint buildings that I would want to build. I guess now I am painting a lot of towns and neighborhoods that I would want to build until the next time I get advice.
What advice would you give to young designers?
I like what Ira Glass said about starting out and having your taste be better than the work you are producing. That can be debilitating. When I was young I thought that I was the best artist in Israel. This was collaborated by the number of times my work was featured on our fridge at home. Then the Internet was invented and I realized that I am not even the best artist in my small town and that there are people all over the world 15 years younger than me doing amazing work. That feeling of inferiority almost crushed my desire to continue. Luckily, I was already too invested to back out and eventually I got confident enough to post my work and show it to other people. So I guess my advice is to be extremely persistent and if you are not as talented as other artists, just work harder. That is what I do.
“Be extremely persistent and if you are not as talented as other artists, just work harder”
Avi Odenheimer, thank you for taking the time to interview with Arch-Vizz and show us your beautiful illustrations!
You can find more about Avi Odenheimer's on his instagram page @aviodenheimer.
Interview & Images Courtesy: Avi Odenheimer
Interviewer: Stefani Fachini