Art Stories: Interview with Studio Liscious

Vintage Indie would like to welcome, as our featured artists, Patrick Lajoie and Mara Minuzzo of Studio Liscious.  This duo creates beautiful artwork in Toronto, ON, Canada. 

 

This is their beautiful studio, designed and constructed completely by the both of them. 

 

What is your preferred medium? Of the several mediums we like to use, we'd have to say that wood is our favorite as it's what inspired the start of our business 17 years ago. 

How did you get started? We got started when Patrick was working as a contractor and was asked to dismantle an old barn, leaving us with some beautiful barn wood boards that we decided to make into picture frames to sell at craft fairs. 

Paint by Number Artwork 

Who or what inspires you? We find inspiration in a lot of places but overall it comes from our love of clean, modern lines coupled with the warmth added by natural elements such as beautiful wood grains, natural motifs or vintage imagery.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to get into this medium? Working with wood tends to require a pretty big assortment of both tools and machinery, which can add up to a major investment in order to set up a workshop. Our advice to someone starting out with this medium would be to seek out a local co-operative or shared workshop where you can use the machinery and tools without having to immediately spend a whole lot of money setting up your own shop. 

 

Does vintage play a role in your art or life? If so, how? Vintage sometimes plays a role in our work by inspiring product ideas as well as adding that element of warmth we try to achieve within our mostly modern aesthetic.

Mirror Word Art 

What is important for your customer to know about your work? We'd like our customers to know that we are always striving to come up with unique product ideas that we haven't seen anywhere else, and that the two of us, along with some occasional help from our teenage son, design and make everything we sell in our studio workshop at our home in Caledon, Ontario. We'd also like them to know that we are sticklers for quality and take a lot of pride in every piece we make. 

We are currently trying to find the time to bring several new product ideas to fruition, but the one we are most excited about in general is adding many more textile based designs to our product mix. Mara is a fashion designer by training and has really started to miss working with textiles over the last few years, during which our business has mostly focused on wood and other rigid materials for our products.

 

I couldn't end the interview without showing you their awesome Airstream. 

 

A special thank you to Patrick Lajoie and Mara Minuzzo for giving us a peek into their studio and a closer look at their business. 

Be sure to visit Studio Liscious's various websites. 

www.liscious.com
www.facebook.com/LisciousInc
www.patricklajoie.com
www.maraminuzzo.com