INTERVIEW #2 WITH ARTIST FILIPPA EDGHILL

Atmosea ambassador Filippa Edghill is an incredible artist (see image above, coming soon on a tee!) who born and raised in the same area as me, in the open landscape of Skåne, Sweden. Seeing as the waves in Sweden aren't very ideal, Fillippa often traveled to Biarritz when she was younger so she could surf. She made the move to San Francisco when she was 20 to evolve as an artist, but she now resides in a perfect little apartment overlooking Cote de Basque in Biarritz

Last year I stopped in Biarritz to spend some time in the french waves and meet with Filippa.

1.   Tell me how you grew from student to a freelance artist?

The transition for me between school and growing a stabile freelance career was doing and internship and working for a while at a small film studio in San Francisco. It made me grow a lot. I had all the tools, inspirations and people around me to both push me and enable me to go in the direction that I wanted. I think the city of San Francisco in itself is the perfect place to go to begin nourish that little dream seed whatever it may be.

2.  What color is your aura?

Indigo blue because it is the main color of my expression in art and also the color of all the things I love the most such as the ocean and chemical shitstorm gummy candies.

 3.  Is there one thing you will always take with you (eg. Phone, Wallet, Smile)?

An old phone with about 15 minutes of battery life and naturally also a charger thats pretty much glued to the phone.  Thats always in my pocket but that isn't a very fun answer.. 

4.  Favourite surf spot?

A little jungle spot in Barbados that I wont mention the name of. Or Cenitz in Guethary, France.

5.  What inspires you to make art?

Mostly seeing good work from other artists in combination with having a feeling hanging over me for days that just wont leave me alone until I pull it out and nail it down with ink on paper. 

6. When did you start surfing?

 I started when I was a kid together with my siblings. My dad is a surfer and eventually he just couldn't keep us on the beach any longer while he was in the water, even when bribed with ice cream.

7.  What is your favourite travel memory?

I think Biarritz, the town where I live now, holds an infinite amount of memories for me. It's hard to pick one because wherever I go here I see younger versions of myself on every street corner getting up to no good. It's a place that has taught me lots of lessons about life. I started coming here alone as a young teenager so Biarritz has given me immense amounts of freedom and independence. But I have also been alone and heartbroken here.. If I have to pick a favorite memory of here it would be rolling up to little waves on La Cote des Basques in February this spring after 3 days of driving from Sweden and stopping the engine of the van and just realizing that I was home. I felt it right away and haven't left biarritz since then. Now this special place that has housed memories of travel and youth can also be the place of the most beautiful feeling of all; home.

8.    What skill/talent do you wish you possessed?

I always envy performers of any kind, especially musicians. It seems so nice to be able to have direct response of your audience. I rarely know what people think of my art and how it makes them feel so the idea of just putting something out on a stage and seeing the faces of the viewers in that same moment seems really nice. 

9.  What do you wonder about the most?

I give a lot of time to thinking about whether or not there is a grand spiritual connection and purpose to our being or if it's all just a random chaos and if I'd be better off enjoying it while it lasts an not worrying about what I'm meant to do here. 

10.   If you could live in any time period when would it be and why?

I'm tempted to say during an earlier time period when hair was longer, clothes where more colorful and a lot of ideas in art was being put out into the world for the first time. But truth be told I don't think I could deal with living in any less equality of the sexes and races than we are dealing with today. 2016 is bad enough. I think we romanticize the past as being simple and that things where better in the past but most things have gotten better and better with time. So other than the fact that toddlers have smartphones I have to say that the very best time to be alive is right now. The internet is pretty much the coolest thing ever, huge conflicts are really challenging the idea of having our world divided with borders and there are still tigers wandering our earth. 

11.   What’s the last thing you created?

The last thing I created was a painting in all black before I left for Sweden for Christmas. I was angry about some things that I was trying to turn around into something positive so that it wouldn't have to drag it back to the north with me. In the end it is the painting that I have had the strongest response to and some people have reached out to me with really interesting anecdotes that where awoken in them when they saw it. So finally that frustration was turned into something really great and I flew off to see my family a lot lighter.

12.   Surfers or skaters?

If I look back at everyone I have ever dated they have always been both so clearly I have a hard time making my mind up ;)

Find out more about Filippa

Surf photos by @binch_aquashots