Savonnara Alex Sok is a Cambodian/ American visual artist based in Providence, Rhode Island who engages with the community through live painting events, murals, and working with youth. Savonnara started creating art at the age of 14 and received a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design and Illustration. Although art was never a direct career path for Savonnara, it was an ever present passion in his life as a personal passion and in the form of therapy and freelance commission work. As his life progressed Savonnara was able to merge passion with his professional life and he began working as a Teaching Artist at AS220 Youth in the spring of 2021, during virtual programming due to the pandemic. He was then promoted in Spring of 2022 and is now AS220 Youth’s Visuals & Media Arts Coordinator.His inspiration is influenced from his Cambodian heritage, growing up in America as a child of refugee parents fleeing from the Khmer Rouge genocide. Other influences include being bipoc centered, love, death, community, social and racial injustices and human nature are ever present in his work.
Savonnara created an installation in the Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery this past January. Below is a conversation between him and poet Naffisatou Koulibaly.
NK: What inspires you most these days?
SAS: I feel like love is always going to be an answer for me. Although it’s a common feeling I seem to always get a different perspective of it the older I get. Another inspiration would be my community. How we interact and support each other. Our Youth, as they grow and change everyday. I see them becoming the leaders we need in the future. It’s beautiful. I also find inspiration from my Cambodian heritage.
NK: I know you move through projects quickly and as someone who has had the privilege to watch you while you create art, it seems like you can pull inspiration from thin air. I’ve seen you’re working on clothes? How do you feel your visual art informs your apparel-making if at all?
SAS: I feel that the way I create and learned how to create was to just dive in and make mistakes. I’m self taught when it comes to painting and I’ve learned that mistakes are not always bad. I can use this mistake and begin to create a technique that would help me flow better. So when I find that mode I can just freestyle anything from the mistakes I’ve learned. Idk know if that even makes sense haha. I started to create clothes because I was painting way too much and too fast. Picking up a new medium helped me slow down and practice patience. It’s become very meditative for me. I’ve started to create my own patterns, which is a more baggy oversize fit, because I just like comfort. I’ve become more comfortable with so I machine and now I’m able to try and translate my visual arts into fashion which is a fun process. I’m making mistakes as I go and I’m gonna learning new techniques at the same time.
NK: You paint, you sew, you sculpt. Engaging with spray paint, fabrics, clay, etc. What’s your favorite material/medium to work with?
SAS: I love spray painting. Something about painting big on a wall or a large canvas just gets me so excited. Although acrylic is my specialty I’ve always tried to experiment and mix my mediums. Spray paint and acrylics would have to be my top. That being said I have been bring those into my fashion design.
NK: What material makes you feel most connected with your art?
SAS: I love getting my hands dirty and creating things with my hands. I love when things can happen naturally. A wall with art that’s a part of the environment makes me feel as if it’s apart of the evolution of that spot. Compared to a canvas that can be moved or stored.
NK: There’s a real spiritual element to all of your work. The piece you have in the DP window right now, on the left hand side, is my favorite piece of yours. It feels like the face is staring straight through me. Something about it feels ancestral, like it’s been here before me, like it knows and sees everything. You come from a family of refugees. I’m thinking of the portrait of your grandparents. Can you elaborate on how your lineage and family history influences the depth of your work?
SAS: My heritage and my family have everything to do with my creations. Growing up learning about the Cambodian genocide, and what my grandparents had to do and go through to get my family here has been a driving passion for me. Being able to represent my ancestors and Khmer community in my own vision has been something that’s been so rewarding to me. Losing both my grandparents and my oldest uncle. I’ve been able to see life a little bit differently, and it has changed my perspective about love and human interaction. Although I can create from personal experience, I also like to create pieces that the audience can easily relate to with their family and lineage.
NK: What’s your process when it comes to large scale projects?
SAS: I’m such a go with the flow type of person. I just make sure there’s a few key things that I always have, which is a large drop cloth, a large ladder and a small step ladder, many cans of spray paint of all different colors, masking tape, and my iPad. I liked to use my iPad to create my mock ups via procreate. On average a wall that’s about 10 feet high and 20 feet long. I can probably finish in about three days give or take.
NK: How did you work your way up to tackling big paintings?
To be honest, my hands really hurt and cramp up when I paint small or regular size paintings and I’ve come to like larger scale paintings because I think it’s just easier to see where I need to blend or where I need to add any details. I had to learn how to control my proportions with large scale. but after that, it’s been smooth sailing and it’s actually helped me proportional smaller paintings a lot easier.
NK: Are you overwhelmed by larger projects? If not, what makes you frustrated? How do you work through it in regards to your art?
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Naffisatou Koulibaly (she/her) is a poet and multimedia artist from Providence, RI. Naffisatou began writing professionally a decade ago at AS220 Youth where she was introduced to Slam poetry. Naffisatou competed on the Providence Poetry Slam’s youth Slam team in 2018 at international poetry festival, Brave New Voices. She currently serves as co-director for ProvSlam; writing grants, managing programming, and teaching poetry workshops. Naffisatou received a BA in English Literature from Salve Regina University in 2021. Naffisatou is also a resident at the Dirt Palace in Olneyville. As of September 2024, she became a part of the Emerging Artist Fellowship at AS220 with a focus in teaching and education
