Alexis Neve: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist

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There is no objective standard of what constitutes good art. There will be someone who is in love with artworks you just don’t get how anyone can like, and there will be people who don’t get the appeal of the piece you’re most proud of. As long as you love it then everything’s fine.

As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist” I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexis Neve.

Alexis Neve is an international portrait and editorial photographer, alignment catalyst, and self-proclaimed “Venusian girlie” on a mission to make wealthy artists the cultural norm. When not wandering the streets of London with her camera, or planning her move to Japan, she can be found obsessing with Hakuoki. She was one of Wishu’s Top 100 UK Creatives in 2022.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I grew up in a fairly artistic family. My aunt went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera (Milan) and she used to take me to churches and museums when babysitting me, but aside from her teaching in art school, and my grandfather being a sculptor in the funeral industry, it was never seen as a viable profession for “people like us” without the big money or connections. I was never encouraged to pursue it, not even when I started getting some attention as a music photographer in my teens, and that was still a more practical medium than if I had wanted to pursue painting, which I also really love. I sketch as a hobby, although I tend to prefer the manga art style. Maybe one day I will draw a whole story and self-publish it for fun! But I am grateful that at least the arts were valued enough in my family that I was exposed to all forms from early on.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

It was during the 2020 lockdowns, and I was playing a rhythm game about virtual idols. You have the songs you tap along to and win a score and I’m very competitive so I love that, but also they have stories about the characters, and my favourite idol had one with a London photoshoot. It was so funny to see my hometown from the outside like that, but what struck me the most was that a little voice inside me told me “It could have been you”. By that point I had heard Jenna Kutcher’s story of the $300 camera leading to a 6-figures wedding business so many times I really felt like it was a wake up call from my inner artist. If other people were making a living from their art, why not me? And so I started dismantling the stories that my family believed around what the industry really is like, and what it takes to make it in the field.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

In 2023 I was invited to speak on an online panel for creatives to share my advice about money, and found out the hard way that the US and the UK change the daylight savings time at different dates. So I had to turn up late, because I thought I still had 1h to go and was still getting ready…I had to be grateful for how many improv classes I was forced to take over the years without ever wanting to, because the feedback was that I handled the situation with poise even being thrown a difficult question as soon as I logged in. My inner experience of it was far removed from having handled it with confidence, so I’m fascinated by how it came across so differently to everyone else. It gave me a more nuanced view of the role of external validation, which can often be a limitation we put on ourselves and so many people would tell you to build confidence through not needing it. But when you have a loud inner critic, I feel that it can be positive to have an idea of how other people perceive you, although the downside is you can spiral down a negative path if the perception isn’t positive. The biggest lesson in life but especially in the arts is that perfectionism is the enemy.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

I’m working on putting together a multi-artist exhibition for female visual artists under 30yo in London. Despite women being the majority of active artists in the area, only 5% of galleries show an equal number by gender, and 78% mostly exhibit men. I want to address that imbalance, and champion our voices as women by creating spaces for our work to be seen. It’s the first step towards owning my permanent gallery with this mission in the future.

On a personal work level, I’ve been working on a mixed medium memoir where prose and photography mingle to tell my story of transformation out of an emotionally abusive marriage and cultish religion into my personal power and professional freedom. I’ve just submitted a portion of it to a personal essay competition, and I’m looking for an agent to support me on the journey of making it happen.

Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories? I’m grateful that I interact with interesting people all the time. It’s an industry where it’s really hard to be boring and uninspiring! It’s not even just high profile names, although it’s been healing for my inner child to realise that celebrities are just people like everyone else, and my family’s deferential attitudes towards fame can actually feel bad for the person receiving it as most celebrities are more than happy to treat you as an equal, and even in some cases be big cheerleaders of the work you do.

Where do you draw inspiration from? Can you share a story about that?

I’m the biggest nerd when it comes to old films. All the way to silent films, but especially Hitchcock, Fellini, Sergio Leone, and the Nouvelle Vague. I also get a lot of inspiration from music and fashion. I love Visual Kei because the aesthetic is just as important as the music. And of course the music is great. And I also get inspired by people. I once went to a soul art workshop that was about tapping into your psychic gifts to feel the energy of the other person as they talked about themselves, and then create a work of art to represent what that energy felt like, and it was so interesting. I feel like I love music and old films because they both create an experience. I feel like modern cinema has been more realistic in nature, although there have been many interesting works in recent years. I just feel that the directors, too, draw their inspiration from older sources. They feel nostalgic for an era that was almost more magical. Oh yeah, I also love history. Loved Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris, I could really relate to the protagonist.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I like to think that everything I do brings goodness to the world, as we know from research by the team behind Your Brain on Art that engaging with art has a lot of benefits for our wellbeing even when we are the spectators and not the artist. But I am using my platform as a public figure to empower other women beyond the art world, and that project I mentioned earlier that is designed to set up young women to become professional artists, that’s very much a charitable endeavour.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?

1 . There is no objective standard of what constitutes good art. There will be someone who is in love with artworks you just don’t get how anyone can like, and there will be people who don’t get the appeal of the piece you’re most proud of. As long as you love it then everything’s fine.

2 . Focus on self-expression and don’t box yourself into a version of you that can never evolve because that’s what you’re known for and you’re scared of disappointing others by changing, or worried about your safety and livelihood if you take a risk. Art is about taking risks because it brings the intangible into the material.

3 . There is no shame in being an amateur, but if you choose to go pro, it’s okay if you’re not always actively creating and sometimes you need to go get a job in a bar or something else really mundane to create spaciousness to channel something new. Sometimes the universe will force us to pivot by drying up the sales of the things we’ve outgrown and did not want to release.

4 . Part of the work of an artist is soaking in inspiration and experimenting with new things. Projects you start and don’t finish are not a waste of time even if you never go back to them, and often you might when you grow and something wants to come through you that is more aligned to its vision than you were when you first started.

5 . Art is magic, and magic is art.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I just want people to feel that they are allowed to live life on their own terms and be their most authentic selves in a society that values our individual contributions just as they are. For that reason I support policies like a Universal Basic Income. A lack of money should never be a reason why someone has to repress their gifts because we all benefit when each and everyone of us brings to the table what we’re most talented at, whether it’s making art, being good with people’s taxes, or having the focus necessary for a lengthy open heart surgery just to name 3 examples. I’m not a political person, but I rarely see this policy put forward in the existing landscape and I wish it was a bigger part of the conversation of what makes a good society.

We have been blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she just might see this.

That’d be the actor who voiced the character from the story I mentioned earlier, Showtaro Morikubo. In a way he is the catalyst behind everything that I have achieved after that career pivot, since his portrayal of the character was the main reason behind me liking him and reading that particular story.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?

I mostly hang out on Instagram at @thisisalexisneve, and on Substack where I’m sharing cool things on Notes in between issues of my newsletter, Kinda Spiritual. It’s just @alexisneve over there.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Thank you for having me! It’s been my pleasure.


Alexis Neve: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.