00:00:00
Maïna Hervé: I want art to be enjoyable and to be in the moment and do something really joyful when I create. And I felt like when I had the pressure of doing art for a portfolio, for example, I was not even enjoying the process anymore. So now I’m trying to put fun as the biggest goal, I’d say. I started recently a YouTube channel actually and I think the longer format suits me more because on YouTube I feel it’s a little bit more quiet and you have more time to say what you want and you can draw for like two hours or spend really more time with your community than a reel that would be like 10 seconds on Instagram so I think it’s about choosing the right platform for you. So I would say just remember what makes you happy and finding joy in the process and to keep doing that. I know it’s hard because I’m in the industry as well, but you will eventually find your people and your community.

00:01:22
Geraldine Hennessy: So today we chat to Ballincollig based visual artist Maïna Hervé. Maïna, you’re very welcome to the podcast.

00:01:35
Maïna Hervé: Hi, welcome.

00:01:37
Geraldine Hennessy: So tell us a little bit about you and what you do.

00:01:41
Maïna Hervé: So I’m Maïna, I’m a French visual artist. I studied concept arts in high school, which is like producing character design or background design for video games or animation. And then I moved to Cork in 2024, and now I’m working there full time while trying to make art on the side as a living.

00:02:15
Geraldine Hennessy: And you mentioned there about moving to Cork. So how has moving to a new country influenced the mood of your recent illustrations?

00:02:20
Maïna Hervé: I think I like to draw from real life. So I really like to go to nature. Like in Ballincollig we have a really nice park, so I like to go with my sketchbook and just draw from life. I think as well it helped me that in Cork there are some communities like Open Walls or associations that help artists. And so I could meet and connect with other artists, so it was really nice as well.

00:02:54
Geraldine Hennessy: So did you find that support from other artists, especially when you moved over, important?

00:03:00
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, I think I looked for art meet-ups because I wanted to connect and to see what was the art culture like in Cork. So I looked for any meet-ups in animation, even I met up also with some comic artists recently. It was nice to build kind of a community in the new country with people that are interested in the same things as I am.

00:03:35
Geraldine Hennessy: Very good. And after your formal training, how did you arrive at your own individual style?

00:03:48
Maïna Hervé: So my training, as I said, was mostly focusing on backgrounds and visuals for video games, animation as well. But I thought sometimes the themes in video games could be really dark. So sometimes what I would do for school, like as homework, would not feel like myself. I think when I would create for school or my portfolio, I would focus on what people want to see or what’s trending at the moment in video games. And when I finished art school, I realised, oh, maybe this is not me. So what I would do for work, like, for example, like, warriors and a lot of violence and stuff like that, I didn’t really recognise myself anymore in that. So now I think my art is more about the daily life, colour, food, because I really like colour. And I realised I was not using that much for school. And also, like, I like any art that’s engaged with women’s rights or subjects that really touch me. So I draw a lot of diverse women. So I feel like it’s getting more personal. I tried recently also to draw, like, every day what I was grateful for. So little things like just my coffee in the morning or the sun in my face. And I thought it would resonate more with me than thinking about what would get me hired or what people want to see.

00:05:38
Geraldine Hennessy: So you’re kind of the way you’re going now at the moment is what interests you as opposed to maybe what’s topical or what’s in right now. You’re focusing on what’s making you happy. And I presume then at the end, you’re producing better and more work as a result.

00:05:54
Maïna Hervé: Yeah. And it’s also a feeling more authentic and true to who I am, because in the end I paused and I was like, why am I doing art? And I want art to be enjoyable and to be in the moment and do something really joyful when I create. And I felt like when I had the pressure of doing art for a portfolio, for example, I was not even enjoying the process anymore. So now I’m trying to put fun as the biggest goal, I’d say.

00:06:33
Geraldine Hennessy: And it’s kind of funny that you say that it was so dark because when I look at your artwork, it’s so bright. It must be the polar opposite, is this?

00:06:44
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, I mean, not all works would be dark, but we had, for example, one teacher that was really in historical art and we would do a lot of work as I said, or subjects that after a while were not aligned with what I wanted to do.

00:07:07
Geraldine Hennessy: And obviously you did a lot of work with, say, animation, which is, I suppose, a lot very digitally art focused. Do you have a preference for digital art or more traditional mediums?

00:07:20
Maïna Hervé: I think I used to do a lot of traditional art. I really like watercolour because I think, especially when I sketch outside, it’s really easy and intuitive to get the colours and to get a really quick sketch of what I want to represent. I did recently get an iPad, so I’m starting on Procreate. I used to work on the computer on Photoshop a lot. And I’m enjoying Procreate as well because I think it’s also like you can bring your iPad anywhere and you can also get that sense of intuitive drawing. I don’t at the moment, I think also with AI, I’m trying to go back a bit more to traditional drawing because I like to feel that it’s made by a human. So to feel the sense of the paper and the touch of the paintbrush. So I like to reconnect with what’s real at the moment.

00:08:31
Geraldine Hennessy: So I suppose in the world, which is very much going towards AI, you’re veering back to more the traditional medium as such.

00:08:44
Maïna Hervé: Yeah. But you’ll see how it goes.

00:08:46
Geraldine Hennessy: OK, it goes. And you openly discuss mental health and trauma-informed perspectives in your work. Do you view your art primarily as a tool for your own grounding and healing or is the audience reaction your main motivation?

00:09:01
Maïna Hervé: I think in the end, like, as I said, I still want to enjoy the process while I’m doing art. But I’m also making art for other people and I want to share my heart with others. So I guess what I would like my art to do is make the world a little bit more peaceful and people to recognise the drawing in daily life. So they would see, like, I don’t know, a drawing and they would be like, oh, yeah, it’s true that it can be the little thing that add up in your days that makes your life a little bit more better at the end. So I think when I draw and I’m really present and I’m really in the moment, it can be a bit therapeutic because I’m really doing what I love and I’m not thinking about anything else. But I would still want people to also be influenced by my art and to have joy from it, if that makes sense.

00:10:19
Geraldine Hennessy: You want it to make you happy, but for the people that are viewing us to also resonate with it and for them to be happy as well.

00:10:28
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, that makes sense, yeah. It’s a bit of a mix of both, really.

00:10:36
Geraldine Hennessy: OK. And vulnerability, I suppose, is a massive part of your art. Does it ever feel scary to put such personal and emotionally raw work out there?

00:10:42
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, it does, especially because I think that’s also what I was a bit hiding while I was in art school and putting work out there that was not 100 percent representing me. So it would be easier, it was easier to receive criticism or bad grade from them because I was not putting all of myself in the drawing. And now that I’m really representing who I am, it’s really vulnerable. I heard an artist saying you have your diary out there in the world for everyone else to see. So it is really vulnerable.

00:11:40
Geraldine Hennessy: And what is the most meaningful reaction you foresee from someone who saw their own struggles in maybe in your work?

00:11:47
Maïna Hervé: I don’t know if it was from one artwork in particular, but I think what touched me the most, I had friends saying to me, because I saw you going through your art journey, I also decided to go through that path and do art studies. So I think that was the moment that most touched me because they said that seeing me being creative was inspiring them to do their own creative projects. And I don’t know, that was really meaningful for me.

00:12:31
Geraldine Hennessy: And how do you practically manage your energy between your full time nine to five job and your creative career?

00:12:35
Maïna Hervé: That’s the hard part. I think obviously I’m trying to do it, like to do art more on the weekends or after work, but sometimes it can be hard because you feel tired and at the same time I feel the pressure a little bit to make art. But at the end of my day of work, I’m often drained. And so I found myself drawing after work, but because I felt like I had to to be a real artist, I mean, because I think that’s what I’m struggling at the moment. It’s like calling myself an artist, but at the same time having another job on the sides. So I think a part of me wanted to draw as much as possible just to be like to feel like a real artist, if that makes sense. But yeah, that’s a hard thing to manage and I’m still struggling with it, but I like to take the weekend to make more art and to really focus on more creative processes.

00:14:00
Geraldine Hennessy: I suppose you have to kind of be kind to yourself too, you know, that you can’t do it all. But I suppose that’s a struggle that everyone has, isn’t it? That kind of work-life balance, and especially if you’ve got almost two jobs at one time, it’s very difficult no matter what that extra job is to kind of find the balance. OK. And many creatives, I suppose, fear monetising their hobbies because it might kill the joy. And I know you just mentioned it there about trying to, you know, you’re feeling tired, but you still want to be able to create. Have you ever felt that kind of pressure in relation to kind of trying to get money for your art and how would you protect your love for joy?

00:14:37
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, yeah, I had felt that way and I still feel that way sometimes. So as I was saying, especially I think after finishing art school and when I had to really put myself and my work out there to get hired, you know, maybe in an animation studio or video game production. I felt like I was creating just to be hired and I was doing things of pieces in my portfolio that were not representing me just because I was pressured to get money from it. So yeah, I felt that pressure a lot and it’s hard to still find sometimes to do what you like without thinking like to monetise it like every time. So yeah, it’s a hard balance as well.

00:15:48
Geraldine Hennessy: OK, and you spoke there about, you know, coming home and being tired from work and maybe almost forcing yourself to do creative work. But what strategies do you say not even so at the end of a working day, but even at the weekend, what strategies do you use to switch into creative mode without forcing it?

00:16:04
Maïna Hervé: I think I always have to have music is the first thing I like to listen to peaceful music when I start drawing so I can start to put myself in my little bubble and I can reach that flow state where I create more easily. And I have to put myself in an environment like with a good lighting or in a good environment that allows me to create in good conditions. So I’d say like maybe also start with like sketching a few things to put myself in the moods before actually doing like the final illustration of stuff like that would help me.

00:17:02
Geraldine Hennessy: And Instagram and the constant grind of the social media algorithm can be a real challenge for all of us. How are you finding ways to build a community without becoming a slave to the content machine? I know you mentioned there about me having me shops with other artists. Is that something that you kind of focus on?

00:17:15
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, that’s also a big subject I have in mind at the moment because I feel like when I was trying to grow on Instagram because we are always told to grow on Instagram and quickly for me didn’t really work. I still have an Instagram account but I’m not posting that much because I think when I do post I’m focusing too much on the numbers, how many followers did I get, how many views, how many likes. So I’ve become quite obsessed with the numbers which is not what I want from creating. So I think what helps me was to do meetups in real life and also I started recently a YouTube channel actually. And I think the longer format suits me more because on YouTube I feel it’s a little bit more quiet and you have more time to say what you want and you can draw for like two hours or spend really more time with your community than a reel that would be like 10 seconds on Instagram. So I think it’s about choosing the right platform for you that you resonate the more with. Like for some people it could be newsletter, for some people it could be I saw people they would like drop their art in like the street or they would create sites or like putting bookmarks in libraries or and I love those ideas. I saw a lot of ideas like that recently on internet and I think it’s nice to reconnect with people in a more meaningful way without always going through social media and just remembering like just having a website is like enough sometimes.

00:19:36
Geraldine Hennessy: I suppose yeah people kind of get lost in the numbers don’t they like and it just doesn’t suit everyone like that’s the reality especially I think if you’re creative you’re having these little bite side moments on Instagram, you know, it just doesn’t work sometimes if you and it works for some people, but I think not for everyone and it’s nice to hear someone who’s maybe going with longer forms or different forms that actually just works for them. So well done you.

00:19:59
Maïna Hervé: Thank you. Yeah, especially I personally don’t like to watch art on Instagram because I think when I’m scrolling to my feed, I see the art from like for like one second. So I also started thinking about which platform do I like because it doesn’t make sense. For example, I don’t really enjoy TikTok so I’m not going to stop posting on TikTok because I would not like to consume contents of this platform and I really like watching creators on YouTube. So it made more sense to use a platform that I actually like.

00:20:39
Geraldine Hennessy: Exactly. Stay true to yourself with your social media.

00:20:43
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, exactly.

00:20:43
Geraldine Hennessy: And you, I suppose stepped offline and did your first physical art market last December. How did it that feel and how did it feel to see I suppose people interact with your prints in real life. It must have been kind of cool.

00:21:00
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, it was really nice. So it was at the Open Walls that I mentioned before, which is a really cool organisation for people who don’t know they do one market each month for artists and it’s free and it’s just for discovering local artists. And I did my first one in December and it was really, really cool to see people interact with my work in real life and to come to me and say they liked what I do. And I had some people because I told some people I was doing the market before and some people came just to see my art and buy my prints and it was really like touching and I was so grateful. It was a really nice experience and tiring but in a good way. Like in the end, you’re really tired but because of so many good emotions. So I really liked it and I definitely will do it again and I would like to try to find more markets and maybe that would be a way to share my art without the internet.

00:22:16
Geraldine Hennessy: And it must be great to get that instant real life feedback from people. You know, you can see in their eyes if they like something or if they’re connecting with something. You just can’t get that interaction with social media.

00:22:30
Maïna Hervé: Yeah, you can get comments but like most of the time you get a like if you’re liking so it’s not the same as someone coming to you taking a print of you and like living with a smile and to see people smile at my art I think was the most like, a gratifying thing.

00:22:55
Geraldine Hennessy: Very good, and what advice would you give to other Cork-based creatives who are facing rejection or feeling stuck in their day to day jobs right now?

00:23:04
Maïna Hervé: I think I would say like I mentioned a bit before to remember your “why” kind of, it’s a bit cliche but to remember why you do art in the first place because like for example on the internet at the moment a lot of people saying like artists posting how to get more followers or how to and in the end it’s like it’s a loop of only people on internet telling each other how to get more followers. But it doesn’t make sense to post for nothing like post for the algorithm. So I would say just remember like what makes you happy and finding joy in the process and to keep doing that and I know it’s hard because I’m in the industry as well but yeah you will eventually find your people and your community.

00:24:01
Geraldine Hennessy: Well thanks so much Maïna for joining us on the Cork Creative podcast. If you’d like to learn more about Maïna and her work you can find links on corkcreative.ie. Thank you!