The first thing you notice when you meet Natalie Krim is her voice. She has the dialect and pitch of 1940s movie star and the demeanor too. Itโs a cool glamour, a poised glamour that is as sharp as a razor blade. Perhaps the Hollywood lineage isnโt too far off โ her grandfather was a Hollywood portrait photographer who shot everyone from ---- to ---. Her grandfather is also most likely where she gets her creative gene. Krimโs illustrations, which are highly erotic in nature in all manner of repose, self-pleasuring, orgiastic and mellifluously sensual, are feminine and delicate, like she is, but hint at darker overtones. They are a world all her own, alter-egos, characters from the unconscious, coquettish nymphs, desirous, wanting and wanton โ they recall a world created by Henry Darger or the illustrations of Gustav Klimt. Before her current show on view now at Little Big Man Gallery, we got a chance to ask her a few questions about her work, sexuality and secrets.
AUTRE: I want to talk about your origins, and where you started to pick up your first sort ofinspirations and motivations as an artist. Both your parents were artists right?
KRIM: My mom is, and my dad was a mortgage banker. So complete opposite. But he always wanted his kids to be artists and creative.
AUTRE: Was there a photographer in the family?
KRIM: Oh my grandfather! He had a photography studio in Los Angeles that my mom grew up in. And he would shoot all the old Hollywood movie stars, and that was kind of her upbringing.
AUTRE: Amazing, did you ever get to meet him?
KRIM: I didnโt, he died before both my brother and I were born. But I grew up looking at all ofhis photographs and it was very much a part of my upbringing.
AUTRE: So basically he was a glamour photographer that would take pictures of the stars?
KRIM: Yeah, we have photographs from all over.
AUTRE: Did you get to see any of his photography?
KRIM: Oh yeah we have a ton of it. Clark Gable, everyone. Itโs very interesting.
AUTRE: Did they encourage you to make art? Or did you know that you wanted to be an artist at an early age?
KRIM: Not until only this year would I even call myself an artist. It was never a thing growing up. It was just how we were taught to express ourselves. I mean I always had journals and my mom would wake me up at 3 oโclock in the morning to watch a Channel runway show. It was just a part of our upbringing. I didnโt go to art school.
AUTRE: Can you remember the first drawing you ever made?
KRIM: I donโt know the first drawing, but I do have a drawing from preschool of a panda that the teacher wrote โyou should have put more effort into itโ. I felt like she was such an asshole.
AUTRE: So it wasnโt an erotic panda?
KRIM: (laughs) It wasnโt an erotic panda. I remember I used to draw girls as rectangles, that was my first go at it.
AUTRE: When did you discover your style?
KRIM: I started drawing the girls that I draw after a breakup. I hadnโt really been creating anything up until that point. It was just a way for me to express myself, and I just had so much fun. Then I started dating an artist who really just pushed me to keep at it, and kind of taught me to wake up in the morning and the first thing you do is draw.
AUTRE: Your persona is perhaps one of the most interesting things about your art. It seems like youโve developed a persona, because youโve seemed to take on the characters in your artwork. Is that something that happened over time?
KRIM: Well they arenโt really characters, theyโre really self-portraits. So I donโt think of my work as work, because itโs just how I write a diary. Itโs all of my experiences, itโs my relationships with lovers, or myself. So I donโt really see a disconnect - itโs just the same.
AUTRE: Do you think your work is feminist in nature? Or is it purely feminine? Do you think about the politicalaspect?
KRIM: I donโt think about it at all. I think itโs just feminine. Thereโs so many female artists right now that are so focused on just sexuality, and thereโs so many other womenโs rights that I wish had a little bit more attention. Like education and things like that. I feel like just because Iโm a female artist I get classified as super feminist. And I am a feminist, but it has nothing to do with my work. Iโm not trying to make a statement with it, Iโm just showing you my life.
AUTRE: Do you think that these days people have a hard time understanding sex? Or that pornography especially has tainted our ideal of a positive sexual lifestyle?
KRIM: I find that only in America, I donโt find that in European cultures or other places. I feel like pornography has created almost a violence that goes along with sexuality, or just adisconnect that when youโre with a lover you have to act a certain way or say a certain thing. Youโre kind of missing just being with the person. Iโm not blaming that totally on pornography though, I know itโs an individual way to be intimate with someone.
AUTRE: Maybe itโs about sex education being so lacking that people grow up and have this weird idea of what it is? You must get a lot of unsavory messages with people who confuse your work.
KRIM: Oh my god I could show you, I have like 50 dick pics in my inbox.
AUTRE: La petite mort. Itโs such a poetic way to describe an orgasm. Why do you think the female orgasm is such a mystery to people?
KRIM: I mean I can only speak for myself, but I think as women thereโs that saying โdisease to pleaseโ like youโre so focused on your lover that you donโt put yourself first or you may feel guilty about having pleasure. Or youโre afraid to express yourself sometimes. I just know from growing up that when you know what you want youโre able to communicate that. But often times if youโre casually sleeping with people maybe you donโt say that all the time. Or know how your body works.
AUTRE: Itโs a great title for a show because it can mean so many things.
KRIM: It is the small death. For me, most of this work is a closure for me for a certain period of time. Itโs a death on my train of thought on pleasing people.
AUTRE: Whatโs next after the show?
KRIM: I would like to explore making work on a larger scale. Maybe exploring different parts of my life and not sharing just the erotic side of it. It depends on if I fall in love soon because then itโll be all about that.
AUTRE: Do you think people pigeon-hole you into this sort of erotic illustration?
KRIM: I mean my background is in lingerie. Iโve studied all types of eroticism, and fetish. Iโve been studying that since I was 15, so that is a very big part of me. I think at this point I would like to tap into other formats.
AUTRE: Who are some of your biggest influences in that world, especially in fetish?
KRIM: Thatโs a good question. I really am inspired by people not in the erotic world right now. Iโm super inspired by Jane Fonda and Dolly Parton. I think Iโm more inspired by women and their strengths and not so much artists as erotic artists but more of a personality or related experiences I could share with somebody.
Natalie Krim's first LA solo show "because I love you but you're not here" is on view now at Little Big Man Gallery, 1427 E. 4th Street Unit 2 Los Angeles CA. This interview was originally published in Autre's LOVE ISSUE, which is available in print here. text and interview by Oliver Maxwell Kupper. photographs by Eric Morales