Misery, AKA Tanja Thompson, has been painting her way through New Zealand’s streets and galleries since her friends first dragged her from the back of their high school art room. Now that she’s got an established art career, her biggest problem is finding the time to keep up her street art.

For those who aren’t aware who is Misery? Are you sad all the time?

No I’m not really very sad, ‘Misery’ is the name I make art under, it came about when I was doing graffiti and street painting early on in my art career. It suits my characters better, which i guess in a way are little sad versions of me!

What was it that first sparked your interest in street art? 

I got in to street art through friends at high school, I was extremely shy at school and pretty much lived in the art room drawing in my black books, my friends that were into graffiti were always hassling me to come out and paint. I thought it sounded exciting and was intrigued by there obsession to go out all night and put up their names at the risk of being arrested.

With now an established art career is it hard to find a balance between the work you do on the street and your commercial practice?

Yes , I m ashamed to say that my street painting has been neglected a lot in the last few years. It’s still my most favourite way of making art, because it is so free and never for money just for love and fun. It’s hard to find time to do it very often these days.

How do you keep an interest in what you do?

I love doing what I do, so it’s never been a problem staying interested and challenging myself to do bigger and better things with my work. I guess just trying not to let what you love be all about work and earning a living all the time. It can be very depressing when that happens and you burn out. Always saving one painting or one project that is just your baby. Street painting has the same effect. I also love collaborating and having people around me to get psyched with about projects. It’s much more fun that way.

Where are you currently with your career and what is your primary focus for the future?  

Painting, Exhibiting overseas, Travel and making clothing with my younger sister Meg.

I’ve been working on some new sculpted works with my friend John Osbourne. We’ve made Misery girl taxidermy heads that will be mounted on the wall and some very beautiful flowers. They will look like life size shrines.

Primary focus is art, painting, developing my characters. Working on a few different collaborations. The Launch of my new web site misery.com, new tee shirts and a kids clothing line too.

You mention the late Martin F. Emond as an important influence on your growth as an artist. What was his impact on your work and what insight did you gain under his tutelage?

I guess Martin was my first artist mentor, he was very inspiring and I looked up to him a great deal. He was one of the first people that was truly encouraging of what I was doing and really believed in me. He certainly had a lot to do with me choosing making art as a career path.

The primary focus in your works tends to be your characters for which you seem to build strong personalities. How much of a back story do you tend to create for these characters? Can you give us a bit of history behind one of your favourite?

I have several characters, not all of them have stories or names… there are too many. I have been wanting to develop them more for a long time. There are a few that certainly stand out or I create them in mind of building worlds and adventures for them.

I ‘ve been collaborating with a few different friends on story writing for them.

My good friend Poet and Rapper, Tourettes, wrote a really amazing story for one of my characters Holly Melancholy a story about Holy and her ghost friend Julius and their journey to save the night who is a drunken bum that resides at the bottom of the ocean whilst the sun takes over the earth and burns everything.

My Other two very good friends Tosh Monsta and Rhys Morgan write pieces for my characters too, I like having different people contribute ideas and personalities for them.

Are the characters you create ever a reflection of you current mood or headspace?

Yes, I think they always are to some degree. I get asked all the time if they are self portraits… which is not intentional at all but they definitely have certain personalities of mine and sometimes look quite similar.

If there was only one experience that people could pull from your work what would you want that to be?

Hmmm, I guess that I would hope that they would take something away with them after looking at it, like maybe they are really excited to go home and draw or the adore them or it makes them very sad or reminds them of something from childhood? I’m not sure. Whenever I have an exhibition I try as hard as possible to make it more of an experience that people will love and remember than just viewing some art works on the wall… opera singers, Chinese dragon dancers, dress ups, circus freaks animals, what ever it takes.

You released a vinyl toy range in 2006, is there a desire to release another series?

The 2006 range only made it to sample stage. I really felt that back then I was still not certain what characters I most wanted to develop. So we made samples and people were really excited about them, however I felt my style was changing and growing at a rapid pace and that it would be better to hold off until I felt sure.

Now I feel really ready to do toys, I have many sets of cool characters ready to go all with stories and worlds and lots of potential.

For my solo exhibition at Peter Webb Gallery August ’08 I created a series of resin sculpted heads, they were so much fun to make and it really got me amped to make the toys happen. So yeah we are currently working on a Misery doll and some other little characters.

What advice can you give to all the young aspiring artists out there that are looking to achieve the same kind of success?

Get your work out as much as possible, website or Myspace, on the street in galleries whatever, communicate with people you admire and ask for lots of tips and advise. Also to be careful not to be taken advantage of, always retain your copyright and know what your work is being used for.

And always enjoy it, as soon as your not, have a break and do something else.

Interview By Christine Jaram & Pj Smith

For more on Misery, to check her work and to buy up on some of her paintings and prints make sure you visit misery.com.