Episode 46 - Camille Walala

This Way Up

For episode 46, I had the pleasure of interviewing fellow French woman and super talented artist Camille Walala. If you’re a Londoner, you will have probably seen her work around town- that’s because it cannot be missed. Camille uses buildings or any type of man-made landscape as her canvas, using a fusion of bold colours and playful geometric patterns. Whether it’s reviving an entire street in Leyton stone, creating a weird and wonderful house for Lego, taking over a disused petrol station in Arkansas, or most recently creating a pop-up supermarket selling artist-designed foods at the Design Museum. Her work is bold, colourful, and striking to say the least.
As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of her work so I was so excited to sit down with her to talk about her journey. From growing up in a small town in the south of France, she went to London as a student to work on her English and fell in love with the city and its free spirit. Her biggest struggle, however, was to find her career path. We go deep to understand what it was that made things so hard.
She attributes her lack of confidence and being a harsh self-critic as two of her biggest hurdles she had to overcome. Multiple jobs and a textile degree later, out of pure frustration her creative voice was born. It was her hardship and tenacity that led her to be one of the most recognizable artists today
and such an inspiration.
The thing I love most about Camille is her passion to elicit joy in everything she creates and this conversation is no exception.
I hope you enjoy this interview just as much as I Ioved recording it.