And we have a winner! Last night, Kymia Nawabi stole the show on the finale of "Work of Art"; the judges really dug "Not For Long, My Forlorn," a poignant exhibition of death-themed drawings and sculptures devoted  to her late father. They crowned her the "next great artist," not to mention $100,000 and a show at the [world famous]  Brooklyn Museum of Art. We got on the phone with the last contestant standing to discuss where the money is going, why she's still waitressing, and why everyone keeps telling her former fellow contestant Lola Thompson is such a bitch. 

How are you doing?

Super tired and excited everything at once. I was with my sister and my brother-in-law who flew out from California to watch the final show with me last night. We were with my boyfriend at his parents' house. We were freaking out screaming at the TV.

Did they have any clue you were the winner?

I’ve been really good at holding my tongue because I had so much riding on it. I was crying so many times during the episode maybe I threw them off.

This was a very, very emotional season. 

You have no idea. They actually did us a solid and edited out most of it. There were a lot of tears shed. It’s like you’re working nonstop and you don’t get a lot of hours of rest, and all of a sudden they throw you into the interview room with one difficult question after another. My fellow artists know this — there's never holding back crying for me. Once it starts, it never stops. It was really, really overwhelming how epic the whole thing was. All three of us could safely say that. I wish there were new interesting words to use to describe how it felt.

How is life after "Work of Art"? Someone on our staff told me they saw you waiting tables in Brooklyn. 

I do waitress in Brooklyn. I was also waitressing in the city after we were released from the finale exhibition. I’ve had a lot of people recognize me since the show began. "Oh my god, are you Kymia from 'Work of Art'?" I say yes, and then I run away. I get so shy sometimes, and I wasn’t expecting that. Part of you worries that even if they sound really happy and excited, you wonder what they think of your work. Okay fine! We didn’t always have good hair days, and we didn't always get a lot of sleep, but we don't care about that stuff anymore. It really comes down to the artwork. You almost want to apologize. Please remember we had a limited number of hours to work and had to scrap so many ideas! I promise I’m really good!

You talked a lot about struggling in that final episode, though. Is it difficult to support yourself while pursuing your dreams as an artist?

To be completely honest, of course I’m still struggling. The reality of the situation is that we don’t receive any money until after the episode airs. So, as you can gather, I’m sure the discussion now begins when I receive the money. For now I’ve just been working to support myself. I really feel like I’m at a loss. I’ve been trying to mediate on what to do with the money when I receive it. The best thing I can do is pretend I don’t have it – putting it away and working just as hard. I’m definitely going to be in the studio and keep waitressing a couple days a week. My plan is to get back in the studio and make as much work as I possibly can and challenge myself the way I was challenged on the show. The ultimate hope is that from this show there’ll be a lot of phone calls and emails and interest in the work, in purchasing it or showing it, or hopefully in representation (which would be one of the greatest things in the world) from a gallery I would love to work with. These are all flying around in my head. Of course I’m waiting for things to actually start happening.

This whole model of competition TV has had many, many winners come out of it, across every genre. Time and time again they fail to get off the ground, and a lot of times it's because they don't know how to handle the  money. Is that a worry of yours?

I’m not worried about the money disappearing. I can't see myself after working this hard blowing the money away. I 100 percent plan on using it to further my art career. Not, "Oh yay, I finally get to buy that car." I would love it if I knew how to make really smart investsments with the money. I would love for the money to multiply. I’m not apprehensive about it, actually. I feel like I'm an adult, and I’ve been planning for so long to be a professional artist, have it be my lifestyle, and make money from my work. None of that stuff’s going to change. It’s not going to be just some passing thing in my life. I was on a reality television show, but I won, and I participated in this really gorgeous, intelligent show, and something came out of it. I hope there are people out there who aren’t looking at this like it doesn’t matter, and there’s attention brought to what happened.

When people recognize you on the street, is there anything particularly off-putting they say?

Definitely, it never fails whenever people see me, and I'm not saying this — this is not my words, and I always react in a professionally when they say this — but they alway say, “Lola’s such a bitch to you!” I just think that it’s just so upsetting. I have to say now that while I was in the competition with Lola, obviously 'til almost the very end, I thought that, besides that one street art challenge, I thought we got along fine! I thought we were friends. I want to believe we’re friends now. I have to be nice when people say it, but I have to stick up for Lola, too.

Finally, if you could put out a message to Jerry Saltz, what would you say?

We never heard what the judges said about us. We finally see it as the artist along with you guys as the public. My jaw dropped when I heard Jerry saying all these positive things at my show. I could’ve sworn that I didn’t think he was as behind my show as it sounded like he was when it aired last night. I have to say thank you, and I really appreciate his kind words and constructive criticism. I believe his criticism is an art form in itself because he definitely has its own flavor that he brings to the table. It was an honor to have him as a judge, and I’m very pleased to know he did enjoy the work after all.