Interview

I had recently been interviewed by a college student for a paper she was writing. I thought I'd share some of her questions.

SF: Well, now that I know you will be answering questions, I'm not sure what to ask.
Im so happy to hear back from you. Your an amazing artist.
Well, When you were going through the 'New Realm' Series what was going through yor head?
Was it a story? like your website describes?
I'm writting about your 'Wisdom' painting in particular, that's the painting that stuck out to me the most.
But i love them all

ME: New Realm, as with any series of work that I've done, started out as numerous thumbnail sketches. I had the idea in mind to use a surreal, fairytale type of theme, but simply sketched tiny compositions until I had a cohesive body of work. I had just finished a series of social commentary paintings, so after coming off of that, I felt that a feminist approach to fairytales was a good lead into the new ideas I had. Still with me? That was the point that I starting assembling a story to all of these sketches and pulling from those. I worked out the ideas that I felt were the strongest and best lent themselves to the overall theme. So from there I took my developed sketches to canvas. As I said before, this applies to my general approach in all of my work.

A lot of people ask if that's me in the paintings. Yes, but I never intended on the series being autobiographical. All of my work is personal to some extent, I suppose that is never completely avoidable. New Realm applies to all women. I can relate to the series in that I'm a woman and have encountered challenges, struggles, etc. in my own life, but that's my only tie to the story. I served as a model out of convenience since it's very difficult to have one person model for an entire series and be at my beck and call.

My artist statement, as you found on my website, formally addresses the theme behind the New Realm paintings. The video on my website goes into more detail about individual paintings, including Wisdom, so that may be of use to you as well. This may go without saying, but I really wanted to load each image with symbolism to help further convey my message.

SF: I'm actually in college right now, first year. and my English teacher set us out pick an artist, and write about them. The paper is titled Picturing Yourself. In which we have to write about the artist and how that particular artist ties into social issues or something of that sort, (ill try to stay awake next time he explains it, my teacher loves to ramble) I came across your work by some miracle to be honest, i just kept searching for an artist and nothing seem to capture my imagination or attention. I remember finding you site from google. and just looking at all the paintings and seeing the video, and i was hooked i guess you can say. I wasn't sure which to choose to begin with, all your paintings seem to say a million and one things.

How long has your work been out there? it's saddens me to say that no one in my class knew your work or who you were, everyone else is writting about artist that are dead or something of that sort. I know your blog says that you first wanted to be a cowgirl, and then realized an artist, How did you know which one to pick? or how did it change to an artist? (besides cowgirls doing more than riding horses)
Have you ran across negative feedback for yur paintings? If so, Has that affected what you paint, and how?

ME: Well, it doesn't surprise me that your classmates wouldn't be familiar with my work. Unless you're dead and in a dusty, old art history book, most of the population won't know who you are as an artist. Most of what I've learned about other artists has been post-university. I've learned a lot by reading magazines- Art in America, American Artist, etc. and also researching galleries' websites and the internet in general. That's how I stay up to date on what others are doing and what galleries are showing, etc.

As for the cowgirl thing, that of course, was what I wanted to do as a little kid. By the time I was 8, I knew I wanted to be an artist. I think by then I became more aware of the fact that museums existed. The thought of having my work in a museum was appealing to me, though I really didn't understand the significance of that at the time. I also remember seeing a copy of Botticelli's Birth of Venus in an antique store and was mesmerized by it. I enjoyed creating and knew that I wanted to do that for the rest of my life. I delved into the commercial field doing graphic design- company logos, etc. and jewelry design but those are art on a leash. You only have so much creative freedom because everything is about dollars and cents and everyone wants to have a say in what you do. So I tolerated that for as long as I could, then slowly started building a body of work over the past 5 years. I would paint before going to work, then come home and paint until I went to bed. Weekends and holidays were spent painting as much as possible. I entered my first show, a juried show, and won 2nd place. That gave me the confidence to forge ahead and I started knocking on doors and getting into local shows within my city, then the state, and then nationally. Then about 2 years ago, I started my own business and haven't looked back.

Yes, I've encountered negative feedback. Ha! It goes with the territory. As a kid, there would always be somebody who had something mean to say about my work. As an adult, the comments aren't always mean, so much as they are judgmental. For instance, one woman wrote to me and said that she was delighted by some of my work, but "horrified" by others. Some people don't agree with what I paint. That's fine and to be expected. Many times someone will say to me, "You know what you should paint?" and then follow up with their idea of great art ranging from dogs to caricatures to Hurricane Katrina (?). No thanks.

SF: Thank you for answering my questions, I have really enjoyed hearing from you. Im glad i've learned more about you and your work.
Hopefully one day i will get to see your artwork in person instead of a laptop screen.
Thanks again for taking your time to answer my questions. I really appreciate it.