Welcome to AllArtWorks Featured Artist Series!
1. What other profession is similar to being an artist and why?
I’m thinking that it would be a profession where you would willfully put yourself out there, exposed to judgment and rejection. Where belief in yourself is what keeps you going. Being able to take criticism, or worse yet, no reaction at all to your work. One where you can’t stop doing it, even if you tried. And would likely continue to do it regardless of whether you were able to successfully turn your passion/obsession/compulsion for a thing into a profession. And while I can’t cite a particular profession, it seems likely that entrepreneurs of all types of businesses could have this shared experience with an artist regardless of the profession which they find themselves.
2. What’s the nicest thing you can remember someone said about your work, or an individual piece?
It would be “I love how your work makes me feel”. That they were expressing feelings rather than describing meaning said to me that I touched someone. It humbles me to know that I can evoke that emotion through my art.
3. What’s one thing you’d like everyone to know about you as an artist?
That my favorite painting is always the one that I am currently working on.
4. What was the last piece of art that you saw that blew you away?
Actually, it was an exhibition of paintings of Van Gogh and Gauguin at the Art Institute of Chicago called 'The Studio of the South.' It was a collection of paintings done while these two artists lived in Arles, France. The exhibit was a self guided one, based on quotes from letters they had written. To see these paintings and hear their voices through their own written words was a very emotional experience for me. I’ll never forget it.
5. What’s something you haven’t done but you want to do in art/painting?
Sometimes I think I’d like to tell short stories through graphic novels and 'comics.' Or illustrate stories from a piece of literature. I like to draw. The medium you use can really affect your expression. It’s so different from the experience of painting. I like working with ink, charcoal and graphite. I have a lot of sketchbooks and explored some things here. But I seem to always be pulled back to painting.
It would definitely be Delacroix because he is a storyteller. His figures are real. He paints scenes with a lot of action and energy. Or even those that are more nuanced, you can look at them and let your imagination take hold and let your own version of the story through them.
*The reason we ask about Delacroix and Ingres is because they were contemporaries with wildly different styles!
