Fifteen years ago, I graduated from college with a chip on my shoulder, a fairly damaged psyche and a degree in art. After tearing free of my graduation garb and fleeing the campus faster than you can say Neoimpressionism, I settled into a fairly satisfying career as a graphic designer. (And by “settled” I mean that first I simultaneously worked at three uninspiring jobs, none of which were artistic in the least in an effort to find myself/numb my pain/pay off my college loan. What was that whole career counseling thingy again?)
After a lovely stint as a graphic designer in aesthetically pleasing and financially dumbfounding Malibu, I put my not huge but not insignificant salary on the alter of motherhood and bid my paying job adieu. (Enter hyperventilating husband now solely responsible for funding a family, a mortgage and a golf habit all in southern California.) I took it as a compliment that my boss followed me out to my car on my last day, carrying my box-o-stuff and lobbying for me to keep working from home or coming back (”You can bring the baby with you!”) as soon as possible. No way José! I was all about the mommying. (Again, enter supportive but panicked husband. Sorry, and thanks hon.)
Fast forward six years and now I’m happily the mother of two, living in perfect-for-us Meadow Vista, CA (go east from Sacramento and stop just before you hit Tahoe snow) and also happily, painting instead of doing graphic design. I still have the highest respect and appreciation for well done design…I just have zero desire to do it myself. So, about the painting…I’ve done a handful of paintings for our own home, another handful (ok, both hands) for friends’ homes and some others for offices, a church, and sold a few in a local artsy boutique. I landed a spot in the local Auburn Art Walk and don’t yet have a good feel for if “landed” is the right term to use. It seems that this is at least somewhat of a privilege (there’s an arts council and a process and such…it’s not a mere sidewalk fest for anybody who slaps the words ‘artist’ on themselves) but still it is Auburn after all. So…I dunno. Nonetheless, I’m glad for the opportunity to show my work and perhaps just as much, to be therefore motivated to get a body of work completed as well as write an artist statement.
Without exception, every single assignment for every single art class I’ve ever taken included putting the finished assignment up on the wall (or out on a table) for my classmates and professors to critique. Our professors referred to this as the “skin-thickening” process and indeed it was. As a freshman, it was terrifying. By one’s senior year we were all like “Oh yeah, bring it on!” and I’m quite sure that the artist greats of yore turned many a time in their graves as we slung the artsy jargon.
College is what it is and art majors are what they are and upon working in the “real world” I developed a keen awareness of the adversity that collaboration can provide when it comes to creativity. (aka: too many cooks in the kitchen!) But, I retain a deep and abiding appreciation for a good old fashioned peer review. That is what has me here now. The sure to be highly glitzy and celebrity-mobbed Auburn Art Walk (I’m hoping to snag some serious swag) is less than two weeks away so I need to get my waterfowl in a succession. (That’s like saying a piece of art has a “deeply significant, socially latent quality” instead of just saying “Um, is that painting like, done?”) So tonight I took pen to paper (not really, but it sounds nice) and wrote the generally despised (by artists) artist statement. I’d like your feedback on it. I think. Mostly. PLEASE GO HERE AND READ THIS first. (At least skim it. Please!) I used Ms. Goodwin’s suggestions as my writing Bible for this small endeavor. If you are looking for a sophisticated, heady, verbally rigorous statement, I’m telling you now, just go Google another artist because I’m going to disappoint you and I don’t really need to hear about it. (Hello senior year!)
Following is my wee statement. Let me know whatcha think.
June’s Artist Statement
“Organic forms with a modernist flair” is how I’d love to hear someone describe my art. And when I say “organic” I mean in both a literal sense—leaves, trees, sky, dirt—as well as stylistically. And as far as “modernist flair” goes, I just think it sounds spiffier than the good ol’ “nonrepresentational” or “abstracted imagery.” I get pretty amped about things like the veins in a leaf, all the different shades of green in springtime, my family and friends (hey, they’re organic too!) and living in the Sierra foothills. I love to paint, so these things that enthuse me end up in my paintings in some form or another. Sometimes it’s obvious (see Sierra Spring or Trees or Leaf for Lisa) and sometimes it’s not (enter modernist flair…see Everything She Needs and Nothing More or Late February). I once heard a songwriter say that as long as you start with something true, you can successfully go anywhere from there. I apply this theory to my art and thoroughly enjoy going where my brain and the paint takes me when using a single natural element as a stepping off point.
I am inspired, soothed, invigorated and satisfied when I paint. (And interrupted. I’m a mom.) At this point in my life, I’m not out to make any earth-shattering statements with my art. I do aim to make paintings that I like and given that I’m made out of the same stuff that everyone else is, I desperately hope (on a self-doubting day) and joyfully assume (on a confident day) that someone else will like them too. I currently work with acrylics as I enjoy the range of textural qualities acrylic paint affords. Because a variety of textures is inherent to the natural world, this choice works out well, given my inspirations and all.
One aspect of creating art that I especially enjoy is capturing another person’s aesthetic in a painting made specifically for the environment they inhabit, whether that be home or office. (But, if you’re “inhabiting” your office, maybe you should go home a little more!) Since becoming a mother, and thus spending much more time within my own home, my appreciation for spaces that are filled with pleasing and inspiring colors, shapes and meaning has increased. I often think of my paintings as ‘art to live with’ meaning, I intend the paintings I create to be images one wants to be around.
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