1. When was the first time that you remember realizing that you are a creative person?

When I was around 4 years old.  My parents drove from State to State discovering America or maybe just chasing rainbows.  I sat in the back seat of the car drawing, singing and looking out the window, imagining.  I didn't speak one single word until I was over two.  My Dad always said it was because I had nothing to say.  Debatable of course.  I may have been somewhat Autistic.  As I got older and went to school, I was put in the back of the room often with my back towards the class.  Another teacher put me in a dark closet.  I was always being told to stop daydreaming.  

2. When did you know that this was what you wanted to do with your life?

I never understood it could be an option to do art for my life until I was out of high school.  I was never encouraged in that direction and so I guess I just thought it was something to do alone in my room.  

How did you get started?

I started selling paintings to neighbors and stuff when I was around 18.  It still was not taken seriously.. just something I could do to contribute to the grocery bill.  From there I developed a wholesale pottery business with my x husband.  We took a 6 week class on pottery in Adult Ed, saved up money for a kiln and moved to the mountains.  It advanced to selling to most National Parks, Disney World, JC Penny's and 1000+ mom and pop stores.  We had reps all over the US and had 8 contracted workers.  That was 'production pottery' though,, and even though it was all wheel thrown and hand sculpt, I am not sure that I consider that to be an art.  It was an art remaining sane thought!  I sculpted 120-160 faces a day on beer steins, while my x threw a stein every 40 seconds.  I must say too that I hated it from the first day, but continued to do that for 20 years.  I Painted and did sculptures all the while too.  We also self published booklets that went with musical tapes to enhance stories we had written.

I later left my x and married my HS Sweetheart.  I  never make two of anything now, unless it is a giclee or print or something that I don't have to duplicate myself.  It has been within these past 12 years that I have developed myself as an artist.  Ups and downs along the way.  

3. What traits, if any, do you think that creative people have as compared to people who are not creative?

Sensitivity.  I tell people all the time that desire is talent and the rest is practice.  I don't believe in the notion that people cannot draw a strait line.  They were never taught how, that's all.  I feel that if someone 'wishes' they were an artist?  They are.  So they better get to work on their dream. 

4. Do believe that your training has influenced what you create?

I am self taught.  I think anything we need to know is in books or practice.  I have taken some sculpture classes though.  I do feel that by being self taught I have found my way to my style, where with someone's outside influence I may never have.  I paint and sculpt by instinct, not rules.  I am not sure that you can teach the emotion that it takes to 'see' and implement, what it would take to bring breath to a painting or sculpture.  It all goes back to desire.. and an inner voice.

5. Have you ever felt that your personal expectations have limited your creativity?

If so, how have you dealt with this?

Oh sure  If you try to please just one person.. maybe you will be successful.. maybe.  But if you go beyond that you will never do it.  I am easily influenced, so I have to be careful who I ask, what of.  I want to sell and be famous.. I think everybody does.  As I go to my canvas I am in turmoil about who to please and what will benefit my career.  Sometimes that has to be considered to make grocery money, so I paint what I need to.  Other times I tell myself that I need to reach inside.. pull out that nebulous insight and slather that on the canvas instead.  The latter is the only way to get better as an artist I feel.  It is a real battle.  I am not sure I have solved it either.  

6. Have other people supported or inspired you? Please explain.

Not my parents.  I think they did not consider me to be all that bright, because even as I grew older, I didn't talk all that much.  When I was in High School I painted or drew or whatever.. only women.  When I would ask my teacher if I could have some materials, he would ask me what I was going to draw, etc.  A girl! I would always say.   He would kind of frown at me then reluctantly give me what I asked for. I used to do pastel with these girls without tops on and only suspenders.. that would drive him crazy.  One day he told me that there were some complaints from the office so I could not do that anymore.  

It was not until I was around 18 when I started selling my oil paintings for $10-20. that I realized that I had talent.  My x was supportive as long as I painted mountain scenes.. stuff like that.  UG!

I would say that the most supportive person has been my husband Denny.  He has sacrificed, encouraged, done battle when I wanted to give up and been my biggest cheering section.  

7. How have you dealt with any criticism you have gotten because of your creative endeavors?

With inside criticism I tend to retreat and cry.  It takes me awhile to recover and then I pick myself back up again and move forward.  For me?  Art is all there is, so it is a lot like making up with a boyfriend after a fight.  

With other people it depends on who they are.  If they have clout or know what they are talking about they can take me to my knees.  If not?  Screw em.

8. Do you ever feel that you have to censor your creativity because you don't want to offend anyone?

Oh gads.. yes!  Big problem in American especially.  I am working on an erotica series now because my gallery in New York that represents me, Monkdogz Urban Art,  is going to do a show on it.  They have guts and of course that is New York.  I have done several paintings of erotica prior to that but most galleries want fluff and freak out with even a nipple..

9. Do you do anything special to get your "creative juices" flowing? Please explain.

Music.. that is huge. I sing my lungs out.. the louder the better.   My husband always encourages me to meditate, even light candles.. but I tend to just plunge in.  I think about art all of the time, so I figure that is enough meditation to get me there.  When I get frustrated I tend to uncork a bottle of champagne or wine or whatever.  People might not agree with me, say what they will, it works for me to get totally zonked from time to time.  I also totally mess up the canvas to start out.. everything from that point is an improvement.

10. Does your work convey a specific emotion or message?

My efforts are to convey passion.  I paint and sculpt people, mostly women so emotions are a key element. 

My newest Artist's Statement:

Passion has a sense of violence about it, it is strong and it survives aggression.  I do not paint passive art.. I paint passion.  Within passion one finds a boldness full of enticing ambitions to grasp on to, that piece of your heart that presses you to go past the mark of a bystander, the spot you may have been told to stay put on. No, it is not possible to feel passive when standing next to passion.  I don't paint landscapes to hang above someone's couch, paintings meant to be a resting place for the mind?  I paint feelings that one cannot just walk past.  I hope to stir up emotions within the viewer.  It is not my goal to feel nothing but a sunny day or peacefulness, shiny trinkets that rest on walls that can be walked away from.  I paint women who feel something.  Strength, sexuality, pain, power, a force of intensity, emotional qualities that generate a reaction.  I don't paint the sky, I paint the dominance of the wind that caused it to be felt on ones skin, in the form of a woman.  I pick up my brush or clay between my fingers and consider a certain belligerence, an attitude of confidence that meets the power I need to form an energy outside myself and I welcome it in.  I paint or sculpt until I hear them breathing and their breath becomes my own.

 

11. If you could be any object, what would you be? Why?

I would go back and be that little girl in the back seat of her parents car. I consider her to be an object. I would reassure her that someday she would find her way.

12. What are your words of wisdom for someone starting out in your field?

It goes back to what I said in the beginning.. if you want to be an artist?  YOU ARE!  Desire is talent and the rest is practice.  Believe in yourself.

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