Category Archives: Studio
Q: Do you have an essential philosophy that guides you in your creative expression?
A wall in Barbara’s studio
A: Here are my two essential philosophies:
“Give it all you’ve got and keep going.” I wrote this years ago on a piece of paper and tacked it onto the wall behind my easel so I can always see it.
“Excellence can be attained if you… care more than others think is wise… risk more than others think is safe… dream more than others think is practical… expect more than others think is possible.” These words are on a small plaque, also tacked on the wall behind my easel. A co-worker gave this to me when I resigned my Naval commission to pursue an art career.
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Q: What art marketing activities do you put into practice regularly that work most successfully for you?
“White Star,” 38″ x58″, ready to go to the framer
A: This blog continues to be a crucial part of my overall art practice. Blogging twice a week forces me to think deeply about my work and to explain it clearly to others. The process has helped develop a better understanding about why I make art and has encouraged me to become a better writer.
As far as art marketing, one crucial activity is to take my blog posts and repurpose them for posting on social media sites. Several years ago I realized it’s necessary to put as much time and energy into getting my work seen online as it is to create it.
With the help of my assistant I stay active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. I have sold paintings, in the 5-figure price range, through Facebook connections. Recently an art critic reconnected with me via LinkedIn and went on to write a scholarly essay about my “Black Paintings.” In December she’s presenting a paper at Oxford University and will speak about my work.
I find online marketing to be a constant challenge, but it does yield rewards. You never know what might happen.
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Q: What invaluable art business lesson did you learn in the past year?
Barbara’s studio
A: I have decided that it IS necessary to work with art galleries. During my thirty years as an artist, I have been represented by two dozen galleries and found most to be disappointing. For the past few years I have focused extensively on social media and other sorts of creative marketing. My efforts have built significant name recognition – many more people around the world know about me and my work – but my collector base has not expanded as much as I would have liked. So I have revised my marketing strategy to include gallery representation.
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Start/Finish of “Incognito,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″ image, 50″ x 70″ framed
C-print and preliminary charcoal sketch
Finished
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Start/Finish of “Blind Faith,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″ image, 50″ x 70″ framed
Beginnings
Finished and signed (lower left)
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Q: What significance do the folk art figures that you collect during your travels have for you?
Barbara’s studio
A: I am drawn to each figure because it possesses a powerful presence that resonates with me. I am not sure exactly how or why, but I know each piece I collect has lessons to teach.
Who made this thing? How? Why? Where? When? I feel connected to each object’s creator and curiosity leads me to become a detective and an archaeologist to find out more about them and to figure out how to best use them in my work.
The best way I can describe it: after nearly three decades of seeking out, collecting, and using these folk art figures as symbols in my work, the entire process has become a rich personal journey towards gaining greater knowledge and wisdom.
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Pearls from artists* # 207
Barbara’s studio
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
More than in any other vocation, being an artist means always starting from nothing. Our work as artists is courageous and scary. There is no brief that comes along with it, no problem solving that’s given as a task… An artist’s work is almost entirely inquiry based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific that they can only be your own.
“What It Really Takes to Be an Artist: MacArthur Genius Teresita Fernandez’s Magnificent Commencement Address,” by Maria Popova in “brainpickings”
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Start/Finish of “Broken,” soft pastel on sandpaper, 38″ x 58″
First day’s work on “Broken”
“Broken,” completed but unsigned
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Q: What’s on the easel today?
Work in progress
A: I am still in the early stages of a large pastel painting. After visiting Peru and Miami for three weeks, it has taken a few days to readjust and get back into my work routine.
In case you’re wondering, the undistinguished gray shape, roughly center left, is a placeholder for a stone figure found at a shaman’s shop in Chinchero, Peru. When I took this photo, the figure was at my apartment instead of in the studio (and I need to see the figure to paint it).
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Pearls from artists* # 204
Barbara’s studio with work in progress
* an ongoing series of quotations – mostly from artists, to artists – that offers wisdom, inspiration, and advice for the sometimes lonely road we are on.
It has been said that science helps us understand what we can do; the arts and humanities – our culture and values – help us decide what to do. Studying the arts and humanities develops critical-thinking skills and nimble habits of mind, provides historical and cultural perspective and fosters the ability to analyze, synthesize and communicate.
As author Daniel Pink observed, “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind of person with a certain kind of mind – computer programmers who could crank code, lawyers who could craft contracts, MBAs who could crunch numbers… The future belongs to a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people – artists, inventors, designers, storytellers, caregivers, consolers, big-picture thinkers – will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”
David J. Skorton, Director of the Smithsonian Institution in “What Do We Value?” Museum, May/June 2016
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