The Great Interview Experiment: My interview with an artist

I am part of Neil’s Great Interview Experiment over at Citizen of the Month.

Basically, he posted and the first commenter got inteviewed by him, then the next interviewed the one after them and so one, and so on, and so on. It’s a swell idea.

My interview is with Jacquelyn of “Ascender Rises Above”.

(It’s long, but I couldn’t help it. I had so many questions I wanted to ask! Artists intrigue me.)

Jacquelyn is an artist and I was a tiny bit intimidated to interview her as I cannot create anything tactile and my blog is a pretty silly place for someone so talented and deep. However, we had a lovely time and she was willing to play along with some of my more humorous questions. As the interview went along I kept looking at our contrasting lives. We both have had a lot very painful things happen to us.

To help me cope, I created this blog; a place of fun and humor but also a place that I feel free to get some of my own pain out. Jacquelyn turned to art to create and free herself. It was intriguing to see someone else take such a different and effective path of coping. It made me realize how very similar and how very different humans can be all at the same time.

Her.art.is.breathtaking.

1. Right off the bat I have to say that you are an AMAZING artist. I am completely tactile-challenged and so I envy anyone who can draw anything other than stick figures and phone book doodles. How long have you been an artist? Have you studied art? When did you decide to go professional?

Thanks so much for saying so.

Everyone has an inner artist screaming to be heard; your inner phone book doodler is a well. Check out this book and find out what she is trying to say.
Spiritual Doodles:When my girls were little we (the three of us) would play with books these a lot when we were bored passing them between us, each adding an element:
Drawbreakers:I see you have kids. Kids are very freeing to create with as they are very non judgemental and more creative then we are. My biggest hint with that though is don’t do straight coloring books which are very
limiting; and no crayons – ever.

Ok; you weren’t going there; I just did not want to bypass watering your inner artist!

How long have I been an artist? As a child I hid it until I was older. That is unusual; most kids are able to express themselves; but my family was one where if you had something you wanted to keep you didn’t
put it out there or it would be destroyed. I allowed my art to start emerging in high school — but when I did I had one of those awful literal art teachers. You know, the ‘dream killers’: “If it is not a right angle, it is a wrong angle”. I was a junior in high school, 1971 and Viet Nam was raging on. We were studying oils and I painted -entirely in blues – a wooden cross with a helmet on it, a cloud over it with three eyes crying – to represent the Trinity. even the frame was blue. The teacher was so offended that he told me that I would not be allowed to take art as a senior. In the 70’s as a female there were very few career choices in the midwest (United States) and that ended art as a career for me. However: anyone who knows me absolutely knows that I am very determined and I moved past the crappy sad little narrow-minded literal teacher and began taking college about four years later.

I began taking interior design classes because I loved the perspective renderings classes. Hindsight is 20/20. I should have taken architecture. I should have taken commercial art. Interior design, other then the renderings, was the wrong choice for me.

Also; I notice you were born the year after I graduated from high school. (sigh)

2. Here, I drawed you a picture.

I call it, “The Canine” and I have to say, that it is probably my artistic triumph. It’s a genuine Looney Tunes Original. Hang onto it. It could be worth big money one day! Do you think that I could get into one of those art schools that give you and “Art Aptitude Test” by drawing a cartoon turtle?

I honestly know next to nothing about computer generated art. I know the tiniest bit about PhotoShop; what I have strung together on my own. But I know nothing about layers or animation. I have Illustrator 11 but am not a pro, not even close; I could maybe pull together something like what you just did here with it.

To me (and I might receive hate mail for this) Illustrator comes from an area of the brain called the “math center” and I am allergic to math; completely incapable of doing it, so Illustrator with it’s layers and angles makes no sense whatsoever. I have great respect for those pros who can do it; but to me this is a whole different ball of wax and if I were going to do it I would need to go back to college and start completely over. I don’t think tutorials in the back of the book would train me for a career in computer generated art. So I tip my hat to you!

As for the Art Aptitude Test… I took it when I was 15; drew it and sent it in. I did this in secret, as I was drawing and keeping it to myself then. The school sent someone to the house who offered me a scholarship to the school; right then and there. I would have to leave immediately and not graduate from high school. I recall my parents in the room and they said nothing, just looked at me. It just all seemed very odd. Very surrealistic. I was afraid I was going to get in trouble. Looking back I wondered how legitimate it was. Could they take some 15 year old away to school in 1969? Yet; I have never heard
of that school getting in trouble for any thing illegal. Yet; how legitimate can it be – the form I sent in was next to the ad that created “sea monkeys” when you dropped them in water?!

3. I’ve always loved the idea of having an art studio. Canvas and paint and splotches of color everywhere. I don’t think that it’s going to happen for me. Which is a shame, really. I was thinking about making “The Canine” into a series. Sigh. Where do you create your art? Do you have a studio or a designated room in your home? What is your workspace like?

My home is my studio; my studio is my home. I wish it was as cool as “living in my studio” sounds. Here is my studio off the site “What’s on my desk” to take a peek inside

My “nest” is now empty; with both my ‘birds’ in college (woot woot). They took all the furniture with them. I don’t mind as it emptied my place out and allowed me to spread my light table and work equipment about. I don’t miss having a sofa; but I do soooo miss having a dining table and chairs. I have my eye on one, like the one at Borders that is higher then the others; so much better on the spine.

I would love (love) to have a large live-in studio with no walls to separate; well, except for the bathroom, of course. It would be in the country. And for some reason the outside looks like a cottage with ivy all over it. Go figure. And there is perfect parking. People leave me alone there; except when there is an exhibit; then for some reason they find me easily and park their limos and carry in their oversized purses overflowing with dirty sexy money.

I think for “The Canine” you need a larger name for the series of work. Something like “It’s A Dog Eat Dog World” or “It’s Not All A Walk In The Park”. You could create an exhibit right there in your home with a clothes line and clothes pins if you can’t get a gallery to represent. Or… you could self publish. I could easily (easily) see this canine work its way into a tiny little flip book and you will have it made inthe shade in no time.

4. Why did you start blogging? How long have you been at it. Has blogging helped you as an artist either creatively or professionally?

I started blogging when I got intrigued with Illustration Friday. I wanted to play too. I set up my blog and posted my first item, received my first comment and was immediately hooked. Artists are so predictable that way. We need feedback. And we have to put our name on it. If for no other reason then to secure our copyright. I have been blogging since October 2005
There are several articles out there which talk about how blogs are necessary for artists.

It has helped me a lot getting to know other artists and to show my art. In this economy we provide inspiration and feedback, connection. We troubleshoot problems within art and within the art market. We look out for each other. Most artists will strictly list and market to other artists; or some just to their already established client lists.

I like to get into other venues that are not related to art. I try to find something of interest to post about for different kind of readers;the poetry links, the photography (though mine is not nearly as good as most professional photographers) etc. I very much like promoting other peoples blogs; and don’t mind dropping them a link. Most others will drop me back one. I am learning to pick and choose these people better than I did initially.

Occasionally I will get someone that takes advantage like that etsy blogger the other day but they are far and few between. Most appreciate it and will give a reciprocal nod. I don’tknow if I am cutting off my nose to spite my face. Some art coaches would say so. Sometimes I think of cutting it all back as this is a time killer, a very long process, time that I could be using for creating. On the other hand; according to Lake Trees, my art blog is number 15 of all the art blogs on the web (it changes daily so I move up or down a slot or two) so I am doing something right and I don’t want to change that.

5. I notice that you have an Etsy store. Many craft/artist blogs have opened Etsy shops. When did it open and how has the experience been for you.

My etsy store opened in September 2006.

Etsy seems now to be geared more for very small mass produced items, rather then unique single items. I plan to keep that in mind should I continue with etsy. I am keeping an eye open for other venues which make it not so difficult for people to purchase. At present you have to have an etsy account to buy and most people are not going to go through that much work. Hey; if you hear of a place – you let me know ok? Right now I have originals in my etsy store but when they expire I will only be selling cards and low priced prints, if I keep the store open at all.

6.Do you have a favorite medium or signature style that you use?

I don’t think that I deliberately developed a signature style; it was more of a journey that I took and my style changed as I journeyed. It is still changing. Hmmmm So I guess not.

Initially I graduated with a Fine Arts degree in Interior Design; I was vice president of the student American Society of Interior Designers -however; it wasn’t the fluffing of pillows that I enjoyed – it was the perspective renderings. I loved the challenge of being able to perfectly match samples to my renderings; I enjoyed the exact detailed work required in creating perspectives by hand. I spent about ten years doing contract and residential perspective renderings/interior design;
for interior designers and later offered line drawings of homes for real estate companies.

When the real estate market bottomed out I expanded my horizons to that of a graphic designer and won over 65 national and local awards in the areas of graphic design and marketing. Instead of using clip art I began to pull my own line drawings into advertisements and marketing which gave me opportunity to get my personal art style out into the world. What I most took away from this graphic designer job was to master completing detailed work under a deadline; an art unto itself!

I began doing pointillism pieces when I would return home from working on graphic deadlines. The pointillism piecesllowed me to de-stress and again concentrate on the detailed work I had done while doing perspective renderings. I completed a series of American Indian Pointillism and then shifted into concentrating on children’s expressions.

I moved to California at this point, working on a free lance basis.Intrigued by the assorted art styles I began to challenge myself to self-learn assorted art mediums. Rather then having a subject in mind on what it was that I wanted to create I began to step back and let what was inside come out without judgments or expectations. After the years of mastering commercial art this was extremely cleansing; true catharsis. Doing art in this manner I leave myself open to the infinite
creativity.

I began to write my illustrated novel at the same time and found many of the topics in my subconscious would pop up into my art. I try to do one such piece a day and in doing so found that I was capturing my journey on paper which resulted in a limitless variety of subject matter and techniques. Because I do this art intuitively, without a topic in mind, I rarely post any until after I have ‘processed’ all that comes up for me while doing a piece. I rarely create a piece of art just because there is a prompt or competition for it.

7. Tell us about your Scatterlings line of art. How did it come to be known by that name?

I know what I say right now probably won’t make sense. I was working on the illustrated novel, which was more of a journey of questions for me. I had all these questions from childhood that I did not understand. By the time I had begun working on the Scatterlings© it had been about six years of inner journeying (a lot of the dry and oil pastels). I was nearing the end of the book and I received some “real life” answers to the questions within my childhood. I had proof. A
lot of proof. Without going into a lot of detail I received the confirmation that what I suspected as being true was true. Suddenly every thing in my life which never made a bit of sense suddenly had a lot of clarity to it and it literally brought me to my knees. It turned my life upside down. In order for me to get some order and sembelence back into my life I began doing the Scatterlings© line.

I spend months on each Scatterlings© piece within the line. They are a self-directed enchantment art which combines actual foliage with watercolor and color pencil mediums. Hidden among the actual and rendered foliage are an enchanted assortment of Scatterlings’©; mythical animals and fairies. It was this attention to these tiny details that helped me not implode entirely. To me the fairies looked “scattered” among the pieces so I dubbed them “Scatterlings”; copyrighted each piece separately as the Scatterlings© line.

As a side note I was just informed today that Art and Culture did a wonderful review of the Scatterlings© line and posted it to the web today. I am so humbled! Please stop by Elijah’s site and see his the other emerging artists he offers reviews for. Honored to be among these other fine artists!

Jan Marshall over at A Curious State of Affairs so kindly reviewed the Scatterlings© as well last summer if readers would like to read another. (blush)

8. I love that you use real flowers in your work. Is the gathering and preserving process horrible? Do you have an idea of what you are looking for to create a piece or do you let what you find guide you?

It was definately a trial and error thing. In the beginning a ruined a lot of pieces as I did not preserve them correctly and they rotted on the paper. I did actually have an idea of what I wanted the larger piece to look like and limited myself to a certain amount of fairies and birds in each piece.

Picking each petal and leaf is a unique process; it is not as easy as it looks. Each petal is pressed,preserved and finally hidden within a vision and the whole piece evolves continually. Although preserved in the same manner as a piece of handmade paper; each original is in essence a ‘live’ piece of art. Each finished vision must be framed immediately to prevent deterioration of the pressed flowers and leaves. Packets of silica gel are placed between the original and the frame to absorb humidity.

I am again looking for a gallery for this set of Scatterlings ©. contact me at info at ascenderrisesabove dot com if interested (!) (It doesn’t hurt to ask does it?)

9. As a classically trained singer, when I watch movies or television that has terrible singing it can be quite painful to listen to. Do you have this problem when you are watching something that features
inferior art? Any particular moments that were truly horrible? I have also always wanted to ask someone who can actually draw if they thought that the “Heart of the Ocean” portrait in the movie “Titanic” looked NOTHING LIKE KATE WINSLET. (Sorry for the caps on that last part, but this has been bugging me since 1997. Sigh.)

(I am not a trained singer by any stretch of the imagination. I refuse to even hum aloud as I know this to be true. I also refuse to listen to American Idol so I can’t imagine what something like that is like for you.) Anyway; that is not what you asked.

That is so funny! It had stopped me cold too; but I kept thinking it looked like the Adobe Illustrator 10 packaging woman. I still see that woman on Facebook and MySpace and I did not realize until you posed that question that maybe it is the titanic thing they are showing (no?)

And also I kept wondering where he got the charcoal from to draw with! Wouldn’t it have gotten wet? Wouldn’t the art have been lost at sea?

10. If you had to pick two “Favorite” pieces of yours, what would they be and why?

Ohhhh that is a hard one. You know, you might think that I would prefer my most technically correct paintings; like this one of the perspective renderings (which I am very proud of)

Or, one of the pointillisms:

But I think it would be the dry pastels and perhaps the collages because they really free me to express myself.
(I think you may be sorry you asked…)

“Shut Up” Dry Pastels. I really like this one. If you were to see the original you would see that over the mouth is placed a piece of tape with cotton over the mouth. Since we are being honest here….This is my mothers advice to me. “Just keep your big mouth shut” and this really served the family well. It sealed the deal. I was the ideal child. I wanted to be well loved but no matter how well I listened I was never loved, but that wasn’t the intent anyway. The problem with hoping to be well loved and with keeping your big mouth shut and not telling is to not having a voice. Not ever. And when you are a little girl who grows up to a big girl with no voice and go into the world; people of all shapes and sizes see that you have no voice and they know they can do anything to do you and you will not say a thing. And it can go on for years, thus, the birthday candles on the head. Dry Pastels gave me a voice.

I am no longer “Shut Up”

There are some other pastels, oil and dry, that say quite a bit but I have been presently been getting a lot from these little acrylic collages on canvas

“I Still Seek You” Acrylic/Collage on Canvas. I have been loving the process of this; the literal layers. The use of acrylics combined with collage. To me the image is about childhood games and how adults don’t take games seriously; yet childhood games are so cruel. Being stuck in a game forever, long after it is supposed to be over. Games are ‘practice’ for adult life. “It’s was just a game, It wasn’t real. It didn’t happen. You made it up. Get over it. Are you still hanging on to that old crap?” I like that she has that strong bold light up her back.

This original piece is presently available in my Etsy store which I will be allowing to expire in a few months.

11. There has been a lot of image theft on the internet. Have you been a victim of this or are you worried that it will happen to you at some point if it hasn’t already?

Image theft for artists has been addressed quite a bit on the net. I have been a victim, as many artists are. There is a way to track them and to prosecute them. When my site meter tells me someone is using my image I usually ask them to take it down. I don’t usually ask them for a recprical link. I give reprical links like candy the way it is and they should see that if they were on my site. If they are making money off my image I do begin to take action, I am very persistent.

In addition we artists stick together and we look out for each other. We get to know each other’s work and give each other a heads up when we see someone has taken their images and alert each other. if someone is taken advantage it doesn’t last long.

I have a copyright notice page on my blog which basically gives the Creative Commons and mine states in part:
“Please feel free to read about the art I have created here. Feel free to wonder how I created it, why I created it, what it means. It is free to talk about it. It is not free to take a copy of it, to print it out, to post it on your blog, to call it our own, to use it inside your art, or to make money from it in any way…. I would prefer that you ask first.”

12. I am acquainted with a huge art fan who would love to make out with Salvador Dali and stick a fork in the eye of Thomas Kincaid. Who are a couple of your favorite artists? Do you have any artists or genres
that make your retinas want to start bleeding at the sight of them?

That is funny you would mention both of these artists. Dali was the first artist I adored as well. He is the first artist book that I purchased with my own money. I still have the book. But it is yellow now. I don’t understand how it got that way! And what is Kincaid’s main problem? I understand he is now putting his dna into his art as he is so afraid he will be ripped off after death!

I like most kinds of self expression. I heart Outsider Artists. I have watched Henry Dargers’ In the Realms of the Unreal at least hundred times. I personally think he was misunderstood and somewhat taken advantage of by the photographer.

Of course there is Frida. I like this Frida piece the most which is one of her lesser known, just before she died. I wonder what artists would paint if they knew that was going to be their last. It is the artist, behind the art that has begun to interest me more then the art and how finely done it is. Like foot and mouth artists, how amazing are they? And you don’t know from looking at their art; but then you realize that they got out of bed and they held a brush and they had something to say and this is what they are saying to you today; and this message will be there tomorrow. I find that very moving,

Art that I don’t like or won’t have any thing to do with….

Well porn of any kind of course. I don’t think it is art; but some people do. I really dislike those 50’s pin-up art style with the half dressed women; I think those are very sad. What a waste of talent I think, because they are beautifully done but really they have nothing to say. And any art of bugs are icky. Clown art is pretty creepy; unless they are making a statement; even then one piece is enough. I used to live in Wyoming so if I see one more oil painting of the Tetons I think I am going to….. ahhhhhhh….

13. You have won a lot of awards. What one are you the most proud of?

My awards were all from back when I was doing graphic design for the marketing department at a statewide newspaper. The DANDYS would be the ones I am most proud of. I won 10 at the same time. DANDYS recognize outstanding automotive advertising published in newspapers by franchised automobile dealers; these are usually done by ad agencies.
It was unusual for a designer in a newspaper to win one – let alone 10.
I am proud of myself because I designed the entire campaign and executed it myself.

14. Is there anything that you have wanted to be talented in that you are not?

I would love to do egg tempera. Seriously; who wouldn’t want to create like Andrew Wyeth??? ! Or some Encaustic painting. Actually; I am going to return to my book I think. Get it published. You have a publisher up that very witty sleeve of yours that you are holding out?

15. I think my next project should be something painted on black velvet. What do you think?

See; there you go again; your thumb ever on the pulse of what ishappening. Seriously, very collectable.

“A Canine walks in the dark.” I can see it! You could hand out glow sticks at your opening! Look at this one. So close to yours:

Thanks for taking the time to look over my blog; Loralee. It has been a pleasure getting to know you. I appreciate your making this so easy for me!

Thank YOU, Jacquelyn! It was an amazing experience getting to soak in all your wonderful pieces and banter back and forth.