I've been a huge admirer of angiereedgarner's for years! I am the proud owner of three of her paintings, and I have the pleasure of seeing them every day in the spaces I find the most comfort in. Her work is vibrant, luscious, all of them have a compelling story to tell.



What are your main inspirations in art?

My most recent series was influenced by Hundertwasser, his pulsating lines, refusal of right angles and humanist ideas about art.

I read a lot of nonfiction and I'm trying to carry over things I admire, to challenge myself to be as clear and direct in my work as possible. That does not necessarily make for simple, accessible images. Sometimes things are complicated! If you try to simplify them, you lose too much truth.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)

My degree is in Classics. I've been painting full time since 1995.



What is your process for creating your work?

I seem to see one symbol at a time. When I don't know what comes next, I have to set the painting aside rather than force a resolution. It may take six hours or six weeks for the next symbol that comes, depending how much I resist the process and content of the painting. I'm not in control, but I do trust that if you put in the hours, the work comes.

With this last series I made a long-awaited transition to working bigger (the works are
64" wide) and at that size, there is a lot of room for me to develop a story! Sometimes I begin the painting with a question or a problem and spend the rest of the painting reflecting on it.



What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?

Life is big, but don't be so afraid.

What are your career goals?

To continue showing, as long as I can find people who will give me some wall.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?

My camera. It lets me see work fresh without having to put it away for six months.



Tell me three random things about you.

• Through showing my art, I found out that if you tell the truth about your life, in fact the world does not end. And people even thank you for it. It's amazing.
  
• I can paint without a dog in my studio, but it doesn't make for a balanced day.
  
• I'm reading Michael Taussig's _What Color Is The Sacred_ and so far I'm just thrilled. He's addressing why we feel about color as we do, and how color has come to mean what it does.
  

After a hiatus that was longer than I'd like, I'm getting my artistic 'feet' wet again, both online and in my studio. So while this isn't the beginning of the month, when I like to post these, I'm hoping that better late than never still holds true.

I'm really excited to bring you the work of this amazing artist. As someone who loves symbolism within my own artwork, I am especially moved by the beauty, grace and esoteric nature of Gail Potocki's paintings.



What are your main inspirations in art?
I am inspired by the symbolist painters of the late 19th and early 20th century for their ability to intrique the viewer with their sense of mystery and silence within their work. I am also inspired by the fragility and beauty of nature as well as the unexplainable.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I studied at the School of Representational Art in Chicago which focuses on the traditional craft of figure drawing and painting.



What is your process for creating your work?
Sometimes I am inspired by something that I have read that effects me emotionally. I then try to translate the feelings and idea symbolically in my work. Other times I start with a image that I am attracted to and build a story around it.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
Most of my work relates to enviromental themes that I think urgently need to be brought in to society's consciousness. I hope to transfer the effect these issues have on me to the viewer.



What are your career goals?
I would be happy if my work would help bring some of these environmental issues to light and inspire people to respect the planet. My other career goal is to not starve!

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
I have stuck to my own aesthetic and tried not to be influenced by what is going on in the art world. This has helped me to strengthen my own visual language and kept my work honest.

Tell me three random things about you.

• I love oddities from the 19th century so my apartment looks like something from the Addams Family.
  
• I love animals and am fascinated by birds.
  
• I don't know how to swim.
  

I'm a little bit late on this one, having gotten caught up in the frenzy of the holidays. Homare Ikeda is well worth the wait though!

I saw his work at Art Chicago, and you just cannot see the scale in these photos. They are *so* impressive in person, with the rich colors and expressive movement. Since then, I've fallen in love with his watercolors and linocuts as well. If you ever have the chance to see his work in person, make the trip!


These are the pieces I got to see in person!

What are your main inspirations in art?

My main inspirations come from my desire to explore and play. I think the idea of play is very important.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)

I received a MFA degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder. I began my art education at the San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, California. I had received a scholarship to study at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Main while I was in MFA program at the University of Colorado.



What is your process for creating your work?

I have been making minimum of 9 drawings every morning. It has been a wonderful way to start the day.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?

I would like to communicate a sense of wonder. I think making art is to connect myself to the world around me. Once I put a mark on canvas or paper the world evolves and I have to keep responding to the voices I hear until my energy runs out.



What are your career goals?

I think the career is byproduct of what you do. As long as I am able to make art, I am grateful.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve
what you have so far?

Water. Water is essential to my work physically and mentally.

Tell me three random things about you.

• I love to be in nature.
  
• I listen music as painting.
  
• I am not who I am but who I am becoming.
  

Susan Hodgin was another wonderful Art Chicago find! I found her work so approachable and I admit to having a facination with circles. I just find them deeply spiritual - so Susan's work is an obvious match for me.



What are your main inspirations in art?
My main inspiration comes from nature. The layering and complexity and interdependence of every ecosystem fascinates me, and I try to use that "system" when building up my paintings. As for inspiration within the art world, I am drawn mostly to the Abstract Expressionists. The freedom and expressiveness and openness in their work is very refreshing.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I received my BFA from the University of Montana, Missoula in 2000. I started out studying creative writing, fiction, but realized my short stories were mostly describing place, and have very little plot, character and narrative. After 4 years studying writing, I switched to painting.



What is your process for creating your work?
My process is less about outlining a picture and then filling it in, then about building, eliminating, adding, and perfecting layers upon layers of paint. I use the forgiveness of oil paint to paint over and into it until I get the end that I want. There are no "mistakes" in the way I paint, only more layers.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
I hope that people are able to feel something when they look at my work. That they can spend time with it, and feel something from it. I don't care what they feel. That depends on what they bring to the piece. I just hope they feel something.



What are your career goals?
Right now, I am a full-time painter. I am able to make a decent living at this thing that I love to do most in the world. But beyond that, I would like to grow to be more international, and be able to focus more on larger paintings.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
My live/work studio in downtown Indianapolis (The Wheeler Arts Community) and its fabulous rent. Without this opportunity to live and work cheaply as I first started out, I never could have gotten where I am.



Tell me three random things about you.

1. I am a healthy eater.
   
2. I like to camp.
   
3. I am always cold.
   

I saw Amy Wilson's work at Art Chicago earlier this year and fell in love.

Art Chicago is a huge place with so much visual chaos and the throngs of people, that it can be easy to get over stimulated and desensitized. I found Amy's work in a corner of a gallery space, though, and had to get very close to read the words written into the piece. (Reflections, seen below) The text isn't short, either, so I really had to settle in to digest what was there - and before I knew it, I was in this wonderful quiet rapport with the painting. It was the most intimate experience of all my time at the show that day.



What are your main inspirations in art?
The thoughts in my head, conversations I have with others, and the interactions I see between people as I go about my day.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I was an undergrad at the School of Visual Arts, graduating with a degree in sculpture in 1995. It was a weird choice - I found myself in art school (which at the time was notoriously easy to get into; it's much more difficult now) without too much of a background in art; I finished high school with terrible grades and found myself stuck either pursuing a career in being a waitress or receptionist, or blowing a few years in art school. I'm glad I chose the latter. I worked really hard and was accepted to Yale for my MFA, also in Sculpture (I graduated in 1997), which probably surprised me most of all.

I was totally dedicated to making sculpture and installation work throughout those years. But when I graduated, I realized there was no way I could afford the kind of studio I needed or supplies I liked to work in, now that I was on my own. Switching to drawing was a very practical decision - I hated giving up sculpture, but it was the only thing I could reasonably do. Luckily, I fell in love with it relatively quickly. (I've been able to return to more sculptural works over the last year or so, incorporating them into my drawing practice.)



What is your process for creating your work?
I usually start with some sort of vague image in mind and just start writing the text, and let the image unfold as a play between it and the text - sort of back and forth like that, through the whole drawing.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
Just that I'm here, I'm having these thoughts, and maybe other people are too.

What are your career goals?
I'm not sure I have specific career goals when it comes to my artwork, other than to keep showing and exhibiting at a regular pace.



What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
It's not an object per se, but I am a deeply stubborn person and that, undoubtedly, has helped. I also have amazing, supportive friends and a great husband, all of whom help to keep me going.

Tell me three random things about you.
1. I don't drive, have never had a license nor have I ever owned a car (and I live in NJ, so that's weird).
2. I adore Asian desserts.
3. I'm 6'1" tall and have gigantic feet!

I just love the surprises found in all of Thomas Doyle's work! Each piece has its own rich story and I continue to find myself captivated by them.



What are your main inspirations in art?

More than anything else, I am interested in history and memory as it pertains
to the human experience. War, birthday parties, etc. - these are the backdrops
for major, definitive personal experiences, and these things form the
narrative backbone in my work.


What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)

I studied painting and printmaking at Humboldt State University for three
years before taking a sabbatical; I never returned. Two years later, after
becoming disenchanted with painting, I began creating small-scale models using
techniques learned through trial and error.



What is your process for creating your work?

Thinking, planning, sketching, and then executing. An idea may arise in five
minutes, but execution often takes five weeks - or five months.


What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your
work?

A sense of wonder.


What are your career goals?

Maintaining the independence to continue making work.



What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you
have so far?

The X-Acto #11 blade.


Tell me three random things about you.

• I regret never making Eagle Scout.
  
• I don't like to drive.
  
• I'd take the Natural History Museum in New York over the MoMA any day.
  

I stumbled across Rob Evans's work recently, and was swept away by the haunting and serene imagry.



What are your main inspirations in art?

After graduating in 1981 from Syracuse University I moved into a 19th century farm on a ridge above the Susquehanna River in central PA. This farm was once part of a large property owned by my maternal grandparents. Perched on this property’s highest point and surrounded by 100 acres of old growth oak forest was a magnificent 4 story stone inn (named Roundtop). This was the primary residence of my grandparents and I spent many extraordinary summers there roaming the woods, collecting insects, bones, old bottles and all kinds of interesting artifacts. Experiencing the cycles of life, death, growth and decay first hand in this natural realm opened my sense of the wholeness of things in a way the suburbs couldn’t have. This place had a profound effect on me and is what ultimately drew me back there to raise a family and paint. This farm and the surrounding natural landscape is a starting point for almost all the concepts I deal with in my paintings.

Although my paintings deal metaphorically with universal themes they are inspired by and rooted in real places, experiences and memories. I think that this gives the work a sense of honesty, that the experiences have been truly lived, the memories and feelings deeply felt. I think the viewer can sense when something is entirely invented - it doesn’t feel authentic. By transforming common and real everyday occurrences, places and things into the universal it puts the work in a language that can be easily read and understood by anyone who has experienced or thought about those same things. It makes the work timeless. This is also why I choose the traditional language of realism - it allows the work to be more accessible to a wider audience.



What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)

I studied art at Syracuse University in New York and received a BFA there in 1981. The teacher there who had the biggest impact on me was Jerome Witkin, whose large multi-paneled narrative realist works were just beginning, at that time, to receive international attention. He is an extraordinary draftsman and I took every course I could with him while at Syracuse. I also spent a semester abroad in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, studying the paintings of Rembrandt, Vermeer and the great 17th century Dutch painters.

After leaving art school I found my own personal artistic voice fairly early in my career, with a series of drawings and paintings I produced in the early 1980’s depicting the interior of the farmhouse (located on my grandparent’s property in Pennsylvania) where I currently live with my family. These spare and uninhabited interiors were exhibited in Washington D.C. in my first solo show and, with the help of a positive review in the Washington Post, helped launch my career as an artist. My next body of work included night landscapes and multi paneled narrative paintings featuring insects as metaphorical elements. As I later married and had children, my recent work has begun to include my family as well, incorporating them in the compositions of large scale narrative/ figurative works including recent explorations of the triptych/altarpiece motif. Over the last decade my paintings have moved increasingly in the direction of dealing metaphorically with broader themes inspired by real places, experiences and memories, allowing the most common and everyday occurrences, places and things to be transformed into the universal, dealing with issues I face as an artist, parent, spouse and as a participant in life at this particular time in history.

I have had the good fortune to be able to work full time as an artist for more than 25 years now and have had many great adventures. Some highlights include: exhibiting at the Tretyakov Museum in Moscow and the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., being included along side Andrew Wyeth and Andy Warhol in an exhibit of Pennsylvania artists that toured museums around the state of Pennsylvania 5 years ago, and recently seeing my work enter the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

In addition to painting full time I have also, on occasion, worked as an independent curator. In fact a traveling exhibit I organized and guest curated, "Visions of the Susquehanna: 250 Years of Paintings by American Masters" is currently on tour to several museums (it opens at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton, NY on May 15). This exhibit features more than 40 works depicting the Susquehanna by the greats of American landscape painting including Benjamin West, Thomas Moran, Jasper Cropsey and other Hudson River School masters plus contemporary works by such renowned painters as Mark Innerst, Debra Bermingham, Randall Exon and Leonard Koscianski. You can see more about this exhibit and other projects on my website: www.robevansart.net.



What is your process for creating your work?

The concept for a painting usually begins as a small sketch jotted down in response to something in my daily routine that catches my eye or imagination. It could be something very simple or mundane that I see, or even a passing thought or memory. Whatever it is, it is something that I recognize consciously or unconsciously as having the potential to say something more universal. These sketches are kept visible on a tabletop or in a sketchbook and can sit dormant for months or even years. Every time I see one of them, however, there’s a flash of excitement, a reminder of its potential that keeps the idea alive and germinating in the back of my mind. Ultimately, one of these concepts takes root and compels me to begin to develop the idea further - thus beginning a long journey of transformation and evolution that culminates in a finished work.


For example, with my monumental painting, Cicada, the idea began in 1994 with a small sketch of a cicada shedding its skin on a tree branch - inspired by the memory of the cicadas’ song vibrating through the treetops on the ridge at my grandparent’s home each summer and finding their papery translucent skins on the bark of the trees. The idea of metamorphosis and change intrigued me and became especially relevant later that year as that homestead, a place that seemed would always be a permanent and enduring fixture in my life, was sold out of the family and was completely remodeled and changed by its new owner. Suddenly the concept behind the painting took on a powerful new meaning and relevance - it became a way of dealing with and expressing my sense of loss over this place which was an enormous and important part of my childhood. In a way it became a realization and acceptance of the fact that all things, no matter how permanent they may seem, are ephemeral, and that life is in a constant state of flux. In a wonderful way the cicada metamorphosing became a metaphor for this process and I used it as the central image for the triptych.


What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
At the surface level I just want the viewer to enjoy each painting as a mysterious and beautiful physical object - a rich paint surface with a sense of history. Then as they enter into the illusory reality of the painted space they can enjoy the beauty and mystery of the subject matter itself and the way it is transformed by the artist’s vision and use of light. Finally, as they look deeper into the work, hopefully they begin to make connections within the work itself and with events in their own life. As this happens perhaps they begin to get the meaning I intended, or perhaps they find their own personal meaning for the work - each is valid. No matter what meaning they find, they will have lost themselves for a brief time in the painting, and, as a result, hopefully will leave it seeing the world in a slightly different way



What are your career goals?
From the "career" perspective my primary goals center around providing the support necessary to take care of my family and allow me to continue painting, full time, the work that I want to do. Career goals such as landing works in museums and prominent collections, showing in galleries, publicity in magazines etc. are all wonderful and certainly help feed the ego, but the bottom line is that in the end all this is really most useful for is in raising prices to a level that supports my work and my family.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
The " physical object" which has had the most influence on me is this property overlooking the Susquehanna River where our farm is located. As I mentioned earlier it has deep childhood connections, is where I am raising my family, and has been the inspiration for nearly all the work I do.

Tell me three random things about you.
*I enjoy playing the piano (blues and boogie woogie)
*We have an amazing dog named Harry (a Flat Coat Retriever) who we adopted from the pound.
*I had the thrilling opportunity last month to meet Antonio Lopez Garcia, who I feel is the most significant artist of our time (his work is currently on display at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts).

Casey Matthews is a dear friend, whos paintings never fail to stir my imagination. They have such energy, movement, and depth to them - each one pushes the boundaries of reality just a little bit.



What are your main inspirations in art?
Aside from my art being “my job” and profits from “my job” provide me with both necessities and comforts in life – a more creative answer for inspiration and motivation for creating is actually difficult to articulate without confusing both myself and the "listener". For me, I believe that my art is neither a blurred color interpretation nor an exact blue print of the world, but instead, an initiatory approach, an examination, a projection, an echo from a relationship with the world - with other people. It is a relationship which is constantly reexamined, ever present, and one that should never settle. It is an invitation to proceed on the way to meeting myself, the one that is forever evolving and reinventing. Painting (creating) is a sacred act. A naked self-examination is the most precious thing to be discovered. And congruently being the most and the least tangible, and elusive: It is wisdom far and beyond. It is a fear of being discovered as the cliché you really are; a walking contradiction.

I also create to preserve my sanity.



What is your art background? (education, experience, etc):
From a very young age I was encouraged to create. My parents had me involved in every sport and after school activity you could imagine yet nothing really held my interest like art classes did. I have always lived my life as a creative person and creative thinker. Whether it is in the form of cooking, gardening, decorating a home, dressing, fixing things, inventing things, or solving problems: I find comfort in all things visual and beautiful. I try and take things at face value - never really analyze or question the process or habit.

I have a formal art education in Art History, Painting, and Graphic Design from the University of Alabama, but I really think I learned the most from being thrown out there in the real world and given the freedom to explore on my own. It has been a long, hard (lonely) road at times. I was not really “taught” that I could actually be an artist. Like everyone else, I was encouraged to go on to graduate school – but for what? To teach? But how can you teach if you have not lived/worked/struggled as an artist? I never understood that. I could barely squeeze out an undergraduate degree, so 2-4 more years of school (and debt) was not an option. I have no idea what my former classmates are doing today. I never see their names in regional juried shows or galleries. I can’t imagine what I am thought of by my art peers or professors. I try not to over analyze it too much and just do my own thing. One can waste too much energy if they begin to worry about what everyone else thinks of them.

And even though I often cuss the fact that live in a cultural wasteland and a vacuum of a small town - I find I am actually more productive if I keep to myself and not concern myself with what everyone else is doing at the moment. I enjoy looking at other art, but I find creative over-stimulation to be crippling at times. I subscribe to New American Paintings, and ArtForum, and Art News in case I feel really out of touch.



What is your process for creating your work?
I am always looking for visual sources of inspiration in everyday life. I can walk through a retail store and absorb composition ideas, or flip through a design magazine for color combinations that strike me. I mentally collect patterns in nature that intrigue me while on a bike ride or beach walk. I even admire different types of music for its rhythm and multi faceted layers. I then combine these influential snapshots with my own energy and mood and to create an intuitive piece of art. It isn’t until later that I can be subjective and dissect what was actually going on in my life at the time. For the most part, I refer to my work as “non-objective” because I don’t really want to answer to any symbolism that may or may not occur – but in reality, my work is a visual diary of current events in my life, history, and surroundings.

I paint for myself. I am a visually driven person, and also enjoy experimentation and challenge. I am more successful when I clear my mind and let the circumstances of the painting come to me. I try not to over think or plan about what I am actually doing. In turn, I find my work very rewarding and I feel that the viewer can recognize the soul and passion that goes into each piece verses something that is massed produced just to turn a buck.



What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work? Actually, I am not really sure I want to communicate anything with my work. Is that weird? I don’t deny that it is a form of communication, but it is only a private glimpse here and there that I let you see. (if I incorporate writing in my paintings, I often blur, erase, and smudge words so it is not completely recognizable.)

To be honest with you, I am not sure what I really have to say yet. And even if I had something to say I would probably think it too arrogant to push that on society. That is just my personality. I am private and shy. I am not angry or political. I am not a feminist or disabled. I don’t really have story. And even if I did - I loathe pity so I probably would not share it just to sell a few paintings. So if my paintings are reduced to being called “pretty mindless pictures” I don’t really mind all that much. I am not really trying to prove anything. I am not trying to pretend I am deep, or articulate, educated, or even know what I am doing. I am my own worst critic and have myself to answer to. When it comes down to it, I don’t really think I am doing anything all that new or inventive – besides, hasn’t everything already been done? I just find joy in pushing the envelope with my materials and technique. Maybe that is what I am trying to say?



What are your career goals?
Good question. And one I need to repeatedly remind myself of. I have goals that I achieve and constantly add to, but these are the forever constants:

- First and foremost I will always need to paint more. The more I paint the more consistent my body of work becomes and is easier to market and easier to get into the galleries and juried shows I really desire. The more I paint the better I become and the more I sell. And the more I sell - I can putt off the thought of that day job I was supposed to get way back when.

- I need to have more of my work seen. I am currently trying to get into a more galleries and juried shows. To gain a foothold on larger markets I have only just tasted (NYC, New Mexico, California, and Chicago). I would also like more corporate placement work. Work with interior decorators and architects.

- I would like to write and obtain grant money. Also achieve a level of success so I can submit proposals for public art programs.

- To maintain relationships with the patrons I already do have but have neglected (mailing list, emails, etc). Attempt to blog, and let people “in”

- To be a better business person, keep better records, be more outgoing, and market more. I will always be in a constant battle for structure and organization. Something that is difficult for me but essential for any self-employed person.

What has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
I have very supportive parents and long time friends that “get” me.

I have been blessed with fearlessness. I never give up and I don’t take no for an answer. I am a sensitive person, but for the most part, when it comes to my work I can be objective to criticism and rejection. I am very thankful for that. I also try to keep really busy and avoid putting my eggs in one basket to allow myself to get hurt. In fact, rejections, insecurities, fear, and anger fuels me - I am able to successfully harness my problems and struggles into creative endeavors. It is the best antidote.



A few random factoids about me:

- I have hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon (and camped!)

- When I was 16, I became a published poet, and to this day I won’t let anyone I know read anything.

- I have an Italian Greyhound named Stella.

I stumbled across Matt Cipov on LJ a while back and was blown away by his work. I love his use of line, the crisp definition of his characters, the refrains that appear over and over again in his art, and how irreverent it all is. It delights me and I continue to find surprises long after I thought I'd figured it all out. :)

Matt no longer has an LJ account, but hints that there may be a new blog coming! I'll be sure to post a note when it happens.



What are your main inspirations in art?
I am inspired by all sorts of things that catch my eye... drawings from old books for children... strange animals I see at the zoo... words I glance at in books... people I see on the street... and even things like song lyrics have often grabbed me

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I have always been drawn to art. It was my main focus in high school... from there I attended the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design from 1995 to 1999... after that I spent several years doing all sorts of things like corporate freelance, voice acting, sign making, and t-shirt designing. I got a bit burnt out in the corporate world in late 2005, so I ventured off on my own to become a self employed artist and designer. You can also catch my work at events like Chicago Renegade, at a number of online/brick and mortar boutiques or at gallery shows.



What is your process for creating your work?
I get little slivers of ideas, or concepts first. Then I go straight to the final art process where I do as little penciling as possible so I can render my ideas as fast as possible... before they don't seem to have as much impact as when I first thought them up. Then when I think a drawing is done, I set it aside for a while to allow myself to gain a bit of new perspective on it. If I feel like it needs a bit more work, I add new elements, or change things I see as problematic. When I feel like that process is done, I erase all my pencil marks and move on.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
The most important thing I want my art to say is that a lot of joy and passion went into the making of what I did. I want a person to look at one of my drawings and get a sense of the fun I have committing my lines and ideas to paper.



What are your career goals?
The only goal I have is to keep doing what I am doing with a sense that I am moving forward. I want to look back at each year of self employment under my belt and get a sense that I am making progress, or at the very least doing something that I see holding worth. I often disliked the reasoning, or motivations behind why I did most of my work when I had a desk job and I want to work to make sure what I do now has much more integrity and meaning.

Happily, I can say that I do feel that way.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
My handy, dandy, 100% trust worth PILOT BPS SERIES fine ballpoint pen... or more specifically, the huge amount of them that I have gone through while making art. My lines exist the way that they do because of this exact type of pen... and my art is almost completely anchored by my lines. After many years of finding the one tool I needed to make my art feel right, I found this pen... basically a common pen, but one with that can kick out a lot of ink in a lot of different ways, and it made me love making art even more.



Tell me three random things about you.
1. I have never broken a bone
2. I hold onto almost every fortune cookie fortune I get and I have been doing this for well over 10 years
3. I like to see myself as a very nice, whimsical person, but when I am feeling a bit down, I can have quite a temper. It isn't something I am proud of, but it is the truth.

Beth Robinson's dolls are the stuff of dreams! (of both varieties) I love how fanciful her creations are and how strong each doll's story is, without them having to say a word. I've been lucky enough to watch much of her career unfold, and she has done amazing things! I look forward to seeing what new paths she forges.



What are your main inspirations in art?
Pathos, anxiety, insomnia, anthropomorphism, an appreciation for the grotesque and the absurd.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I am self taught.

What is your process for creating your work?
One part is mental and one part is physical. Mentally - I am something of a scavenger. My boyfriend often hears me say, "That person is one of my dolls." Or after overhearing a conversation I will say, "I need to make a doll from that." Also, I am very much a 'listener.' Oftentimes private conversations with a friend will leek out of my head and into my hands. So I am constantly taking mental notes.

Physically - I think the discipline of working each day on my artwork is extremely important to keep the creative juices flowing.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
The most important thing to me is that people feel a connection with the work.



What are your career goals?
I suppose 'more of what I am doing now' would be the simple answer.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
Object? Hm. I suppose it would have to be polymer clay.

Tell me three random things about you.
• I grew up in the Bible Belt
• I don't want to have children
• I am a lefty

Michael Cutlip's work makes my insides go all dizzy when I see it. I love his use of erratic order, color and fantastic imagery.



What are your main inspirations in art?
The process is everything for me....each move inspires the next.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
I have a BA in Fine Art... i have been showing professionally pretty much since i graduated.

What is your process for creating your work?
I just start putting on the paint and see where it takes me.

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
A worthwhile visual experience.



What are your career goals?
To keep making the paintings I want to make. The day I start painting for everyone else, is the day I quit! At least the day I quit selling the work.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve what you have so far?
An amazing teacher in college who inspired the hell out of me!

Tell me three random things about you.
1) I have beautiful wife and daughter who give me a reason to wake up each day.
2) I'm also a dog walker! My canine friends are a true inspiration!
3) I like to simply sit and watch...if you void out all of the clutter in this world..it can be quite beautiful!

The following are the interview questions I currently have for my Inspiration of the Month feature:

• What are your main inspirations in art?
  
  
• What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)
  
  
• What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
  
  
• What are your career goals?
  
  
• What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve
  what you have so far?
  
  
• Tell me three random things about you.
  

What other questions would you like to me to ask?

I have been a huge fan of Kim Richardson for a long time now. I'm entranced by her use of symbolism and the intimate nature of her work. She zeros in on an spiritual level that I'm always striving for with my own work.



What are your main inspirations in art?

I'm inspired by living, people, animals, nature, interaction, interconnectedness, solitary, spirit. Life. I take it all in, filter it through my being and imagery emerges. I've always been deeply moved by gut level art. Ceremonial masks and shamanistic pieces hold me closely. The Surrealist fascination with the unconscious has always held great appeal for me. I'm a soul diver, for sure. I've been compared to Chagall, Kahlo, both who's work I adore-- even De Chirico at one point which I found bizarre-- but it's funny because we're all Cancerian. I didn't know about the women Surrealists when I was younger. I find Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini especially inspiring. I'm currently reading The Genres and Genders of Surrealism. I fantasize about lunch and conversation with Carrington before she dies.

What is your art background? (education, experience, etc)

I went to a visual and performing arts high school in St. Louis where I majored in visual art and minored in dance. It wasn't the best academically, but I learned how to draw. It was basically long, tedious exercises in learning how to see. The school was poorly funded and painting wasn't offered. Mostly drawing with some collage and linocut projects. I absolutely loved collage and focused much of my time outside of school on collage and writing. I checked out any book at the school library about the surrealists who I felt an affinity with. I found Carl Jung. I argued with a friend about her guru. I had crippling anxiety attacks for about a year. I had a healing vision of light that tamed the anxiety and awakened something in me. These were the seeds.



After high school, I took a couple of figure drawing classes at a local community college. I grew bored quickly there and strayed from the instructor's teaching. I focused less on the body as a whole and more on segments... the feet, for instance, or the belly or ass. Encouraged by my instructor, I left St. Louis for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Discouraged by my unbridled insecurity, I left the art institute after the first semester.

I hung out with poets mostly in Chicago at that point, which I feel was the beginning of my real education. I became pregnant with my first child and started to paint for the first time. I had some old oil paint someone gave to me. We lived near a furniture store that had cardboard boxes in the alley. I tore the boxes apart and obsessively painted cocoon-headed woman after cocoon-headed woman.



My housemate had a girlfriend who painted with beeswax. He gifted me with a chunk of it and taught me how to use the wax with paint. I stuck with this method for the next seven years.



In the late 90's I fell in love with a painter in St. Louis, worked as an art framer and was taking an opiate painkiller for some dental work. I hadn't been focusing much on painting at the time. In the sort of opiate and new love induced euphoria, I found some old garden fences, picked up a brush and left out the wax. I quit my framing job and started painting on a regular basis. I'm absolutely enthusiastic about what I do now. An old piece of wood laying in some alley is heaven to me. Tomorrow? Who knows? I perpetually crave new experience. I think of living as a great work of art. Life experience has truly been the greatest teacher.


(my first painting on fence)

What is the single most important thing you want to communicate with your work?
That's a tough question because I don't directly think about what I'm painting. Mood, feeling, the unknown.

What are your career goals?
To live comfortably and make art.

What one object has been the most instrumental in helping you achieve
what you have so far?
The internet. I've encountered many incredible people and opportunities and have learned so much through it. It's been a tool of huge growth for me.



Tell me three random things about you.

1. I secretly want to be a cabaret performer.
2. Listening to the birds in the wee hours makes me happy.
3. I'm not comfortable using the words "I" and "me" and "my" so much. :)

This is the first installment of my Inspiration of the Month series and Billy Blob is the only person I could have begun with. His artwork has motivated me for years, and I follow his wonderfully entertaining Buzz update section with glee.

It's easy to lose yourself in his website - watching his award winning cartoons, listening to his off the cuff interviews, and navigating his "wacky" web design.



It's his artwork that really thrills me, however. I first discovered Billy Blob on Ebay when he auctioned off this painting. I'm still kicking myself for not having bought it then!

I'm intrigued by his use of bold color and what I call the "smooshy" brush technique. I am entirely attracted to the freeness in his paintings, something almost foreign in my own work. His figures all seem to have a whimsical veneer that covers for a cynical and sometimes disturbing subtext.



Talking with Billy through email I learned that, while he has two years of art instruction under his belt, he finds its the work of other artists that continues to lure him back to the canvas. He is called by such artists as; Margaret Kilgallen, Daniel Clowes (Eightball), Warhol, Rod Serling, Alice Neel, Basquiat and Kirk Hayes.

He's expressed that communicating through his art can be a struggle. When Billy sets out with a clear message in mind, he often finds the process to be forced and the end result too preachy. The work that seems to grow organically of its own volition and with its own voice are those he favors most.

Billy says that the internet has been the one tool most instrumental in bringing his career to this point and longs to be able to support himself full time with his art and cartoons. I certainly relate to that!



3 random things about Bily:
He puts Sun In in his hair to make it lighter.
He can't read out loud in front of people.
He and his wife have two dogs and a bird.