What is your primary medium?
My primary medium is oil paint on canvas and then my secondary medium is watercolor and ink on watercolor paper.
How long have you been doing art?
I guess every child is handed a crayon at some point. So I've been doing art since I was a child and could hold a crayon. I would say I fell in love with doing art when I was 15 and my mom made me do an art class in high school, keyword being “made”. I actually wanted to sign up for a drama class, but I had a fantastic art teacher named Mrs. Sepulvida. We're friends on Facebook, and I kind of fell in love with the whole process of making art and kind of haven't looked back since then.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
So inspiration for my oil paintings come a lot from the human body. I love figurative work. I absolutely love the idea of expressing tension, connection, kind of a push and pull through something as simple as a hand gesture or the pressure of fingers on skin or a look. And then I'd say for my watercolor work, I get a lot of it actually from architecture. I used to work at an architecture library, and I kind of fell in love with buildings and lines and different planes and it has kind of blossomed from there. And then I have other work that's just inspired by my daily life. I'm a mom and my son is in my next oil painting because he's around and he's cute and I wanted to paint him. So I kind of get it from all over.
Why is art important to you?
Art is important to me because it's a way to connect with other people. My love other than art is actually reading, and one of the great things about reading is sometimes you'll find a character that does something that you thought only you did, something that's unique to you and you recognize that and you connect with that person. And I think art for me does the same thing. I can put out an idea or concept or painting and have somebody look at that and connect to it in a way that maybe they thought was unique to them. And I think that my favorite thing about art is being able to express a lot of things that maybe we don't talk about.
Are you able to make a living off of your art?
So right now, yes. Yes and no. I am currently doing my watercolor illustrations. How I think about it is my oil paintings, I paint for me and my watercolors I paint to make other people happy. There's actually a ton of joy in both of those things. I make most of my money off of my custom illustrations and watercolor. And weirdly enough, my biggest consumers are other moms. I talk to other moms on Facebook groups and kind of network through them. I found that offering custom illustrations of things that are near and dear to their hearts has actually brought in a surprising amount of revenue and I'm getting more and more success with that part.
How long have you been in Boise?
It'll be three years in October.
Have you applied for any of the grants or public art opportunities that are around here?
I have not. Most of my days I spend running around chasing after my 14 month old son. I'm a stay at home mom, so most of what I squeeze in for art is during nap times or after bedtime and I haven't really pursued art in the public sector. For me, it's still a very small and personal thing but it's something that I'd be interested in. I suppose that I just haven't really pursued it as of yet.
Where do you find the motivation to sit down and paint?
A lot of my motivation to sit down and paint comes from my clients. They're so happy to have a painting that is special and just for them. A lot of times they're gifts, so creating a truck portrait that is your grandfather's truck, who's passed away, for a Father's Day gift. It’s incredibly motivating to me to get that piece done for my client and then on the other hand, it is nice to kind of turn my brain off of mom mode, because it gets stuck there. And art is one of those ways that I can actually relax and be me.
Would you say art is a worthwhile pursuit?
Absolutely, and I'm not saying that everyone will make money at it, so I think you have to realize what your motivations are for art. For me, I do it because I love it and I think if you love it, why wouldn't you pursue it? You don't have to be good at it either to get something out of it. I think that art is for everybody. Absolutely.
What's your favorite technique to do with oil paints?
So for oil paintings, I do a layering technique. I start with really thin washes, and each layer of oil paint I built up with thicker and thicker paint. It's called fat over lean is the terminology. And what I love about oil paints is that it takes a really long time for them to dry, even when you add other mediums or drying agents. So I can actually go back and rework an area that I've been fiddling with. I can walk away and have a cup of coffee and come back to it and continue on that work and to kind of get the depth of realism that I like in my paintings. That's my favorite technique.
Do you find it difficult to work on commissioned work?
I actually find it easier to work on commission work because they provide structure and deadlines. It's harder for me to take the time for my own personal paintings. Also, watercolor is a much faster medium and something that I've been exploring more and more and I really enjoy the process of even just mark making, if that makes sense. I can kind of zone out working on commission in a way that I can't necessarily do on oil paints. A lot of times I'll just plug in an audio book, put in my earbuds and just kind of paint and I lose track of time.
Do you think art is something you'll continue to pursue?
Yes. I have taken breaks from art, I don't think it's something that you have to do every day. It's not something that you have to dedicate your life to in some type of structured way. I've taken two years where I didn't paint anything. And that's okay. Like there's seasons of life and I think that for me, right now I'm painting every day. But who knows, life is crazy. I might, you know, pursue some other creative endeavor, and maybe it's not painting and that's okay too. I think that I'll always be doing something creative. That might be gluing macaroni with my son to cardboard paper, but I will always be pursuing art in some form.
Is there anything you wanted to talk about that I haven't asked?
I think something that is not addressed enough is your own personal expectations and what art means to you. I know for me that I used to have a definition of what makes a successful artist and I did not measure up to that. I think as I've gotten older and more mature, I've realized that you get to define what your success is as an artist and you get to define what your career as an artist looks like. Whether it's a hobby, whether you want to make money from it, what you want to get out of art is extremely personal and you shouldn't ever let somebody else dictate what success means to you. I think that for me, my original idea of success was being represented in a gallery, having my original oil paintings sell, having the type of prestige of a gallery artist and I realized through doing these little commissions, watercolor illustrations for local moms, that didn't bring me joy, that actually wasn't the success I craved. And really, just don't be afraid to define what success is to you, and what art is and what you want to get out of it. Because for me, if I complete a painting and I'm happy, and I think I made something beautiful, then I've succeeded and I want other people to know that and not put unrealistic expectations on themselves, because that's how you don't paint. And everyone should be painting.