Amy Lunstrum - Artist Sit Down - Full Interview

Amy’s Website - https://amylunstrum.webs.com/

What's the primary medium you work in?

You know I don't really have a primary, I kind of go back and forth between painting and sculpting pretty equal between both.

Do you incorporate painting with your sculptures?

Sometimes, most of the time it's either one or the other but sometimes I'll have like, I have a bust that I've painted over there, or you know I might paint small areas but for the most part it's glazed sculptures and then paintings on wood.

What kind of paints do you use?

I use acrylic paint. Last summer I took an oil painting class and I really loved it and so I'd love to experiment with that more but in the past all I've used is acrylics.

What got you into doing art?

I feel like I've always just had an urge to make things even when I was young I liked to glue rocks together and make creatures out of rocks. I drove my mom crazy because I never wanted to throw any of the boxes away from our fast food and I'd make Kleenex boxes or you know money banks or whatever out of the boxes and so I think I've just always liked repurposing or making things and I guess it's just been kind of a lifelong interest. I never really thought it could be a career and so I didn't pursue it in college as something that you know I could have got a degree in or anything it's always just been an interest on the side so even through college I did take art classes I didn't major in art though.

What’s it been like being an artist in Boise?

I would say I’ve had a great experience. I was able to take classes at Fort Boise in pottery and ceramic sculpture which really opened up that whole love of clay for me which I hadn't discovered until I was 29 I think and so Rick Jenkins was the director down there and he was my teacher for I don't know how many years but over ten. Having that facility has been great, having him as a teacher was great, being around all the other outstanding Potter's that are down there was inspiring. And then I was lucky enough to to meet a person, Ardith Tate, who really helped me get into the galleries in Boise and so I felt so lucky that those doors opened up for me and then I had some pieces and local galleries and then galleries in a gallery in Oregon and a gallery in California, it was wonderful for me. Then the public art opportunities that I've had too are opportunities I don't know that a lot of people have where they live and I think that that's another real benefit of being here in Boise is the vibrant public art scene.

Where do you find your inspiration?

It changes I think, I typically find it in books that aren't related to the media that I'm using but like for instance most recently I was reading a taxidermy book and I saw somebody had made a double-headed sheep or something out of taxidermy and so that inspired me to make a double-headed goat out of clay. Or something that's been inspiring me a lot lately is movable art so kinetic sculptures most often they're made out of wood but I've been trying to make some kind of movable sculptures out of clay and then also incorporating wouldn't paint as well with that. So it's usually in places I don't expect it to be it's not in traditional art things but I'll see something and I'll see one element that I think I bet I could make that one element so then I try to reproduce that and then it turns into a its own piece.

Do you like to branch out and use materials in less traditional ways?

I would love to do that more, I don't know that I have done that as much in the past but I really have an interest in like multimedia type pieces but I think for now I've probably stuck with more traditional uses of the materials that I have.

How do you stay motivated to create?

For me I'm lucky because it's a stronger drive for me than like watching TV. So if I'm home alone that's typically what I tend to do is try to make something. I'm really good at starting projects not as good at finishing them. So sometimes I'm motivated by seeing all the things I've started and then I'm like I really got to finish that thing so then I'll make time to make that happen but that is definitely a challenge especially when my career isn't an artistic career during the day so it is something I have to carve out time for specifically. But I think that I'm lucky enough to be able to work part time so I do have additional time to to create on those days that I'm not at work and it's just kind of a drive I have I guess.

What does art mean to you?

Art I think means that you're basically interpreting something and I guess it goes back to you know what you find inspiration and so for me if I find inspiration in this one element of something that I've seen I'm gonna you know I want to try to interpret it and I guess I feel like that's what all of us are doing you know when they say that no artist is original I think it's it's true in a way like that we're all reinterpreting something that's already been interpreted before but its original in the way that we interpret it. So I guess that's what art means to me and I also feel like it's something bigger almost like speaking through you. You know when you get inspired it's coming from some other place that I'm not really sure where that is but something is speaking to you and you're just driven to to give that thing a voice.

How critical for you is it to have a creative space?

It is very critical. It's hard to create when you have to like put everything away or if you don't even have room to put everything away everyday and you're creating in your living space it's definitely a challenge and I think you know when when you're in situations like that, or when I’ve been in situations like that I maybe have to go to a different media that's not my medium of choice and I might have to just draw small scale things instead of you know like being able to work in clay and get messy with that so I think that being able to have a space is really huge.

What are some opportunities you’ve been able to pursue specific to Boise?

I think the public art opportunities that I've had, the linen district fence mural, and the traffic box mural have both been things unique to Boise and that I probably wouldn't have had those opportunities elsewhere. And then like I said the galleries here and it happened to be at a perfect time and place to when the basement gallery was such a big force here in Boise in I guess that would have been the early 2000s and that gallery was just really open to showing up-and-coming artists as well as established artists and I thought that was you know truly unique to Boise and unique to that time in Boise too.

What would you say to an artist who is just starting out or struggling with motivation?

Probably things I need to tell myself too. I think the thing that I would encourage them with is if you carve out you know a small chunk of time and you know ideally every day but it might not even be every day it might be every other day, you keep something within you alive that's gonna sustain you through all the other things you do if it's parenting if it's your day job, if it's you know whatever else being a family member, I think just being in touch with that creative side of yourself helps you be true to yourself and helps you feel better about everything else you're doing. I also think that it's a matter of building momentum so even though it's easy to get discouraged it's you know once you build that momentum it just gets easier and it is hard at times like sometimes I'll look around and see all the stuff I've created just sitting here and I think why am I gonna make one more piece to end up in my basement or end up on my shelf but then the next day someone says oh I saw this piece of yours it's so great and I think okay that's why I keep making it. It's to have conversations with people too.

Anything else you’d like to say?

I just feel really grateful to the teachers that I've had in my life you know traditional and non-traditional. Mostly outside of like a formal educational environment like a college or a school but like the teachers at Fort Boise the people that are down there working at Fort Boise, the students and you know the people that have mentored me take me under my wing. The people that have even like given me feedback on my stuff and you know commented on my website or you know that I just I'm so grateful for all that because that's what keeps me going.

Taylor Humby - Artist Sit Down - Full Interview

Taylor’s Website - https://humbyart.com/

What's your primary medium?

Watercolors and acrylic ink. 

What made you choose that?

I painted with acrylic paints my whole life and then I stopped painting when I traveled and lived in Australia for a bit and then back to New Zealand and then to America eventually. So I stopped painting for a while and then one of my artist friends introduced me to inks and I experimented with those for a bit and then from there I jumped over to watercolors and I just really liked how they blended and all of the colors kind of came together to create sort of a galaxy effect which I kind of fell in love with.

What made you want to go for the galaxy effect?

I've always been interested in space. Some of my favorite classes have been physics. One of my favorite classes at Boise State was stars and cosmology that I took my freshman semester and experimenting with those inks seeing how they came together and how they replicated that space feel it just got my brain thinking how can I experiment more with this medium and incorporate something that I love.

So what made you think to do time-lapses?

I've always been interested in media production. I went to school for media production, I did a degree in media arts and I wanted to somehow blend my love for production with my painting. So one day I took out my phone I taped it to a little tripod that I had actually got a slab of wood and attached that to the tripod and then taped my phone to that wood so it was directly overhead my painting and then I just did a time-lapse on my phone and from there I experimented with a new camera I bought and then since then I've just been filming basically all my paintings.

How has the reception been for you online?

I was nervous at first because I was just posting them to my personal social media accounts and I'm the type of person that overthinks everything so I was worried that my friends and family would get annoyed so that's when I created the Humby Art accounts on Instagram and Facebook and all the other social medias out there. At first there wasn't really much of a reaction because it was kind of still just my friends following but eventually once I began posting these time-lapses that's when my engagement really picked up and I started getting a really positive response and growing a following online.

What's it been like going to school while keeping up with your art and post schedule for your social media?

That was really tricky because when I created these social media accounts to post my art I wasn't doing it to create what I have now I was just doing it because I didn't want to annoy my friends. And then once that kind of blew up I kind of felt pressure to keep my engagement up and keep growing my following but obviously studying full-time and then working as well it's kind of hard because I would have had to post every second day and I did for a very long time. I grew my following a lot but eventually I did get a little burnt out and this last semester my final semester of school I kind of stepped back and took a break for a little bit. It was hard to balance the two but I'm glad I did because it's given me what I have now but definitely I'm happy to be graduated and be able to focus on my art more and see where it goes from here.

What motivates you to keep creating?

That's kind of a tricky one right now because these past two years what’s motivated me has been seeing my following grow and seeing the reaction strangers have had to my art, seeing people be inspired by my art and wanting to recreate it. That's kind of what's made me keep going even though it's been so difficult with balancing everything in my life. Now that I have graduated I'm kind of trying to find some inspiration because that's what's driven me and I really don't want that to be driving me any more because I want to do art for me and not for strangers online if that makes sense. So I'm trying to find a balance between being able to grow my following still but in a way that makes me feel fulfilled and happy.

How do you handle any negativity you get online?

I find it pretty funny. I don't get that much negativity and to be fair I don't really read a lot of the comments, but it's always just a good laugh when I get a crazy comment. Like someone very recently on one of my Facebook videos posted like I'm never gonna get into the Tate because I need to spend more time painting and I can't create masterpieces if I paint in one minute. Which was kind of funny because obviously it's a sped up time-lapse and it wasn't a minute so those are the kind of comments that I get. They're just funny like they don't hurt at all because it's just it makes no sense. But even if there are really mean comments I just kind of brush them off because you can't please everyone.

Where do you find your inspiration?

I always wanted to be a cartoonist growing up so I've always loved drawing cartoons and before I even painted anything I was drawing when I was growing up. I don't think I ever even touched acrylic paints until I was maybe like 16. So with my watercolors I just thought would be cool to start incorporating cartoon drawings and they're some of my favorite pieces of work that I create but they're just kind of fun and for me I can't really sell them or anything because they’re copyrighted obviously but I get a real kick out of looking up an image and then going and drawing it freehand and then once I'm done like looking at the two and seeing how similar they are and it just makes me feel really proud. I don't know, I honestly don't know what inspired the diamonds because I've done a lot of diamonds. I think it was when I first started out I was doing a lot of landscape pieces and I wanted to find a way that was interesting and unique to kind of distinguish myself from all the other watercolor artists online. So I thought maybe if I incorporated some shapes it would make it a little bit more interesting and that's actually the first video that really blew up and started my following. It was a diamond painting of a night sky with trees all along the side, and from there I just really like the way it looked I honestly can't remember how I started doing it but since then no matter what I'm painting I'd say about like 50 percent of the time I just kind of incorporate a shape into it because I like the clean look of when I post to have the watercolor paper around and writing utensil or a pen or a paintbrush along the side.

How do you get the clean sharp lines on your paintings?

So that was something again that was kind of unintentional. I was just at Fred Meyer and I saw some masking tape and I thought why not experiment with that since I've been trying to do all these shapes. So it's literally just scotch masking tape and I just draw out my diamonds or any of my shapes or anything that I want masked and then I lay down the tape and it just stops the paint from bleeding and creates those really sharp lines.

So that leaf, is it done with masking tape too? 

No. That's just me focusing really hard.

Do you have a job outside of art? 

I just graduated so right now I'm on the job front looking for a job but the whole time that I've been doing this I've been studying full-time, I've been working at the Arbiter as a digital content manager, so I've been out taking photos and videos for all of their stories. Then on top of that until about like four months ago since 2015 I've also been a cake decorator at Ben & Jerry's. So this became my main source of income I would say, but for my whole time in college I was working a lot so it wasn't my only source.

So are you able to make enough to live off your art?

Not right now because with this last semester of me taking a step back my engagement has gone down. I'm already making plans to put a lot more time into my art and get my engagement back up so I can start selling more art and working with more brands and get to a point again where it will be my main source of income. But I am a really team oriented person and working with people who inspire me and push me to grow, so this type of work for now even if it was something that was sustainable I still want to look for a job where I'm working with people because this is really isolating.

What does it mean for you to create art?

It just makes me really really proud when I can get a blank piece of paper, tape it down and then within half-an-hour create a scene. Whether that's a night sky or any type of landscape or some type of cartoon with a cosmic influence. It just makes me really proud that I can do that. It just makes me happy. I don't know why, ever since I was a kid I can't explain it, just drawing and painting makes me happy.

Do you think you’ll ever stop creating art?

No. I don't think so. It's something that I can and have stepped away from for a few years and I know if that happens again like I'll just as easily be able to step back into.

Can you describe your process?

When I'm going about my day I usually come up with ideas that I want to paint and I write them down on my phone in the Notes app. Then when I sit down to paint usually, in my prime every second day, I want to be throwing content out there. So I paint usually every second day. I'll sit down sometimes I have a really good idea that's been on my mind that I just immediately go for, but if I don't really have anything that I'm excited or already know that I want to paint I'll open up my Notes app and go through all of my ideas that I’ve written down and usually that works I'll just find something and get excited about that and then I'll sit down and paint it. Painting usually takes me anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half I'd say. But that's mainly because of all my other time restrictions with school and work so now that I've graduated I'm hoping that I'll be able to spend a lot more time on paintings because before I've had to fit it in so I usually paint on a really small scale that allows me to paint in 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Once I'm done painting I go ahead and, like I mentioned I film all of my paintings at the same time, so I'll take the memory card out and sit down almost immediately and edit up that video and then once that's done I have a specific time I like to post. And then that's kind of it. Sometimes I'll post the artwork that I've done up for sale on Etsy sometimes it's a commissioned piece, but sometimes it's just for me.

Have you looked at any of the Boise Artist opportunities available?

I've dabbled a little bit, I had an exhibition at JUMP. My art was shown at Goldie's cafe for a good year. But again with school I just got so busy, so now that I'm a little bit more free I'm definitely excited to look at all the exciting art opportunities there are in Boise.

Karen Bubb - Artist Sit Down - Full Interview

Karen’s Website - https://karenbubb.com/home.html

What kind of mediums do you work in?

My primary medium is encaustic, which is an ancient Greek and Roman process of using hot wax and Damar Crystal which is a tree sap from Malaysia and pigments. You melt those on a hot palette and then I paint on wood. So that's the primary medium that I show in but I also really love materials, so I also work in gouache and watercolour. I've had a sketchbook practice for a long time, so I love to draw. I do small hand-built ceramics, Kerry Moosman is a teacher that I've had for several years doing burnished pots. And then I also learned how to do stained glass, so I do some pieces in glass some printmaking some lithographic printmaking on glass and stained glass.

What’s been your favorite medium to work with?

I would say encaustic is definitely my favorite.  Encaustic is super versatile, I've worked at it for years. I took a workshop from an artist named Eve-Marie Bergren and I really fell in love with it. The material is really pliable, you can do a lot of different things with it. You can collage with it. I love the natural feeling of the wax and the smell of the beeswax. It has a beautiful look too, you polish the surface of it and it the Damar polishes up really beautifully. I can draw into it with tools and carve onto it, so the the single medium can be used in several different ways and get a lot of different looks, so that's definitely what I work in the most 

What inspires you to come up with your ideas?

You know historically I've done several series that are inspired by travel. So it started with a trip to China in 2005 and I came back and made several pieces about that trip to China. I've done a trip to Cuba, Germany, Italy and made work about that. My most recent series I had a one-person show at the visual arts collective and that was inspired by this longer process where I was doing ancestral research and I found family members back to the Mayflower. Then I was doing hypnotic past life regression with a hypnotist and making work about what I experienced and saw in those regressions. So that's the most recent series. Much of which you see around me right now was more personal and it was more based on kind of this combination of existing ephemera such as family photographs and then experiences that were just imaginatory experiences through this process.

How do you begin a painting?

I work best when I'm working on a series so I identify kind of the parameters of that series and then within that series I'll often have kind of series within a series. So for instance this last project that I worked on. One series was working specifically from historical photographs from my family, so I'll find a photograph that I like, I'll draw that on wood I'll paint the wax on the wood and then I start letting surprises happen. So I'll start experimenting with the medium. I really love materials and I like things that have a life of their own, so I'll play and follow with that material process as well.

What kinds of challenges do you face?

As an artist in general my major challenge is that I have a full-time job and I'm not a full-time artist. So I have very limited time frames in which I can work, and so for me it is being very disciplined and carving out money to have a studio, time to be in that studio, and then developing very internally motivated projects that I identify myself and work towards. So it's really that kind of process of what it means to be an artist. And then it's executing on that, hitting my deadlines, getting in the studio. For me it's really more about getting out of my head and into the materials and into the process. I am in school right now, and in my job, I do a lot of things that are really focused on intellectual processes, so getting getting out of my head and being in the materials is the most challenging.

Does having a dedicated space help? 

Yes, I love having a studio! I can't imagine being an artist, particularly in the circumstances that I'm working in now, if I didn't have a studio space. This is like the Playhouse, so it has all of my materials. It has an altar to my processes. It has a dedicated space so that I can come and go and don't have to clean up what I'm working on. So for me having a studio space is absolutely essential to being able to be an artist.

Does having studio space help you find the motivation to work?

Yes it definitely does. I try to come here every weekend, even if it's just for an hour and even if it's just coming to sit and stare at the walls. I'm really dedicated to being here a part of every weekend, and then I come some in the evenings as well, or I'll come by in the morning, so it gives me a touchstone. It's only a half a mile from my house, so it's also very accessible to my home environment and that makes it easier as well.

What kind of challenges have you faced as a progressing artist? 

I think there's the idea of what it means to be an artist, and that people think you're going to make art and be famous, or that it's all about showing and selling. So I think for me it has been two parts; one has been to try to understand the role of art in society and to understand my place in that. I have chosen to be both an administrator, a person who acts as a bridge between artists and bureaucrats, but also to not stop being a maker myself. I've met a lot of people who begin as makers and then they become administrators and let go of that maker part of their life. So for me it is to hold on to the love and passion and value of being a maker, and continuing to find inspiration in the world, and then giving myself permission to do the work to make things. I think often times as an adult people see spending time, or materials, or money on art making is something that is silly, or extra, or a hobby and therefore not worthy. For me it's to continue to value that part of who I am and what I do in the world.

Why is art important?

Art is the way that we share with each other and with ourselves what's important to us. So it's part of how we communicate our stories about our culture, our families, who we are, our identity. So for me as a maker, it is part of how I process the world and understand my own experience as a human. And then it is part of how I connect with other people and share that, and have conversations about that, and hopefully inspire other people to think about things that they might not have thought about otherwise. As an artist, I seek out art all the time. I travel whenever I have the opportunity and go to look at art, and it gives me a window into people's lives. To time periods, to places that I wouldn't have otherwise, and it inspires me in terms of the potential that we have as human beings. I feel like it is part of what drives us to be something more than we are, to not settle for mediocrity in our lives. To strive for greatness in our own ways, and as a social act to then invite others to participate in that conversation, and to acknowledge others as well in that process. 

Do you find yourself having trouble completing projects?

I'm really good at follow through, so when I set up a project I typically will set up a deadline for that and a timeframe, and then I give myself some flexibility within that. I'm a really productive person, and so once I commit to something I always follow through. So for me, follow-through is not the difficult part of it. For me it is probably over commitment and having so many things going that it's more difficult for me to go as deep into those things as I'd like to. So sometimes I don't finish things, I don't hit the mark in terms of, I'll look at something and say “well it's completed but I'd like it to be deeper or more complex.” That is, I'd like to scale back a little bit on my responsibilities so that I can make things that have more complexity and more depth to them.

If you set a deadline do you stick to that even if it's not “complete”?

I do, mm-hmm, yeah. This last show I gave myself two years to work on it. I think it's also adjusting expectations. I finished the show and I was happy with what I did, but I also see the 20 things I can do in addition to that. So I recognize that completion is one part of the process, then you'll continue to develop and evolve ideas past that. 

Do you strive for perfection?

I think trying to be better is part of part of what we do. I think for me, it's also trying to let go of the perfection and let things come through that are more organic and less about perfection, more about beauty and what happens in the process. So it's a balance

What has it been like for you being an artist in Boise?

I think being an artist in Boise has actually been a wonderful thing for me. One, I think financially to be able to afford a studio space outside of my home has been great. I have felt really welcomed in this community. I feel like the artist community of Boise is very encouraging. I found a great support system. I think the thing that is difficult in Boise is that there's not a lot of opportunities to show, and there's not as many people who are serious collectors. Often times people will collect work from other cities, or other locations. So I definitely recognize that in terms of the ability to make a living as an artist, if I were to try to make a living as an artist, I wouldn't be able to do it. So I'm grateful that I have a day job, and that I make money in a different way. But that said, I have as many opportunities as I want to show. I've always been able to make that happen. And because of commute times, and the closeness of everything here, I feel like I've also been able to maximize my time in between work and home and life and being an artist. So I really feel like Boise is a fertile place to be an artist. For me it's also been important to share that. So to have other artists continue to work here, stay and be here. That community of artists is really important to me as friends, as colleagues, as encouragers, so that's been really important to me as well.

Anything else you’d like to say?

People often will identify that you are either an artist or you're not. People self-identify very young. They choose to not be an artist because they're not going to pursue that as a life path, and I really feel like I want to encourage people to challenge themselves to find what is creative within them. Because I feel like everybody has something to say and that experiencing the world through the process of making is really gratifying. I do understand that not everyone will choose to invest on the level that people like myself who feel this great passion to do it. But I feel like it's something that everyone can do in some capacity. So I think that's important to me, but I think for me the other piece is that... I'll continue to make work, because it's how I understand what it means to be human. When I stop making work, that's when I stop. That's when I'll stop. So I think it's something I will do until the day I die.