Alyssa Monks
If you could choose one person in your life that you feel understands your work and supports you more than anyone, who would that be? My mom. She is always the first one I want to show my latest painting to. She isn’t a painter herself, but her aesthetic tastes in art always matched my own. Her eye was like my own eye, but objective. She could hold up a mirror to my work for me to see it from a distance. All along the way she never over inflated my ability or let me rest on my skills or accolades. She never made a big deal of what I do, she just kind of shrugged it off like “Ok, you will be an artist. Go do that”. I love that. It was never a conversation as to whether or not I would take this path. And she never pushed me to do it the way she wanted me to. She got it. She is very creative herself, so she understood the space necessary and the right kind of support to offer. My parents let me do it all myself, once I was on my own, and I appreciate that now.
Do you have other artists in your family? My mom is an artist in my eyes. (Although she denies it.) She has always been creative in whatever she does, sewing, cooking, quilting, jewelry making, and especially pottery. She really has taught me to just go for it, stick to it, and don’t worry about it being perfect. So many interesting things happen when you just let go and try. I never saw her follow a recipe exactly without adding her own improvisations, and I’m pretty sure she never used a measuring spoon. I think what defines her as an artist in my eyes is her trust in herself that she can make whatever she is doing into something that works. And it usually does. And when it doesn’t, its just a lesson learned.
As an artist, how would you define success? Success is something I defined early on as happening in my studio alone painting. There are amazing moments when something starts to come together and take shape and gains it’s own momentum. I feel like I’m watching it happen, instead of making it happen. It’s very exciting. When I get to that point, I feel successful or satisfied, I guess. When I see the paint I’m manipulating doing something I didn’t expect or imagine, especially after a bit of a struggle or surrender….I feel successful in having sustained the struggle and made it work somehow. I think also that if I feel I am challenging myself, keeping myself engaged with the process and making work I feel connected to personally, then I am successful, regardless of what happens to the painting when it’s dry. Success is different for each person, of course. And it can be a defeating burden to live up to if the bar is too high or the concept exists out of your control.
I want to feel the invigorating excitement of making something exciting and interesting. That is in my control. I can live with that bar.
Would you say your artistic style found you, or you found it? An artist can have many artistic styles throughout their careers. I think it is an evolution that takes a lifetime of work. My technique and subject matter has been changing since I began painting as a teenager, and even since I finished my graduate degree 11 years ago. As my perspective changes and my situation changes, so do my creative tendencies and interests. I think that is one of the best parts of being an artist; you keep experimenting, learning, and hopefully coming up with new ways to engage your medium. I don’t want to be limited to the artistic style I have now. I want to keep going on the journey and see what happens along the way. I think different things come into my field of vision or my experience and attract me or repel me and influence my direction, other times I seek out the places and people I know I connect to and let them influence me. It’s all part of riding that wave and allowing myself to be open and sometimes distracted into seeing something new or a different way.
www.poetsandartists.com
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