I feel just terrible that I didn't get this lovely girl's interview up sooner. My deepest apologies--this spring has been incredibly busy. Without further ado, here is an interview with a very talented artist I think all of you will enjoy. She particularly catches my eye with her vintage-y people and great combination of color and black and white. Please get to know Kaetlyn Able:
1. Were
you always an art kid, or did you stumble upon it later in life?
I
was always an art kid—happiest when I was drawing and making
things. Family lore is that I was a really easy kid, because I
always had some quiet project going. I majored in studio art at my
small liberal arts college, and then went on to graduate school to
get my MFA.
2. What
style of art is your favorite and why?
It's
so hard to nail down just one favorite style! As a viewer I love it
all—from contemporary installation work to the old masters. Any
work that was made with an interesting concept in mind, excellent
craftsmanship, and emotional resonance (a favorite college professor
spoke of work that was made with head, hands and heart) is great art
to me. As a maker, my favorite style to work in is a sort of magical
realism. I love to work from observation—either from life or from
photos that I've taken myself and brought back to the studio. That
process of looking very carefully and trying to understand the
figure, the light, the character and the particular details of an
object or scene, is very calming and meditative to me. And then I
love to let that realism run wild into an imaginary place by
combining strange elements together (lately it's people and plants),
working from memory and letting things melt into abstraction in
places.
3. What
do you use for inspiration, or how do you generate ideas?
I
collect old portrait photographs. I buy them from antique shops and
people give them to me. I spend hours and hours just pouring over
them, wondering about the people in the pictures and looking for
clues about their lives. My ideas for my paintings begin with
figures from or fragments of these images. I also love to people
watch. I tend to look for, or imagine, great love stories between
people I see out in the world. I'm an unapologetic romantic. And I
like thinking about and celebrating sassy, strong women and
sensitive, nurturing men—the not-traditionally-celebrated
combinations of character and gender. I'm also deeply inspired by
the natural world. I spend a lot of the spring, summer and fall
hiking around outdoors, camera in hand, looking for wildflowers.
4.
Walk
us through your creative process from idea to finished project.
I
begin with an image or part of an image from one of my old
photographs. This is always an intuitive choice—I choose something
that I find intriguing without fully understanding why. Making the
drawing or painting helps me to think through and understand my
fascination with the image. I sketch out the parts of the image that
interest me and leave out everything that doesn't. Sometimes I know
what botanical elements I want to combine with the photo image right
away, and other times that comes to me as I'm working and thinking
deeply about the people and the details of the photo, developing
their story as I go. I work on a really small, intimate and detailed
scale, either layering ink and watercolor washes on paper with tiny
brushes, or painting ink onto claybord and scratching the details
with a sharp tool to reveal the white clay underneath. My processes
are pretty labor intensive. When I'm working on a piece I almost
always get to the point where my perfectionism tries to take over—I
start seeing a lot of technical “flaws” that distract me and I
start doubting the work. I've learned to step away when that
happens—maybe even for a couple of days. I return with fresh eyes
and am able to let go of that neurotic side to my perfectionism, see
the charm in the “flaws” and finish the piece.
5. What
is a typical day in your life?
I'm
a stay-at-home mom to my two little boys, ages three and five, so I
spend most of each day doing mom and household related activities and
tasks. My kids are very, very active, so I make it a priority for us
to get out and about for most of the day. I'm also undergoing
treatment for breast cancer, so I spend a lot of time at the hospital
as well. My husband and I share a little workspace in our home,
where I make art and he does computer-y things. I work in small
chunks of time throughout the day, whenever I get the chance. I'm
always at the ready to switch gears and jump into art mode. When my
boys are at preschool (they both go two mornings a week) or really
into their pretend play together, or watching their afternoon show,
or out with their grandma, I sit down at my work table and get a
little art time in. I also work after they go to bed at night. My
husband and I also trade some kid-free time on the weekends to work
on our respective projects. My rule is to find at least half an hour
each day for art-making, but I can usually find more.
6. What
do you think draws you to other people's work?
Like
I said earlier, I love when an artist's work combines an interesting,
deeply explored concept, beautiful craftsmanship and and emotional
resonance. I love quirky, authentic-feeling art. I also tend to
gravitate toward artists who have a nice kind of balance between
consistency and variety in their work.
7. What
are your interests/hobbies?
I
love being outside, hiking and exploring with my family. I also love
doing yoga, cooking, baking, sewing and getting together with
friends. And I read a ton. I've also recently started exploring
Buddhist teachings and meditation.
8. Is
this your full time job, or do you have a job out-of-studio?
My
stay-at-home mom gig is my full time job right now. My plan is to
transition back to work as a full time artist as my children enter
school. My oldest starts all day kindergarten next fall, and my
youngest will go to preschool three full days. So I'll have more
dedicated art time starting in the fall. And my younger son will
start kindergarten the following year. My ultimate goal is to work
while my boys are in school, and then to pick them up and spend the
afternoons with them. And to be home with them when they're sick.
9. What
is your favorite piece you've ever made and why?
I
don't think I could ever choose just one! It would end up as a tie
between my twenty favorites, I think. And since I'm always making
new work, my feelings about past work are always changing. My
favorites among my own body of work tend to be the ones that resonate
with me most emotionally and the ones that represent conceptual and
technical breakthroughs.
10. What
advice would you give to an artist just starting out in the business
world?
Do
the work, pay your dues, be patient and come up with a plan for how
you will create a viable, sustainable business as an artist. What
are your goals? What is your budget? Who is your target market?
What compromises will you need to make as you're starting out? If
you plan to seek gallery representation, remember that there is no
venue too small or obscure for your work when you're just beginning.
Show your work wherever you can. Your local library, Arts Center,
hospital and coffee shops are all great, accessible venues for
emerging artists. I showed and sold my work in all of these spaces
when I was just starting out. Most of us who apply for big grants or
to prestigious galleries will most often be rejected in the
beginning. But if you keep plugging diligently away, making work,
honing your craft and sharing your work with the public, those
galleries and collectors will eventually begin to approach you. It
took me eleven years of hard (but exceptionally rewarding) work for
that shift to happen.
11. Describe
your work space.
My
corner of our work space consists of a big computer desk, a drafting
table, a nice, deep closet and a little painting cart on wheels. It
feels perfect to me—just enough space, but not so much that I don't
know what I have or where I put things.
 |
| Her work space. |
12. Did
you face any setbacks on your path to being an artist?
I
don't know if I would consider them setbacks exactly. Maybe just the
twists and turns of figuring out how to cobble together an
economically viable existence making art. I did not do a great job
really thinking through the business side of things when I was in
school. If I remember correctly, I think my plan was to simply be
discovered! At that time I didn't have good time management skills
either. The result was that after graduate school I ended up kind of
flailing around for a few years as I tried to figure out how to make
a living and make art. I had a non art related job that I really
didn't like and very little time (or so I thought) for art. You know
what they say about hindsight, but if I could do it all over I would
have been more thoughtful and strategic about my career path when I
was in school. There were some missed opportunities there.
13. What
milestones, goals, or achievements are you striving for right now?
In
the short term, I'm working on getting back in the swing of things
after getting through the harder parts of my cancer treatments. I'm
lucky to be represented by a fantastic gallery, Altitude, here in
Bozeman. I had a really successful show last year and sold most of
my pieces, but my painting pace slowed down considerably while I was
going through chemo and recovering from surgery. So I'm kind of
re-emerging right now, and working hard on a new series for the
gallery. Once I get them fully stocked with my new work, I plan to
seek further representation in other cities. My main longterm goal
is to build a sustainable business making art. I've been noodling
over how to do that, experimenting with my ideas and analyzing the
numbers. And I've discovered that working with galleries is the best
fit for me. So that's where I'm focusing.
Please also find her and her work here:
Etsy Shop.
Instagram.
