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Alyssa Monks is an American artist. She is highly talented, highly respected and highly successful. In this episode she talks candidly about what real success means to her. How art can help make a connection to our humanness. Her relationships with galleries, and she gives tips for artists that are invaluable
Here is what we talk about
- Why does art exist?
- The, “Paint,” of reality
- Painting for viewer or artist?
- Creative heroes
- Current artistic challenges
- Galleries and the art business
- Learning in Florence and New York
- Advice for artists
Alyssa’s advice for artists
“Skills are very important, but nowhere near enough to make art. Definitely acquire the skills through whatever practice and education you choose and embrace it with discipline but have no attachment to success.
Work as hard as you can.
Don’t ever compare yourself to others.
Learn how to work on your work.
The more you paint or sculpt or draw the more you will know what to do and the more you will develop your voice.
Stay true in your work.
Don’t try to make art about things you don’t know about, care about, or understand. Make art that you care about, because you believe it should exist.
Know your place and be humble and grateful always.
It’s a competitive world and most people will not succeed, that is the reality. It’s not an easy road and too many artists complain constantly about how it’s not fair and it’s not merit based. These are excuses. Take ownership of your work.
Never show anything that isn’t completed.
And don’t try to describe your ideas in words to other people, be a little bit brief and coy about them, you can never really convey anything visual in words anyway.
And share your process and work with other artists you admire, allow for real criticism, don’t take it personally, just let it make you better.
Read art magazines and learn about the art world. Know your history.
Love art.
Love your materials. Let your materials humble and surprise you.
Don’t try to control the process but do have a plan. plan plan plan…then be open to surprises and twists.
Be fascinated.
Find a job that can sustain you and leave you a bit of time to make work, but doesn’t require any creativity. I’d suggest not even taking a job in the art world. I was an administrative assistant all over NYC in different temp jobs to sustain myself.
Don’t wait till you have the perfect studio to make your best work. Make the best of your space and do whatever you have to do to make it work. It will be decades before your find the perfect space, if ever.
Ask questions.
Be kind.
Be respectful always.
Don’t burn bridges.
Have a website.
Share your work.
Take the feedback with a grain of salt.
Read art books. “What painting is” by James Elkins. “Art and Fear”, a great essay about being an artist.
Be patient with the art world, and impatient with yourself.
Write your artist statement, mostly to clarify your intent for yourself.”
To find out more about Alyssa and her work
http://www.alyssamonks.com/
Thanks for listening!
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Music by The Argyle Pimps. Thanks lads.
me encantan tus trabajos
Gracias.
Hi Alyssa,
Thanks for your honest and empathetic sharing of yor insights.I was in the process of writing an update of my artistic statement,when I decided to listen to you.thank you ,many things resonated,and you helped me clarify some of my concerns.You are a wonderful artist,and I greatly respect your work.I visited NY.many yers ago,a great vibrant city. Florence is and has a special place in my heart.
Art Statement 2015
Julian Di Stefano is a visual artist, a painter, a photographer, and an art teacher. He is passionate about image making, with multiple media. His works are crafted in oils, watercolor, and drawing media. Photography and digital media also feature and informs his work. His body of work is stylistically eclectic and predominantly figurative. Authentic work is the goal. Portraiture is of particular interest….
You will recognise “authentic work”as being your insight.this resonates true with me.You have helped me relax about an eclectic approach to work.I have not had the circumstances,to fully pursue an artistic career,teaching, family, and other life issues have been part of the deal.I hope now to attend to this desire to dance, to create work in a more focused way.
I appreciate you work and thoughts greatly.
Warm regards,
Julian Di Stefano.
Hi Julian,
Remember writing your artist statement is something that will evolve and change throughout your art making life. Also, it is more an exercise for you to figure out where your true intention lies, than for anyone to read and be affected. If you treat it this way, you may end up peeking some interest. I would recommend putting the pen down and go draw and paint a bit. My teacher in Florence had us go out into the city to three very different venues and sketch and paint anything that caught us as interesting. We did about 10 at each venue. Bringing all 30 back to her, she was able to look through them and figure out what they were about beyond what I knew. She basically read my true nature right from the choices I made compositionally and where my attention was. Maybe you have someone who can do this for you, with some attention and objectivity. Otherwise, be honest with yourself, and as specific as you can. Look at all your work in chronological order and notice where your attention really is. You want to figure out what is unique about your point of view and embrace that. Don’t hold anything back. Be honest about what you care about when it comes to painting. You’ll discover everything you need there. Good luck!
Hi Alyssa
Thanks so much for the insightful interview. This is a technical question that I suppose relates to where I will eventually head style wise. I have been doing portrait of my daughter I painted over it about 5 times due to various drawing issues. But finally got close to resolving only to find the colour was dead. I started with a fair bit of yellow ochre and other colours like terra rosa and white and greens. This looked pretty bad then I tries raw umber again could not get any where a natural look. Now I am trying a combo or raw sienna and raw umber for the darks and terra rosa an viridan and using a lot less base colour and going for more white this is working a bit better.. How do you create such amazingly believable flesh tones
Hi Justine,
I’d have to see her skin tones for real precision, but try these colors, they are friendly and in the right combinations can get any skin tone. Yellow Ochre (i like Gamblin) and Raw Sienna for the yellows. For the Reds, try Old Holland’s Madder Lake Deep mostly. For very warm areas you can try Old Holland’s Flesh Ochre, and Red Oxide Lake. For the cooler tones, I use Blue or Cold Black, Old Hollands Violet Grey, and King’s Blue. I also use Pthalo Green. Notice color relationships, instead of just value relationships. You’ll see that as the skin tone gets lighter, it tends to get cooler, and ask it gets daker look for the warms. Shadows can be cool and lights warm, or vice versa, but within each of those masses, things always get warmer as they get darker. Try to look for that happening. This change in temperature and color as you change value will keep you organized and give you luminous skin tones. It’s also a great idea to mix out your skin tones prior to painting. If a complexion is darker or more olive, you may look for the pthalo green-red oxide combination. Where as a very pale complexion will have a more violet grey-madder lake palette. Good luck!
Just heard your pod cast and I thought it was wonderful you have a great positive spirit and a deep humanity which is so good.
Thank you!
Thank you John and Alyssa for this inspiring, thoughtful interview. You mentioned that Alyssa might respond to questions and I have one. In the statement that John read regarding advice for emerging artists, one of your many nuggets of wisdom was “never show anything that isn’t completed”. Would you recommend not showing anything “in progress” even if it is labeled as such? I occasionally do this on social media with my paintings, never on my website. Your insight and advice was all really excellent and informative to me. In addition to loving your work, your words and philosophy will stick with me indefinitely. Thank you.
Adam,
I think if you show a piece on Instagram as a #WIP it’s understood it is not finished. I think it’s valuable to share your work this way actually. What I mean is, don’t put a painting in a show or exhibition or piece of press without it being fully executed to your satisfaction. I hope this is more clear.
Yes thank you!
Adam,
I think if you show a piece on Instagram as a #WIP it’s understood it is not finished. I think it’s valuable to share your work this way actually. What I mean is, don’t put a painting in a show or exhibition or piece of press without it being fully executed to your satisfaction. I hope this is more clear. Thanks for the comments, too!
What happened to the audio after the minute 28?
I had some problems listening to what she was saying after it.
Thank you so much for these podcasts, I consider them beautiful pieces of art themselves.
Gracias from Mexico!!!
Thanks Hal. That’s lovely.
I’m don’t get the audio problem at my end. You could try to refresh the page them jump forward to minute 28 and listen from there.
it just sounds like Alyssa just wasn’t speaking close enough to the microphone.
Anyway, thanks again for the conversations. I enjoy them so much.
Are you planning on doing a podcast with Casey Baugh?
That would be great.
Viva Mexico and keep on rocking on the free world!
Hal.
I was riveted by this interview and found myself drawn closer and closer to the information Alyssa so generously gave. By the time it was over I was holding my ear to my computer so as not to miss a single word. Not only am I filled with hope, I am truly excited to experiment more and fear less. Many thanks to you John for making this available and especially to you Alyssa for an enriching talk.
You’re very welcome Teresa, I’m glad you found it so useful.
I cannot tell a lie, that really hepeld.
That’s great Amelia. I’m glad you found it helpful.
Very incisive and rewarding talk. I have had to re-listen to this wonderful discussion 4 times already !!! Thank You.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Alyssa Monks, you do an amazing job of articulating the art of life and the life of art and pointing us towards the beautiful, mysterious, and sometimes messy space where they intersect. You give people courage to interact with that space. I hope to have many more opportunities to hear you speak. Thank you