Inside the Artist Studio: Q&A with 9 ITTY/BITTY Artists!

YES: What is your first memory around making art?

KEITH MADDY: It has to be coloring and drawing for hours at the kitchen table as a preschooler and also, for some reason, a macaroni wreath made in elementary school. I guess the idea, which still is with me today, of working with other materials and transforming them into something else.

SARAH SYMES: Watching my Dad paint when I was a child. He would tell me stories while he moved the paint around, transforming smudges and flicks into abstract animals for my amusement. Many of his paintings were populated with secret characters hiding between the thick ridges of oil paint. Dad taught me how having fun and living in the moment unlocks the creative process.

YELLENA JAMES: Drawing on the walls with my sister as a kid.

ALYN CARLSON: The most vivid would be making wrapping paper for Christmas in the first grade. When I was done I was too in love with it to use it. The smell of the crayons. The wonderful waxiness of the color. The harder I pushed the brighter it got. Balancing the placement of the pattern proportions of the angels, bells, stars inside the edges. Miraculously my mom saved it all these years and gave it to me recently. I was shocked at how much it looked like my memory of it. And how much of it is still in my work today. And 2 years ago I taught my grandson, Levi, 3 at the time, how to draw a circle. It was so beautiful to watch. It was like he was bending steel. And I was so excited to think this might be his first memory of art.

LAURA MCCABE: It may not be my absolutely most early memory, but perhaps one of my most important early memories is from when I was in third grade. We did a project where we all illustrated one letter of the alphabet. I drew a quail for the letter Q. I remember that I had to research what a quail looked like and do thumbnail sketches to plan the design and then taking a long time drawing all the detail in the feathers and a really detailed decorative border. Mostly I remember getting lost in the drawing and spending hours on it, which is really not that different than my drawing process now. I still have that drawing, too, and it is pretty good for a third grader!

SUSAN SCHWAKE: Drawing murals on the continuous length computer paper my dad would bring home from work when I was in 2nd grade.

JENNI FREIDMAN: Art was always around. I can't say I have a first memory, but there are lots through my whole childhood. My mom is an artist, and taught elementary art when I was a kid. Everything was art.

KATHRINE LOVELL: Trying to figure out a good way to draw hands, and consciously copying my sister's approach; a circle with a bunch of smaller circles representing fingers. It made me think about the fact that I have five fingers, so I must have been pretty young, three maybe, four possibly.

JESSICA GONACHA: I used to make little books when I was 4 or 5 that I carried around with me everywhere in a backpack my mom made for me. The books were just little drawings and words, but they were the most precious things to me! I have no idea where they are now- isn't that funny?

YES: Tell me about your process.

KEITH MADDY: I work on top of pre-existing patterns or imagery, usually vintage, but could be anything that appeals to me based on the colors and pattern. If the material is cloth I mount it on a board or panel. I draw on top of and over and in response to the chosen image new shapes and patterns. Within these shapes and patterns elements of the original source material is maintained, while other parts are obscured by sanding, painting, gesso, graphite, etc.

YELLENA: I don't usually plan a drawing or a painting. I mostly just start with one object or symbol and then play off of it & build around it.

ALYN: Play and explore without judgment. I don't wait for the inspiration. I try and stay actively making art even if it feels like I'm in a dry spell. My friend, Pat Hegnauer and I like to call it “setting the table for the muse.” Begin without direction and let the marks guide you. Just reaction after reaction. Open to the guidance. Having all my materials out all the time is important, too. That can be hard because I'm into a lot of mediums. But I try to stay with one for as long as I feel there's something there. Then I move on. And if I'm not working that day on art I try to have a meal with it. Sit and feed myself with food and my art. The comfortable distance is good.

LAURA: Usually a picture will occur to me and then I will sit and sketch it out and figure out exactly what I want it to be and what I am trying to convey. Then when I move to the actual drawing I think about things like textures and colors and often the drawing will evolve from my original idea as I work on it. Usually I work making washes of color first in either gouache or ink, and then I draw or paint in details on top of that.

SUSAN: I begin a few pieces of work at the same time. I work in bursts of time from one hour to an entire day. I have space to leave things out in a couple of places and when they get to a part where I want to observe them more causally, I bring them home and live with them for a time. I finish things the same way I begin them, a few pieces at a time in bursts

JENNI: Drawing is thinking for me. It is how I learn about what I am doing, where I am going, what I am trying to say. Drawing usually happens before printmaking for me. Once I carve a path with a pencil, I set to work on a plate. Then the dance starts. Both media begin to inform each other and I go to a new place with both media. Sometimes if I feel the work is moving along, I will make an artists book too.

KATHRINE: I start with a piece of birch plywood, cut to the right size, sometimes small, sometimes large, but I do like to start with a pile that will become one painting. Then I prime the wood, and start adding a lot of layers of random colors, I like to crackle the paint for one layer, then sand it all. Then I get out my ruler and draw a grid, and figure out a pattern that works from the grid, often consulting reference books. Sometimes I know exactly what kind of bird or plant I want from the start, but it often evolves and reveals itself. There is a lot of painting, sanding, putting in, taking out.

JESSICA: My process is a few steps-- first I paint the board and then usually print a patterned background with a hand-cut linoleum block stamp. I usually do this step in batches, so I'll have lots of boards ready to go. Then once the ink is dry, I draw images with pencil until I'm satisfied with how it looks, then go over it with india ink, then fill in with paint! Sometimes I add cut paper, too, or print more on top of the painting-- it depends what the piece calls for. Usually I don't have anything very specific in mind when I begin, and the piece sort-of dictates itself as I go along.

YES: What is it about your material that draws you in?

KEITH MADDY: The foundation of my work has always been collage. I am drawn to tactile materials to work with and transforming common materials and ephemera into collage and mixed media works of art

YELLENA: I've always loved paint & ink & color, since before I can remember. Lately I've been really exploring pens & markers. I love how simple and easy to control they are. I enjoy using something so basic in its function to evoke emotion & spark imagination.

ALYN: Color. Color. Color. I have synesthesia. Cross firing of the senses. Usually with color. It makes me smell, hear, taste as I look at it, which is very exciting and easy to lose myself in. Also the memory connection with materials. My dad is an artist and being at his elbow watching him paint and draw meant I was close to him and shared creation of something magical with him. Now the emotional connection is sharing the making with so many artist friends and my children.

JENNI: Oooh. I love my media! There is just something so immediate, primal and satisfying about pencil on paper. And intaglio, don't get me started...it makes me want to jump up and down. I love process, ink, metal, acid, pushing it all around and the boundless, endless possibility. Intaglio=magic.

KATHRINE: I love to paint, I love the feeling of the brush, I love the texture of paint, I love color. So all of that draws me in. Plus I really like to make puzzles for myself and assignments, so I often try to work myself out of a mess, which is very satisfying.

JESSICA: I love the feeling of using my hands and combining different materials and techniques-- I'm obsessed with india ink lately because of the smooth, precise, deep black lines I can create-- I just can't do that with paint!

YES: How do you choose your subject matter?

KEITH: My materials often guide me and the choice of materials is based on color and forms that I see within the materials that I believe I can pull something out of. It is an intuitive process.

YELLENA: I don't do a lot of statement pieces or subject-driven art. My work centers mostly around the abstract & my muse does most of the decision making.

ALYN: It chooses me.

LAURA: I get inspiration and imagery from a variety of sources. Writing influences me and I've done series of drawings based on fairy tales in the past, and on poetry. I am very much influenced by my environment, and I always take a lot of photographs. Looking at photographs I've taken helps me zero in on what subject matter interests me.

SUSAN: So many things in the natural world intrigue me. That includes humans. I like to see things up close and that translates into my work's composition. I have always felt the same excitement when visiting the ocean as I did the first time I remember seeing it. The woods have the same effect on me.

JENNI: I always seem to be drawn to nature. More often than not, my subject matter chooses me. I seem to always be able to make sense of what is happening in my life by looking to the world around me.

KATHRINE: Really it chooses me. But I do have things I really don't like to paint. For instance, I really don't like painting people, I think it is the hardest thing to do. So birds and other animals stand in for people. But the rest is about experimentation and being open to whatever the feeling is that I want to express.

JESSICA: Most of my paintings are about things that are going on in my life or memories that I have, while some are just whimsical and random images that pop into my head. Usually I'll just sit in front of a blank board until something comes to me.

YES: Why is art important to the world?

KEITH: Art provides sustenance to the human soul, whether it is a painting, music, dance, etc., it has the power to sooth.

YELLENA: I just saw a bumper sticker that read "E-ART-H". So true.

ALYN: It reminds us we're partners with creation, if we want to be. Connects us to our senses, beliefs, loves, hates.

LAURA: Being able to make something that can communicate with another person,
and perhaps emotionally effect them, is one of the most powerful experiences you can have. When I work with children (and adults) making art, people seem so happy to create something of their own, to have made something original that didn't exist until they thought of it and made it. It is an experience that I think is unique to making art, being able to take a part of yourself and put it into a physical object that other people can experience and then connect to their own experiences.

KATHRINE: Art is the thing that links all humans to their inner deity. Art, and the creative process joins us all through history, across boundaries, despite language. Art provides the time for both creator and observer to spend time internally, daydreaming, creating, imagining, and that is always time well spent.

JESSICA: Art is important to the world because it makes people smile. Or think. Or smile and think at the same time. I think images can get through to people's souls in ways that words cannot. We are visual creatures, and a world without art would be a dull, dull place.

YES: Are you a full-time artist?

KEITH: For the most part, yes, I am a full time artist. I do work a part time job and odd jobs here and there to supplement my income.

YELLENA: Yes, finally!

ALYN: Yes. I just don't make a full time salary with it. But I consider my art my life's work and do enough graphic design work to allow myself to make art the way I want to.

LAURA: I certainly work at making art the same amount of hours per week as someone would at a full time job, if that is how you define "full time." I also teach, but I consider myself to be an artist first and foremost.

JENNI: Well, I think about it all the time, and I make it as much as I can. Does it pay the bills? Not really. But maybe someday.

KATHRINE: Yes!

JESSICA: YES!

YES: What do you do in your spare time (if not artmaking)?

KEITH: Love movies and doing just about anything with any number of close friends.

SARAH SYMES: The opposite of anything creative. Something that I can emphatically start and finish. Go for a run. Wash the car. File the mail. This quiets the voices in my head so that I can recharge my batteries.

YELLENA: I spent the last three years on the central Oregon coast, which is amazing and beautiful, but I just recently moved to Portland and I've been enjoying the city so much lately for all it has to offer. There is so much cool art, music, people, food, shopping, walking, and countless "perfect spots" to sit & take it all in. It's the energy of a city and nature's calm, quiet beauty all at once. Any spare time I get, that's where I'll be.

ALYN: Teach my grandson how to make circles. Watch Paul Clancy take beautiful photos. Walk the woods and beaches in Westport. Write and hang out with a great group of poet/playwrights. Perform with some local theater companies. Count my blessings.

LAURA: I play the piano, I like to take long walks around the city, and I hang around with my cat, Phantom

JENNI: Non-artmaking time is spent with my husband Brian, my daughter Nona and my dog B.

KATHRINE: Walk the dogs, play golf, go out on the boat, swim swim swim, knit.

JESSICA: Oh, goodness! What spare time? ha ha... I like to cook dinner with my fiancée and go on long walks in our neighborhood, read books, and watch movies! I haven't been doing much non-art stuff lately, though. :)

YES: What is your greatest achievement as an artist?

KEITH: Living off of my art sales!

SARAH: To have tirelessly followed the trail of small achievements that have led me here.

YELLENA: Every time I accomplish a long-time goal, like getting a solo show at GiantRobot or doing a spread on Anthropologie.com, I feel like it is my crowning achievement. But in thinking about this question, they're all just individual parts of my proudest professional achievement, which is just to be a full-time, working artist.

ALYN: To love my life as an artist.

LAURA: Every time someone tells me that they related to a particular piece or that one of my drawings affected them in some way, I always feel like that is the greatest achievement that I can have.

SUSAN: I have been a full time artist since 1988 which means to me that I have to always be working and moving forward in my work. This past year one of my ink drawings was accepted as a proposal for a public art piece in Portsmouth, NH. That was one of the greatest achievements of my personal work. I also have had the pleasure of making art with a group of autistic children this year at artstreamstudios and seeing their progress has been very rewarding as well.

JENNI: That I keep making work.

KATHRINE: My greatest achievement is that I get to be an artist everyday, and not compromise on my vision for my life.

JESSICA: I think that I can make a living as an artist is a huge achievement. So many people think it's not possible, but it totally is. I get to be my own boss and be in charge of all my time, and that is beyond precious to me.

YES: What is your personal philosophy or quote to live by?

KEITH: Be patient, be kind, love & share.

SARAH: A mistake is merely the first step towards a masterpiece

YELLENA: I don't really have a quote or mantra that I live by entirely. There are so many truths. All in all I simply strive to be happy. =)

ALYN: Kindness to myself and others. Find the love in everything I do.

KATHRINE: Treat people the way you want to be treated, be nice, be friendly, go swimming and don't sweat the small stuff.

JESSICA: Trust the universe and everything will be alright.