Ask Away
It's a beautiful weekend on a sunny summer day. There is an art festival in your city and you can't wait to go see some art and talk to artists while you soak up that sunshine.
When you get there, you walk into a booth and fall in love with the art. You see something that you connect with deeply and you have so many questions about it. Do you just ask them? Do you get intimidated or worried that you don't know much about art? Are you afraid of asking a "dumb" question?
Sitting in my booth at a festival earlier this year
Don't be! I can't speak for all artists but the ones I know love to talk about our art. It's what we are most passionate about! I am always so interested to hear about what people have to say and the questions they have about my work.
The top 3 questions I always get are: "Who are the women in your paintings--are they you?" "What ethnicity are they?" and "What is your inspiration?"
I am starting a blog series to answer all of my most frequently asked questions, along with any more you can think of. Please leave a comment below to let me know how you connect with my work and all of your questions! I can't wait to answer them in a future post.
8 comments
I always ask, if I connect with the art enough. Or sometimes I just say how much I love it, because I’m so taken with it that there’s no room for questions. That’s pretty much how I felt when I first saw your work. I think I remember e-mailing you and telling you how much I loved your work! And I’m not an easy art consumer…I don’t enjoy most things that are just for looking at.
I’m trying to think, now, what questions I might ask you.
I probably would ask about how your style evolved. The hair shapes, and the closed eyes, in particular.
I would ask about your process. You’ve made a lot of lovely process videos that have answered those questions for me already!
I would ask (if I didn’t know already!) if you do custom pieces of “real” people.
I would ask if you do entire families or only women.
Do you know how you want it to look before you start to paint? Do you draw them out first? What’s your process?
Hi Lea!! I absolutely LOVE your work. Do you generally have an idea of what you plan to paint before you begin to work? Or do the ideas come to you while you are creating?