Craig
Kerrecoe talks to the Connecticut Visual Artist Barbara J.
Lloyd about fender-benders, artist's block and
people-watching... in that
order!
CK: What made you become an artist Barbara?
BL: As I was growing up, art was the only thing that seemed
to give me an identity of my own. The school I attended
didn’t even offer art classes in the curriculum!
CK: No art at school? That's unusual- I would have thought
art was a basic part of all western school curriculums. How
did you get into it then?
BL: Well, somehow, when I was young I got my hands on a set
of pastels and started doing portraits. It made me feel
good about myself.
CK: Your images are constructed using different processes
but what inspires you to create an image in the first
place?
BL: I get inspiration from ordinary situations. Somehow,
they strike a chord in my subconscious and stubbornly stick
there until I pry them out with paint, a camera or another
tool.
CK: So what's the spur?
BL: I see a new material or some discarded objects that
will spark an idea and make me want to use them.
CK: Do you collect objects then?
BL: Oh yes! I saw some broken truck parts in the street
from a fender-bender as I was walking home one evening. I
gathered them up and incorporated them into the next mixed
media collage painting I did.
CK: So you're providing a public service by clearing up the
streets too! It's great that you can incorporate random
bits of trucks into your work. I'm interested in your past
though Barbara- you had a career before coming back to the
world of Art. Does your previous career or background add
anything to your artistic pursuits?
BL: Yes, I'm one of those artists who earned a BA in Fine
Arts way back when, then taught art for a year, did a
series of album & CD art and then realized that it was
not going to pay the bills.
BL: For virtually my entire professional life, I was an ad/promotional copywriter, and had my own PR agency for many years. But in answer to your question- yes, the work experience from my previous life has definitely helped in many ways, including the ability to more clearly describe my artwork, and also create promotional materials.
CK: What made you come back to art?
BL: Something happened. Everything changed. The joy in my professional work seemed to vanish overnight. My outside world became bleak while, inside, I felt like I was going to explode. Over the years I had developed a real fear of the blank canvas.
CK: We've all been there Barbara. You must have been missing the creativity, the freedom? So many Artists struggle to get back into it when they've not been able to produce work for a period of time, myself included. It's almost intimidating to start a new piece of work after a break. There's always the fear that you might not be able to do it anymore. What did you do to overcome your blank-canvas fears?
BL: I never thought I’d overcome it so I started small and moved up to bigger works. The result was like the gusher going off at Yellowstone National Park!
BL: Well yes, for a time. The only problem was, I became obsessed with so many different types of artistic expression that I couldn't concentrate on any one of them. After about a year of this turmoil, I closed my PR business and whittled the art forms down to four – Acrylic Painting, Mixed Media/Collage, Digital Fine Art and Photography.
CK: That's still a pretty diverse spread though. It's interesting that you combine them all to varying degrees. What processes do you routinely employ in the creation of an image?
BL: I use several different processes to create an image. One is to simply paint a photograph I’ve taken that sticks with me. Also, I’m always clipping pieces out of publications– not necessarily pictures, but textures, parts of machines, flowing fabrics...
CK: Truck parts!
BL: Yes, truck parts. I use these in combination with paint and found objects to create mixed media artwork.
CK: What about your photography?
BL: I set up still life arrangements to photograph, but these are very non-traditional ones: I start with a germ of an idea, then combine clippings, textures, fabrics, objects, etc. laying them flat and photographing them. I then import them into a drawing program and start altering them with manual painting, using the computer mouse.
CK: Is that the end of the process?
BL: Oh no, sometimes, I’ll print out the results and continue to paint, draw and add further texture and objects onto the print.
CK: And you people watch a lot too, don't you?
BL: Yes, I do, but this impacts my art mostly when I’m carrying a camera. Since I’m also a photographer, I’m always looking for the killer-shot. Sometimes, I find that an image I photographed stays with me so that I have to paint it or incorporate it into whatever I’m trying to create at the moment.
CK: What's the best thing to happen to you recently?
BL: I just opened my first solo art show in my hometown of Danbury, Connecticut.
CK: How did it go?
BL: It went really well - lots of people came to the opening reception and I sold three pieces!
October, 2009
