Speaking and Listening

This afternoon I did an interview with the regional newspaper I will be writing for on a bi-weekly basis. Seeing as I had thought, "The one drawback to writing artist profiles is not being able to do one on myself," it was a pleasant surprise to be asked to give an interview as a way of introducing myself to the readership. Both my interview and my first artist profile will be printed for the March 26th issue of the Northeast News.

A couple things:

  1. It was a lot of fun to do my first interview. The artist I spoke to was someone I had not met before, and works in clay. We spoke for forty minutes and I hope she finds the article does her credit. I have another artist lined up to interview tomorrow - I do not want to fall behind and some artists are harder to contact than others - I have three that I am still waiting for a response from.
  2. I was surprised how much I had to say in my own interview. I know I'm not good at giving short answers but still! I think I was most passionate about why I love watercolour and why I have chosen nature as my subject matter.
  3. The best thing about the interview process is the opportunity to speak at length about art. Even when the art we are discussing is someone else's, to go on unrestrainedly, to be heard and understood (or to understand) is something that is rare for me. I spend my day surrounded by children, seldom associating with artists, and I love having a chance to dialogue.
  4. I need to teach my children not to interrupt. I hadn't really noticed that it was a problem until I started taking these longer business calls and doing interviews.

This weekend I am exercising one of my other artistic disciplines - scrapbooking - while attending a scrapbooking retreat in nearby Grande Prairie, Alberta. Perfect timing as well, since I will be entering my On a Limb watercolor painting in a competition and need to drop it off at the gallery and arrange framing.

ArtAngela Fehr1 Comment