^ beauty ~ ~ ~!!! welcome to lady-roars, 5 ~ !!!
i initiated free*form conversation with fellow women creators about art, identity, and whatever else.
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Marissa Arterberry is a visual artist working in the realms of painting, illustration, and installation. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Marissa graduated with a B.A. in Painting from San Francisco State University. She writes for her own arts blog, Black Butterfly, as well as for Her Blueprint, the International Museum of Women‘s blog. She has exhibited work throughout the Bay Area as well as in Chicago and Brooklyn. Marissa currently lives and works in Oakland, California.
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I think that being an artist is one of the most wonderful professions a person can choose, as well as one of the toughest and most misunderstood. It is getting up every day and creating something special to share with the world, and it is having no guarantees that work you do (and it is work ~ there are some folks who don’t view it that way) will keep a roof over your head or put food on your table. Because of that, the people drawn to this profession are deeply passionate and committed to what they do. Sometimes that is all you have.
What I’ve learned is that part of working as an artist, especially an emerging artist, is having to be your own cheerleader a lot of the time. Everything will be picked apart and questioned by others: the nature of your work (shouldn’t you be doing something more commercially viable?), what it is that you’re trying to “get” at the end of the day, a run-down of how you haven’t made any money at this supposed career of yours. I’ve heard it all, and it never stings any less. But what hurts more is to give in to those pressures and to try to be someone else. I try to just face the music and learn to deal with it by finding something else that feeds my soul, to counteract all the criticism. I can't hide from it.
I know that I’m going to be creating all of my life, because it is like breathing for me. Art is the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning, and there is nothing more satisfying than making something by hand, purely out of my imagination. It’s so much fun!
Right now I’m in a phase where my work wanders off the canvas more, which came from this time where I was too broke to afford paint and canvas. At first I was very frustrated, and felt like I couldn’t do anything. What I did have was a bunch of old sheets of watercolor paper, and watercolor paints (which last forever since a little bit can always be reused). I began to paint characters on the paper and cut them out. I found colorful yarn and ribbons cheap at craft stores, and made hangings out of my cutouts, with big trails of yarn and ribbon. I’ve been creating altar installations with the cutouts, and not a scrap of paper or ribbon goes to waste. I found out I can always make something somehow.
check out my full-length artist's interview with Marissa by clicking HERE.
Marissa Arterberry is a visual artist working in the realms of painting, illustration, and installation. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Marissa graduated with a B.A. in Painting from San Francisco State University. She writes for her own arts blog, Black Butterfly, as well as for Her Blueprint, the International Museum of Women‘s blog. She has exhibited work throughout the Bay Area as well as in Chicago and Brooklyn. Marissa currently lives and works in Oakland, California.
~ ~ ~
I think that being an artist is one of the most wonderful professions a person can choose, as well as one of the toughest and most misunderstood. It is getting up every day and creating something special to share with the world, and it is having no guarantees that work you do (and it is work ~ there are some folks who don’t view it that way) will keep a roof over your head or put food on your table. Because of that, the people drawn to this profession are deeply passionate and committed to what they do. Sometimes that is all you have.
What I’ve learned is that part of working as an artist, especially an emerging artist, is having to be your own cheerleader a lot of the time. Everything will be picked apart and questioned by others: the nature of your work (shouldn’t you be doing something more commercially viable?), what it is that you’re trying to “get” at the end of the day, a run-down of how you haven’t made any money at this supposed career of yours. I’ve heard it all, and it never stings any less. But what hurts more is to give in to those pressures and to try to be someone else. I try to just face the music and learn to deal with it by finding something else that feeds my soul, to counteract all the criticism. I can't hide from it.
I know that I’m going to be creating all of my life, because it is like breathing for me. Art is the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning, and there is nothing more satisfying than making something by hand, purely out of my imagination. It’s so much fun!
Right now I’m in a phase where my work wanders off the canvas more, which came from this time where I was too broke to afford paint and canvas. At first I was very frustrated, and felt like I couldn’t do anything. What I did have was a bunch of old sheets of watercolor paper, and watercolor paints (which last forever since a little bit can always be reused). I began to paint characters on the paper and cut them out. I found colorful yarn and ribbons cheap at craft stores, and made hangings out of my cutouts, with big trails of yarn and ribbon. I’ve been creating altar installations with the cutouts, and not a scrap of paper or ribbon goes to waste. I found out I can always make something somehow.
check out my full-length artist's interview with Marissa by clicking HERE.
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