reprinted from MMCA Marketplace.com, Guest Interview with Cindy Davis.
Guest Interview with Cindy Davis
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Davis has lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee and most recently Jacksonville, Florida before relocating to Albany, Georgia. She is a member of the International Society of Acrylic Painters. Her paintings are collected nationally. A self-taught artist, she holds a BS degree in Economics for the University of Tennessee.
MP: How do you describe yourself as an artist?
I tend to describe myself as a scappy artist. By scrappy, I mean that I tend to jump in first and learn later. Sometimes I sort of fight my through a new technique. I am self taught. I tend to begin my work without an sketch or a plan. From what I have read, this seems to be a different approach from a formally trained artist.
I like the spontaneous of creating this way. My relationship with sketching and drawing is love/hate. Occasionally I work with assemblage, but I don’t exhibit these work very often. I seem to have an ongoing love affair with paint. I never get tired of it. My work is scattered, and bit scrappy. I have come to embrace that and I no longer fight this when I am in the studio.
MP: Do you have a favorite technique that you use a lot in your work?
Layers ! I have a lot of techniques that deal with layers and textures. Acrylic is perfect for this since it tough and dries quickly. I especially like to scratch and scrap away top layers to reveal other colors underneath. Up close this usually looks like crap, but when you step back, the texture is barely noticeable but makes the entire painting glow and move.
MP: Where does your inspiration come from and is there a special place you create the magic?
My inspiration is typically word and mood based. Sometimes I am hung up on a word, most recently it has been scallywags. The painting that results from word based inspiration may not make sense to anyone else, but I know it what inspired it that is what matters.
I also find my paintings are unintentionally mood based. Years ago I would avoid the studio until I felt I was in an appropriate “mood” to paint. Now I tend go there on a schedule, and accept whatever the mood is that particular day. I enjoy this a great deal now. I get a larger variety of experimental color and texture this way.
MP: Cindy, you are not only an artist, but a business woman as well. What have you learned over the years that you wish you had known in the beginning?
When something is not working, go ahead and abandon it.
In the beginning I had tremendous guilt about letting go of certain intiatives in my business. I would hang on to something because I had invested so much time, effort, or emotion in it. I would keep piling on more energy and time into things that were not profitable.
For instance, I used to make my own notecards with photos of my paintings on them. I would box them, print the label, and tie a really cute rafia bow around the outside. The result was a really nice gift item.
One day, I sat down and forced myself to make a spreadsheet showing costs, labor, price, and net profit for these notecards. I realized that I was spending a great deal of time producing these notecards, and absolutely no profit. I decided to discontinue them. Some people still ask for them, but I have held firm and politely told them that I just don’t have them anymore.
I now sell my notecards directly online from print of demand printers. I sell less now, most people prefer the handmade box with the bow. But I just had to let it go. So I did finally. I moved on to “funner” and more profitable activities.
MP: I know networking is very important to you, can you tell us how you fit in all the social networking it takes to make the right connections?
Well, I don’t know if I have “the right” connections! ha-ha. But I will say that being a working painter requires a lot of studio time. That alone time can be very isolating for me, so I use social networking to socialize.
It is an side benefit that it helps my art career. Mostly it helps me not go crazy!
I think the most important thing to remember with Social Media Networking is to be authentic. For some reason, on the screen, folks can spot a “marketer” or a “fake” within a few seconds. Be yourself, take a genuine interest in others and have fun with it.
I don’t believe social media networking with make or break you. (Not creating on a regular basis just might) So if you don’t enjoy it, find other ways to network with potential collectors. Try different things until you find what is right for you.
MP: As an artist, we have many roles, which do you find to be the most rewarding and which the most challenging for you?
One of the most challenging roles I sometimes play is related to what I call “street gigs”. I am talking about artist events, sometimes outdoors and sometimes indoors, where the artist has a booth or display and stands around waiting for people to come by.
I feel like a street gypsy hawking my goods. I have never grown accustomed to this and I am not sure that I ever will. It just doesn’t suit my personality.
I enjoy gallery receptions a great deal. I enjoy speaking to people about my art in that sort of environment. But stick me in a booth, tent, or on the pavement with passers-by and feel like a complete dork.
MP: What advice do you have for growing a creative business?
I am so glad you asked that question. First of all, find your product and treat it like a product. Once you have that, run your business the same as any other small business owner.
Go the the small business center in your community. Take some classes. Learn book-keeping, marketing, finance, advertising, and networking.
I have a door in my studio. I close it behind me when I leave the studio. At that point, outside the door, I am not an artist. I am a small business owner. I make business decisions, not wacky art decisions based on emotion.
This is very liberating for me. Because it flows both directions.
When I enter to the stuido, guess what? I an NOT a business person any longer. I get to leave that all outside the door and be as wacky, silly, moody, sensitive, and creative as I want to be while painting.
MP: Please share with our readers the workshops you lead and how they can be a part of one.
I teach two different workshops, both use acrylic paint.
My LetGo! Spontaneous Combustion workshop is about how to get something from nothing. I teach my participants a two part technique. The first part is a free for all, where everything inside you, just spews out spontaneously with paint and you wind up with about 20 pieces of “nothing”.
The second part of the workshop is more deliberate. I teach some tools and techniques that I use in my own studio to take the random painted surfaces from step one and make something out distinguishable out of them. I try to teach participants how to find meaningful, individual art inside their own crazy subconscious doodles, splatters, and spills.
My other workshops is called Clackety Clack Sassy Girl Painting Weekend. It is as much about learning to relax and enjoy the process as it is about learning to painting. I see so many uptight, stressed out women who carry that into their art. In this workshop I try to create a safe, accepting atmosphere so that the participants can learn by simply doing. I also sneak some color theory into this workshop, but I make it painless and approachable.
It is important for me to try to teach my students to find their own art, not to learn to paint like me. That is the last thing I want for them. I want to teach them to start finding their own voice, their own techniques, and lead them to a place inside themselves where they can create without fear.
MP: What is the most rewarding part of teaching your workshops?
Happiness.
When I first began the workshops, to be honest, I needed the money. I had no idea I would enjoy them so much. I would teach workshops every month if I could just for the creative high I receive. My workshops are not about me, and not about my ego.
They are about me helping the participants discover new creative paths. And that is very exciting and inspiring for me. I believe that everyone, absolutely everyone, has art inside them.
I don’t believe in artistic talent. I think that is a scam that an insecure person came up so they could feel superior to others. If you think you aren’t talented then maybe you simply are not creating authentically yet.
MP: Is there anything you would like our readers to know about you, your art or your business that we did not cover?
I would like them to know that I struggle constantly. I am riddle with self-doubt about my art. I don’t expect to ever really overcome this.
Years ago I found myself ‘waiting” until I was better to exhibit and show my art. One day I realized I would always be full of self-doubt and that someday would never come if I didn’t just take the plunge.
Don’t wait any longer to make the kind of art you want to make. Eventually, you will make your last piece of art. You never know when that day will be. Go ahead, be brave, make the art you want to make.
