JJ Worden

I'm not sure if I'm bending the rules too much here as he was an architect rather than an artist, but I'm choosing Antonio Gaudi. My professional background is in housing and part of my degree included architecture. I was, and remain, awestruck by his work. Artist-wise, I'm very interested in Joseph Cornell and am reading a biography about him at the moment.

 2. What's one thing in your studio you REALLY should throw out?

Not so much something that I should throw out, but that I should deal with. My studio is a log cabin in the garden and a very vigorous Jasmin plant has found a gap near the roof and grows through...it's taking over one corner!

 3. Best studio snack. 

I was so impressed when I read that Jen chose water. Unfortunately mine is chocolate...I'm not saying it's a good snack, but it is a frequent one. 

 4. Favourite studio smell. 

My dog, Cloudy who is usually with me. He has a really homely smell, a bit like biscuits.

 5. Least favourite studio smell. 

 Anything chemical like glue or encaustic wax that I've allowed to get too hot!

6. Most used art related app on your phone.

Instagram. I only follow art accounts and it's a huge inspiration to me, as well as being where I've 'met' a huge number of amazing artists.

 7. Top song in your studio.

I rarely listen to music but always have a radio play or drama playing. I particularly like dramas set in the early 1900s like Agatha Christie plays. In the summer, when the back door of the house is open, I can often hear my son playing the piano which is beautiful. 

I really don't have a favourite. I have a huge number of art books, mainly mixed media and book artists, and I have a lot of pins on Pinterest which I find to be a brilliant source of inspiration.

I use a lot of old photographs that often need to be scanned and printed out on special papers...it's very tedious and time consuming. 

This has never occurred to me but I suppose it would be to have my work regularly published in books/journals. The Kanyer Collection recently bought one of my collages, and I have work in a forthcoming book and I really welcome that validation.

More About Jane Chipp: 

I live in West Somerset, UK.

I started out as a textile artist, and still use textiles and stitch a lot, but primarily my art is collage now, including 3D collage The common thread running through all of my work is the use of found objects, photos, letters etc. It makes me sad that things that were once treasured by someone end up in a house clearance and I love to make them into beautiful art that gives them the admiration that they deserve. Consequently, my art tends to have a nostalgic aesthetic.

 Website: http://www.janechipp.art

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/janechipp 

                     http://www.instagram.com/willow_blue_vintage

Thanks so much, Jane! 

 1. Favourite artist. Living or dead.

Ahhhh, already overthinking this one! Hmmm. There’s an artist I have followed a long time online that whenever she posts on flickr, my heart beats a little faster. Her work is conceptual, beautiful, haunting, the mark of her hand is evident in the work, and just pulls me in. Ines Seidel

I have bins of saved textiles that I have dreams of turning into things….but yeah, they’re just taking up space.

I don’t eat in the studio.

I actually love the smell of my studio when I am working on an oil painting.

When I leave my Yes! Paste glue brush in a a cup of water and forget it for weeks….gross!

Towards the Heart © Bridgette Guerzon Mills

6. Most used art related app on your phone.

Other than Instagram, I use an app called PhotoToaster. I can do much more than IG on that and often will format my photos on that first before sending it to IG.

I usually listen to podcasts. If I am listening to music, it’s usually my 14 year old practicing guitar or drums as we share space. Right now he’s playing a lot of Smashing Pumpkins and Radiohead.

I am prehistoric and generally don’t watch anyone or anything on YouTube, unlike my kids. I haven’t read an art related author in a long time so I’ll have to say Julia Cameron, because her book The Artist’s Way really helped me start my creative journey. For podcasts I recently started listening to this really good one called Being An Artist hosted by artist Tom Judd (whose work is also wonderful) and I love it. I found it through an artist I have followed for a long time- Tim McFarlane and he was recently interviewed on this podcast. Follow Tim on Instagram and also read his blog. So good.

All the business aspects of it- marketing, selling, etc. The taxes!!! ugh. I just want to make things and for it to magically support me! Is that too much to ask? Well, I also want to live in a cute house on lots of wooded acres with a lake and mountains in the background, have some chickens and some goats, a separate studio, a vegetable garden and a fruit orchard… Also I really don’t like going to art show openings because I really don’t like being center of attention. I remember one of my children after an opening reception said, “Wow Mom, everyone wanted to talk you!” And I said, “I know! Weird, huh?” At other functions that my children have observed me at, I tend to like to just take things in and just talk quietly to a few people or just standing idly by the food table. The thing is when I go to the art receptions, it’s always a lot of fun and it’s so nice to see my work hanging together and celebrating that and making connections with other creatives and collectors….but it truly is a part I dread. The anticipation of it, I guess, is actually just the bad part. The actually reception is great and I always have to remind myself of that.

Being a Capricorn, I’m going to have to say financial stability (ie reliable income) solely through my artwork. Boring, but true.

Thanks so much for sharing yourself and joining in, Bri. Love it!  

Deeply Rooted © Bridgette Guerzon Mills

More about Bridgette:

Bridgette Guerzon Mills is a mixed media artist whose work incorporates a variety of materials including photography, paint, encaustic, as well as fiber, textiles, and other reclaimed materials. Her artwork and journals have been published in magazines and books and her work has been collected in the United States and internationally. She currently resides in Towson, MD with her family.

As a mixed media artist, encaustic is a versatile medium that allows her to create depth in layers and serves as a means for further exploration in both form and meaning. She combines her photography with encaustics to create a bridge between two worlds, the real and the reimagined.  

Her outdoor installations, often created using foraged or recycled materials, focus on environmental issues and seek to engage and educate the public about these concerns.

In the April Edition of Between Artists: A Conversation with Bridgette Guerzon Mills, she asks:

But out of chaos, comes ingenuity and discovery and truth.

At some point during those mad sessions, a piece of a magazine stuck to a drying bit of cardstock and when I pulled it off, I saw that the text had transfered onto the finished piece. Only backwards. I remember being delighted. It looked like text only unreadable... the IDEA of text... but not. I often find that using text in a piece can take it in a direction, often, I wasn't really looking for.  Put a bit of vintage dictionary page with a readable word and suddenly the work becomes all about THAT. Fantastic if that's what you're going for but aggravating if that WASN'T your intention.

Text has a graphic appeal.

It also connotes conversation, narrative, message as well as symbology. Put text on top of a nature photo and it immediately becomes less about the tree or flower or landscape moving those elements into the background, and more about whatever is written. Words are our Super Power and we pay attention. IF we can read them. If we can't? Well, that same text becomes all about their graphic nature, the curves of each character, the lines they form in a paragraph. We see them, almost as caricatures. Don't believe me? Think about Russian or Greek words or Chinese characters. We don't have a clue what they say (assuming you can't read Russian or Greek or Chinese, of course!) and yet, we love their form.

I love using backward text!

I love lists. 

I love lists of questions.

I came up with these 10 questions after watching Stephen Colbert's segment "The Colbert Questionert". Mine, obviously, are directly geared for artists and this'll become an ongoing feature. Because I can!

Hands down, Canadian Ojibwa artist, Carl Beam. I first saw his work at the McMichael Collection in Ontario and had an epiphany. Art was more than just pretty pictures in one medium. Some day I hope to be able to capture his raw passion in my art.

ONE thing? All the itty bitty scraps of wood I saved from our house build. Boxes full. I mean not in a thousand lifetimes would I be able to use every. single. saved. bit!

I am not a snacker. And I don't snack in my studio. So. Water?

No brainer! Warmed wax!

Oh! That funky paint mixed with medium mixed with soap smell from my paint jars. After a week they are RANK!

 6. Most used art related app on your phone.

Besides Instagram? Definitely Snapseed!

I love The Trews "In the Morning" (with Serena Ryder). Bittersweet. It's my jam!

A perfect tie between Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird) and Steven Pressfield (The War of Art). I re-read them annually.

SELLING!! I wish somebody would swoop into my studio and take #allthethings and send me a cheque. For all you patrons out there? Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

A gallery owner that comes to ME and asks for a solo show. Yep. That'd pretty much be nirvana for me.

This question again has to do with your land because as you know I am obsessed with living on the land one day  - when you found the land how did you know that was the place. Or did you?

Why are some lessons so hard to learn?

Because I have been down this path before, maybe a thousand times, between personal online projects back in the day (Hello, olio!) and numerous groups and forums and blog posts. When I focus on The People, my work has no soul. It is driven from without. Instead of within. And The Universe knows.