Monday, August 30, 2010

marla baggetta's interview, part one

Imagine painting this!!!!??? It's one of Marla's recent paintings. The minute she finished it and put it in a frame it  sold. She painted it after her series of "100 variations," a series many of us enthusiastically  followed. When we spoke it was the nucleus of our talk. Post by post I will reveal what Marla said.

Here is just the beginning:

me- I have watched your work for a long time, before the 100 Variations and after the 100 Variations. Would you please talk about the metamorphoses you experienced both in process and personally?

Marla- Before the Variations I didn't do much mixed media. My work was predominantly representational- pastelist's pastels. By doing the 100 Variations I felt so opened up, cracked open. I would now try anything with pastel. Nothing was precious. I was no longer trying to make something to see, I was just curious- what could  I make work? I tried so many things- oil, pastels into wet oil,  and monoprinting, to name a few. Anything goes. I would dig, scratch, and scrub.
I would just start and respond. I would not set out to do, say, a winter scene. Instead I thought how many times can I switch the color and value and still make it work? I wasn't thinking it, I was responding.
Now, I have more detail coming back in... but I feel I have that feeling of responding. It changed everything. A transformation.

me- I look at your new work, like "Evening Fire" (pictured above) and I see how different they are.

Marla- Variations gave me permission to do whatever I want to do. I used to feel I had to do a "Marla Baggetta." Now there are a whole bunch of Marla Baggettas and there is a thread that carries through them. Before I never would have painted colors like you see in Evening Fire.

me- What advice would you give to another artist reading this?

Marla- Galleries want the artist to have a consistent body of work. But remember you can do a lot of different things for yourself. Try everything you want. Paint everything. Give yourself PERMISSION.

9 comments:

Joan Breckwoldt said...

Great post, I've just finally figured out that I need to give myself permission to paint and create what I want. Took me long enough. Looking forward to more from Marla. Thank you for posting this.
Joan

Janelle Goodwin said...

I love how Marla said she "cracked open". Great post, Loriann. Very inspirational!

Donna T said...

Thanks for this interview, Loriann. It's kind of surprising to learn that such a successful artist struggles with some of the same things we all do. BTW, your field paintings from the weekend are really nice. The sky really seems to shimmer in Sunday's painting!

SamArtDog said...

There's that "permission" word again. Never could get anyone to give it to me when I was a kid. Now that I'm grown up (sort of), I get to give it to myself.

I'm so glad you've started posting this interview. And you posted my favorite Baggetta! Love hearing what she has to say about the Variations. And permission...

Lisa McShane said...

Great post and yes, lovely painting. Thanks Loriann!

Sara Mathewson said...

Great post. i love Marla Baggetta's work. i loved it before the 100 variations through them and now even more. And it is so nice to hear that we need to give ourself permission!

And I too love the latest paintings of yours. Shimmer is a good way to put it Donna!

Great job Loriann, I look forward to more of the interview:)

loriann signori said...

Hi Joan, Janelle, Donna, Sam, Lisa and Sara,
I a delighted to hear that everyone is getting so much from Marla's inspirational words. They really empowered me as well. "Cracked open" is what we aim to be.
Cheers!
Loriann

Jala Pfaff said...

Hi Loriann,
I love that painting and her Variations too, which I've admired in the past.
Thanks for posting this.
Happy painting!

loriann signori said...

You are welcome Jala! Have a great trip to India!