Artist Showdown

:: Q & A :: Carrie Ann Baade

Carrie Ann Baade is an American artist from PA. Her academic path goes form the Florence Academy of Art, in 1996, Bachelor of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1997, to Master of Fine Art in Painting at the University of Delaware, in 2003. With a strong sense of realism, and the old master techniques, her paintings are a truly exciting voyage to an imaginary world. Influenced by a ludic world of a little girl, that she still carries inside herself, by her memories of watching her father when he was in dental school creating wax molds for dentures and her love for cats, her paintings transport us to a surreal world, to a journey of Witch Crafts and Fairy Tales. It’s like a Romantic literature, in which fantasy and reality become one.

We asked her a few questions:

Q: How would you explain your art?

A:  I am searching for a name and the closest I have come is “Art Macabre;” it’s a new genre, I invented. Artists that fit in this genre are Kris Kuksi, Matthew Bone, Elizabeth McGrath, David Stoupakis, Chet Zar, and Jessica Joslin. I am curating a show with this theme  in 2010 and hopefully all of these artists’ works. There is a tension between fantasy and reality when one is painting something that is at once believable yet an illusion. I am constantly searching for fellow artists that display this vision and skill. Some would call this work surreal or visionary but the classification of such art usually limits the originality of its genius. 

Q: How is your creation process?

A: The machine of cut and paste. My surreal looking paintings are generated by a method I refer to as Frankensteinian Trompe L’oeil. By cutting up books (or committing frequent acts of “librocide”), these pictures are collected in a large bin and mixed with photographs of myself. When it is time to compose, I dump the bin and scatter these thousands of images all over the floor of my house.  With scissors in hand, I dive in and search out the essential visual elements that can use to answer my quest. Usually, there is a non specific idea like…I know that I want to be surrounded by frogs! While finding all the pictures of frogs, I find a photo of myself and another of a pink dress.  I stick these in the middle of the composition and it becomes clear that I am the princess surrounded by frogs. A large set of crying eyes is taped over my face and now I realize she is crying because she must KISS ALL THESE FROGS in order to find out which one is the prince. The last image added is an angel flying in holding a crown aloft. This perfectly completes this narrative because she will crown the winning frog who is hopefully a prince. I giggle because, I know that this is a painting that I will enjoy painting…. and it’s totally autobiographical. From this collage, I paint an oil painting using old master techniques. Trompe l’oeil is a style which means “to fool the eye.” In this case, it is fooling the viewer into believing that the image might in fact be a collage instead of an oil painting. I love the chaos of the cut and tape collage method; and then, painting the final product in a careful and painstaking manner.

Q: What’s been the most difficult part of being an artist?

A: Hard question…I enjoy this process. I have made many sacrifices to do this work. I have been willing to loose my health, my sanity, my employment, my relationships, my comfort, go into debt, and piss off my cat for the opportunity to make paintings. This seems all worth while today because it is working and I have no regrets.

Q: Do you think every artist seeks notoriety?

A: Good question. I can not speak for anyone else; however, I do create to have a product to sell. I am the business. It is in my best interest to promote my work so that I can survive. What have I got to loose but my anonymity! Fame is an interesting thing. One can be famous and that may not mean that you have any money coming in from this recognition. One must be a savvy business person to make a living off their art, their face, and/or their name. If the public knows who you are, it could help your career.

Q: How difficult do you think that is? I mean, having a successful career?

A: This is the advise I give my art students: If you can be happy making a living doing something else…you better go do that. If you have no choice, if this is what you are, then god love you, but you can do it! However, just to be safe, I tell them th better have another skill to fall back on….mine was being art artist’s model and painting houses. Life is difficult, so it’s a good idea to try to make a living doing something you can have pride in. Life is all about how you handle the negative and the negative will come, but it helps if you bounce instead of CRASH when stress happens! Being self employed is a challenge, you get to be your own boss but you have only yourself to blame if you fail. I have chosen to buy into higher education and be a professor; this is not the only path. So I teach in addition to being an artist, which requires some hefty time management, but it does provide me some security against the lean times. I hope this means I never have to stop painting. No one else is supporting me, so I must cover myself.  Historically, artists have died at the end of their life in poverty….Louise Sullivan and Gwen Johns come to mind….I want to live this life under my own vision but another challenge is growing old with dignity and the ability to pay for care. This is another reason I have chosen to teach.

Q: What does it take to get there?

A: I have said: “Ignorance and Ballz!” and I have also said “Blitz not Ballet.” So perhaps it is just having a catchy credo that builds you up like the theme to Rocky playing as your life’s personal soundtrack. What do my little phrases mean? IGNORANCE! This word evokes the punk rock in me…. and I have always tried to be so smart. Doing art as a job is kind of stupid. Here you are trying your ass off to contribute to culture; expressing your soul through sweat, blood, and tears to make something that no one needs, no one wants…and it may go into a landfill! You sit in a room and you FREAK OUT looking at your white canvas. You ask questions like, “what am I doing?” and “why am I doing this?” Your parents ask questions like, “Why ARE you doing this?” I say IGNORANCE! Don’t ask questions. I would like to quote Weird Science here: “Why are you messing with the fantasy? We know about the reality. Don’t ruin the fantasy, okay?” Questions only feed the fear. Just paint. Just create. When it’s done, just sell it (or keep it all horded up in your house..It’s up to you). You will make mistakes, but you will learn from these. I FAIL ALL THE TIME. It took great ignorance to make my work…because if I knew better, I would have been a doctor. Ballz is the momentum to create despite the odds.  Do not tell me the statistics of all the all the folks who said: “I want to be an artist”… or how many went to art school and never used their degree…or how many had a solo show…or how many quit and had children…or how many were lost to substance abuse…or how many just collected art supplies and did nothing with them….I could go on….P is for Peter who ate his lead white paint. “Blitz not Ballet” is actually a quote from my friend Alix Sloan who is opening a gallery in NYC this year. I interpreted her credo to mean this: Your art career must be a strategic campaign; a war against the odds. And more specifically, I treated this statement like my applications were bombs and if I carpet bomb, I will hit something vital eventually. There was a time when I thought I could not apply to things because I could not afford the postage AND food. At some point you have to realize, you are the best investment you can invest in. You must spend the time, the money, and have the faith to believe that this matters. Apply to far more things than you will get. Make failure part of the process. One day, it will kick in and you will have to start turning things down. I turned down 2 solo shows this year because I had better offers.

Q: What would you say to those artists that many times feel like giving up, due to all difficulties?

A:  I do not allow myself to make excuses; I must paint.
 
Q: Can you think of a specific moment in your career that made all the difference?
A: It all matters. It was my mother writing the title on my first drawing when I was 2. It was watching my father when he was in dental school creating wax molds for dentures.  It was getting accepted to the Art Institute of Chicago when I was 16. It was being lucky enough to have my family not mind that I wanted to go to art school. It was the friend who invited his gallery owner to our MFA show and I got picked to be in my first commercial show. It was finding an art consultant on the Internet and finding out that she was interested in helping me because she saw the potential in my work. It was each and every person who has felt a personal connection with my work. It is all my artist friends who call and tell me to get off my ass and work. It is all my students who go to my openings and become my biggest fans. It’s every time I finish a painting and realize that I can do this.
 
Q: What’s your long-term plan as an artist?

A: To paint till I die. I have had several solo shows around the country and I have showed internationally but what I want is to continue painting and showing with the few galleries that I enjoy working with. I love Billy Shire and I will be having a bigger show
with him at his gallery in Culver City in 2009. I have been working with my long time gallery in Philadelphia, Rosenfeld Gallery. Richard is like my second father; he has believed in me from the start and I hope to continue to make him proud. 

http://www.carrieannbaade.com
http://www.billyshirefinearts.com/
http://beinart.org/artists/
http://www.therosenfeldgallery.com/