We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angela B Fife. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angela B below.

Angela B, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Creating art feeds my soul. It sounds cliche but after I graduated college in 1996, I went 6 months without painting. I had a regular job at a bank to pay the bills. I became very blue, and apathetic about life. My husband suggested I start painting again. My melancholy lifted immediately. Since then, I have never gone more that a few weeks without creating something. I did start a second career about 5 years ago but I will never stop painting and showing my work.

Angela B, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In highschool I loved my art classes. One of my art teachers told me if I didn’t go into art in college he would be really mad. That was the first time I even considered it. I didn’t know I was “good enough” to be a real artist. I fell in love with the art program as soon as I started. I love oil paints and have realized you never know all there is to know about oil painting. It is definitely a life-long study and craft. I paint anything that inspires me. While raising young kids I painted a lot of still life, dresses, portraits of children. Now as I travel more I am drawn to cityscapes. My real love is the figure. During Covid, all of the galleries that represented me either closed or downsized. I was in a unique position to either “start over” and look for galleries, or change how I did things. I decided to not go the gallery route. I now do only local shows and commissions and I find it to be much more rewarding. I do a lot of figure drawing, have started woodworking, and also work part time as a private investigator. Interestingly, all of the activities/ hobbies/ jobs inform the others. It has been so fun expanding my creativity as well as working part time doing something that is not connected to art. But, I will never stop painting. It fills something in me that nothing else can.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the most rewarding aspect is a selfish one. It makes me happy and feel complete. I create all sorts of things: I teach 4th grade art, make furniture, quilts, knitting and crochet, and they all fill my creative soul. But nothing fills as deeply as painting. It is really difficult to describe but sometimes it feels out-of-body. I lose time when I paint. I disconnect from the world and any troubles I am having. It feels like my own personal space where no one else is allowed to enter. I raised four kids while pursuing my art career and goals. They have always been a part of my studio and my art shows. But painting is still such an escape to me. The second most rewarding part for me is when someone really connects with one of my pieces. It amazes me that normal people (not billionaires) will spend thousands of dollars for some marks of paint on a canvas. I know I am not changing the world, but it always surprises me when someone really connects to a painting and cannot live without it.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I am old-school. I don’t even make prints of my paintings. Many people have asked me to make prints and have wondered why I don’t. The only reason I can come up with is that the joy in painting for me is creating the actual piece. I actually despise all of the “business” in the art world and it is drudgery to me. I am lucky to have a spouse that has a good job and so I am not the main “bread-winner”. So I don’t think prints are wrong by any means, it is just a side of the art world that I don’t like to involve myself in. I have limited time and I want to spend all the time I can painting and creating. So NFT’s are out of my realm of interest.

Contact Info:

• Website: angelabfife.com
• Instagram: @angela.fife.art
• Facebook: @ Angela Fife Art
• Other: I am actually considering starting a youtube channel of telling my private investigation stories while I paint. So people can watch the painting and not my face. I’ve got some really good stories.