We were lucky to catch up with Spencer Plumlee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Spencer, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents have always been there for me. There has never been a closed door from them in any way. They never questioned my desires to pursue art at any age growing up. I have been selling my work professionally since being 14, so by the time college came around it was hardly even a discussion as to what I would be pursuing. I think being an only child helped allow them to focus on if I needed help building, hauling art, or just to listen to if I ever had any logistical problem to work through. They both have great work ethics and I think if I have a fraction of that, that I will continue to be successful on my marathon of life that it is to be an artist. My dad is also in a band named Doxy, and I think having parents that already place value in being creative and arts oriented most likely helped a lot along the way as well. They’re always in my corner and I’m so lucky to have been an accidental baby from these two.

Spencer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Spencer Plumlee and I am an artist, painter, muralist, instructor, professor, printmaker, woodworker, and live painter living and working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am essentially an artist for hire, but I sell originals, commissions, in addition to everything I previously listed. I received a BFA from Rogers State University in May of 2019. My practice focuses on community engagement by painting from personal experience and the people I encounter. I chronicle the human experience through personal reflections in each piece and immerses the viewer through paintings that act as time capsules. I presented my first solo exhibition titled “Day ‘N’ Nite” in 2019 at the Cameron Studios in partnership with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship. I have shown across the United States and Italy. Plumlee has attended the Tyler School of Art Summer Painting Intensive, The New York Studio School Drawing Marathon, the Mount Gretna School of Art, and received the 2019 Momentum Grant from Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. I am most proud of each new painting I create and I strive for excellence in every piece. I believe that paintings capture moments in time to be preserved and revisited as time goes on. I believe our reality reflects subjective experience. The act of investigation in my work is key to exploring if our reality and the world we live in is a mirror, a window, or an illusion. My paintings are my way to explore my own existence and the experiences both shared and observed. Lifelong painting from experience is a practice in intimacy and honesty. It is the only way I successfully fight the entropy of time. I wish to grow by investigating intimacy, social dialogue through historical portraiture tradition, expanding my artistic language and toolkit in an interdisciplinary focused atmosphere, and create a cohesive confessional body of work to carve out my place in time.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think that society has always benefited from the arts for as long as we have had human history. The best thing we can do as individuals is encourage each other to make without pressure, without fear, and without judgment. The best thing we can do as a society is vote in representatives that value art, value the liberal arts, and value education that requires people to try art in any capacity they choose. A thriving creative ecosystem is built on people buying art from artists while they’re alive, participating in mutual aid, trading for goods and services if you can’t afford to buy something, and investing money into the local artists that make up your city.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think the entire ride of being and identifying as an artist from an early age is about resilience. As an artist that is constantly applying to grants, fellowships, residencies, shows, etc., I am always getting rejections. Rejection is a very common and normal thing to experience as an artist and I have seen it destroy artist’s sense of confidence in applying to anything else. It amazes me how many artists just stop creating all together and that is the most heartbreaking thing to witness. People stop valuing themselves in regards to art often from a young age and they never try to bounce back until they’re retired or at the end of their life. I wish people didn’t wait for their chance to create. The scariest part is starting and being consistent in your desire to create and following through with that. The best success is making the work, independent from the outcome or the outside judgment we might imagine as artists, that is true resilience and what I strive to do every time I sit down to make something new.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.spencerplumleeart.com
• Instagram: @Spencer.plumlee
• Twitter: @Spencer_Plumlee
• Youtube: Spencer Plumlee Art

Image Credits
Head shot by Cole Chandler