We were lucky to catch up with Denise An recently and have shared our conversation below.
Denise, 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?
I am a part-time artist and a full-time Chinese medicine doctor/acupuncturist, who is planning a full-time future in art. I started making art as a child, and my parents gave me paint-by-number kits to calm my over-active mind. I would then sit behind rows of grandfather clocks and pop puffed peppermint candies and paint in my dad’s clock and watch retail shop in Cinderella City. In middle school, I started playing with watercolors when I entered a calendar contest in the late 80’s, and was encouraged exponentially when I won first place and $250. At 12, I felt like I won the lottery. In high school, I spent 4 years creating a portfolio so that I could get into art school in California. Any medium which produces pure, bright colors, huge contrast, and hard and soft lines and edges are attractive to me. This is why watercolors are still one of my favorite mediums. After I left art school in 1996 (Academy of Art University in San Francisco), I got a job making wallboards and signage at Tower Records in Denver. It was at this job that I taught myself how to airbrush. This is my all-time favorite medium that I don’t get to use often because of the amount of ventilation it requires. In the spring, I love the amount of broad watercolor effects and fine detail that you can get with an airbrush. Think H.R. Geiger or Hajime Soriyama. This spring, I plan to airbrush outside in my backyard.
Overall, I am a lazy artist which is why I like the instant gratification of digital art. I have been making digital art on my phone since 2014, with the rise of Instagram. With the disdain of AI-created art, I have started making moves back into oil painting, watercolor, and airbrush art.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Open unoccupied spaces and buildings for artists. Allow a safe place for artists to create without charging and arm and a leg. Corporations and other companies with capital could provide their unused/un-rented buildings as low-cost, organized spaces for budding artists to create, in return for commissioned art. Perhaps, implement a bartering system~ rent for art. Hold artists responsible to their art by organizing an application process and provide a reasonable compensation. Think about incentives for artists to create. Require adherence to deadlines and/or a minimum required hours to create/week. Like a working a job. Instead of being paid, require a minimum production of art. Artists can become managers of spaces, over-time. Look into local and federal grants. Of course, the consideration would need to be made for crime, unhoused persons, drug deals, etc., so this will likely not be a tenable solution without some type of security, structure, and organization.
We have seen that artists will take over abandoned buildings, as was done by graffiti artists in LA. Why not provide unused buildings to be legally transformed into living art pieces? Ultimately, there is so much extreme wealth in the world, how can it be distributed to allow artists to thrive?
Have you ever had to pivot?
In January, I quit my steady paycheck job without a backup plan. This was due to necessity and to preserve my sanity and health. While I am still mending from that decision, it has given me the opportunity to revaluate my relationship to money, my relationship to consumerism, my personal relationships, and my relationship to health and wellness. I am still in the process of evaluating these changes and I am hoping this interview will help shed light on the important things that I have neglected that feed my spirit.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: from_qi_with_love
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DAnartistandillustrator?mibextid=kFxxJD
- Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/dr-denise-an-andert-54927b40
- Other: Society 6 https://society6.com/denisean_mysterious_substance