We were lucky to catch up with Domenica Brockman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Domenica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I knew I wanted to have a career with creativity and flexibility from the very start. I had an unusual upbringing, living in different countries in Africa. For college, I decided to study painting in the fine arts program at Cornell University, and when I graduated I thought I might like to be a teacher. I quickly found that this was not the path for me, and spent a few years in arts administration, working for nonprofits and art galleries, all the while painting in my limited spare time.

Eventually, I turned my passion for vintage objects and antique textiles into a small business, opening the shop, “Flux Co.” in Brooklyn in 1998, with two partners, and then on my own with “Curio” in Park Slope in 2000.

In 2002, my husband and I moved from Brooklyn to Ithaca, NY, and opened up an antique shop called “Swamp College.” The business evolved over the years and has become “Petrune”, a clothing store specializing in the best contemporary and vintage clothing items we can find.

We had three children, and in the meantime, I never stopped painting in the in-between moments. Finally, in 2014, I decided to seriously commit myself to being an artist. That year, I rented a studio space, and spent 2 hours a day in it, five days a week. After a year, I had my first exhibit and began to sell my artwork.

Since then, my art career has grown and blossomed. I now spend the majority of my time in my studio, working on my painting, and I earn about 50% of my living from that part of my artwork. The other half still comes from the clothing store, which is also creative.

All aspects of my career are creative, but being able to make and sell my artwork is the most gratifying.

Over time, I’ve learned that whatever you focus your attention and energy on is what will thrive.

Being an artist can be challenging for a few reasons. It’s a solitary pursuit, you work alone most of the time and spend a lot of time alone in your head. And because most opportunities are not repeatable. The gallery that showed my work last year has closed this year, and the person who purchased work for their new home a few months ago has now filled their walls. Each sales is one of a kind, and each day is like starting at the beginning again.

Some things that have offered a sense of stability are having my clothing store, and licensing my work. I have a moderate but steady income from a wallpaper company that has made my artwork into wall coverings. I also have a deal with a luxury rug company, which makes my art into handmade wool rugs.

It’s not always a stress free but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I create artwork in two disparate styles. On one hand, I create bold, abstract, geometric canvases in painted collage, and conversely, I paint moody, nocturnal landscape oil paintings.

In my abstract work, I use the logic and formality of geometry as a framework to stir associations and memories from the realms of the physical and non-physical.

In my landscape paintings, I aim for mood, and a sense of wonder, using dramatic color contrasts of light and dark, and layers of atmospheric paint

Nature, landscape, and the play of light and movement are recurring themes in all my work. The images are a visual language designed to inspire the imagination and provoke an emotional response.

Have you ever had to pivot?

One thing you can count on in a creative life is having to take a life-changing pivot time and time again. I have had so many moments where everything changed, and a whole new path had to be forged. Some pivots occurred with huge events that impacted the world at large- like when the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11, in 2001, or during the 2019 Covid pandemic. Others happened because of personal decisions, like deciding to move, or having children.

The thing that got me through times of confusion and uncertainty was keeping an open mind, and listening to that quiet interior voice that often offers up unexpected solutions.

For example, when the pandemic began, I was sure that my art career was dead. My business was forced to close temporarily, and the building we owned lost all four of its commercial tenants over night. I was in a panic trying to figure out how we would survive with a large mortgage and no income.

Grappling with the uncertainty and one day, I felt an urge to simply take a walk down the street to see what other business had been impacted. I saw a favorite neighboring store had been closed for a while. A hot dog vendor in front of the store told me that the owners had lost their lease and were looking for a new location. I immediately contacted them and promptly had a new tenant in my space.

On the art front, an artist in th UK came up an idea called the #Artist Support Pledge. Using Instagram, artists were encouraged to offer small works of art for $200 or less, and pledge to purchase another artists work when they had made $1000 in sales. I thought it was worth a try, and promptly started selling small paintings by tagging available work with #artistsupportpledge. Within a few weeks I had sold enough to keep my part of the pledge, and I purchased my first painting. Soon I had a rather large collection of small works from many talented artists from around the world. Art sales during the pandemic were beyond anything I had experienced before, and I built a solid following of artists and collectors on Instagram.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

First and foremost, I believe that everyone is an artist of some form or another. And, I believe that artists need to support one another! There is this perception of scarcity around being an artist. Over and over we are told that artists don’t make a good living and that we must compete for limited resources, like recognition and money. And if we make art, many of us feel like we don’t have room for anyone else’s. What the Artist Support Pledge taught me was that there is plenty to go around- especially if artists support other artists. Since the end of the pandemic, I have continued to put a percentage of my art earnings towards supporting other artists by purchasing their work. I have enriched my life by surrounding myself with inspiring work that I love, and it feels great to know that I am helping someone else have the satisfaction of making money from their creativity. If everyone was supported in their creative endeavors, the world would be a much happier place.

There are many ways artists can support one another. Forming collectives, planning exhibitions, sharing technical skills and knowledge, and investing in each others work, to name a few.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.domenicabrockman.com
• Instagram: @minimalistabstraction
• Facebook: Domenica Brockman Paintings

Image Credits

Xinyi Qin (Dona)