Photo by Kent Barker (@kent.barker)

We recently connected with Glen Gauthier and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Glen thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I feel both luck and extreme gratefulness to be an artist/creative. It was a deliberate choice for me during my college years. I was in my first accounting class, wondering what on earth I was doing there. I was a business major because I couldn’t decide on a career path at the time. Art was second nature to me, but I had never seriously considered doing it professionally. I walked into the class on the day of the first exam, handed the class drop form to the professor in front of the class, turned and walked out. I’ve never looked back.

An older gentleman I worked with suggested that I remain in business and just minor in art. That was a nonstarter for me. I had to go all in art-wise. I lost credit hours, and it kept me in school for another year and a half, but I had no doubts.

Every now and then I think of the hair-pulling that occurs when dealing with negative people. You have to be thick-skinned to be an artist or creative. People won’t understand what you’re doing, or why you’re doing what you’re doing. I’ve learned to tune it out and rely on my years of experience and my unwillingness to compromise my voice.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a mixed media artist working in collage combined with other media like paint, graphite, ink and colored pencils. My work takes these elements and constructs a new reality: one that’s been living in my mind for most of my life. A lot of the paper ephemera I use in my work is decades old. That weathered, aged quality brings an element of time to my work. I’m constantly exploring non-linear time, a way of looking at the world from a different vantage point and coaxing those elements into interesting stories.

Because of my graphic design background and career, my fine art serves as a perfect complement to computer-generated work. After spending hours looking at a screen and clicking a mouse, an X-Acto knife and paper is a welcome distraction that serves as a different outlet for me.

My artwork over the past decade or so has slowly mutated from mechanically-inspired to more of an abstract place. I’m currently exploring color, shapes and textures in a way I hadn’t in the past. The meaning in my work is also getting more and more personal. I’m processing thoughts, feelings and my past in both a conscious and subconscious way. I find myself talking to my childhood self almost daily. That is an experience that I don’t ever intend to lose. My unique life experiences are less of an inside joke for me, and more of what makes me and my work unique.

I’ve been working with an art therapist who is helping me to unlock those childhood experiences and focusing on them in a new series of work that will keep me busy for quite a while. I keep my eyes open to the world around me, and make sure that the way I respond to it is recorded so that I can continue to explore that in my work. I have enough ideas and directions to keep me busy for the rest of my life.

I’ve shown my work in art fairs and galleries here in Dallas, Fort Worth, New York, Los Angeles, and my native south Louisiana. I do self-initiated work as well as commission work for individuals, interior designers and art consultants. I have pieces hanging in commercial spaces as well as collectors’ homes and offices. I’ve also had my work published in national and international art publications. I’ve even created augmented reality experiences with my art, bringing it to life in the metaverse.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being a lifelong introvert, I used to have trouble sharing my work with an audience. I just kept my head down and did the work, thinking that people would just naturally discover me and my work and things would progress from there.

Over the past decade, I’ve spent more time than I ever thought I would, preparing for art fairs, gallery shows and sharing my work on social media. All of that for me has helped to refine my voice and effectively share my unique work with an ever-expanding audience. It’s easy to think of the act of self-promotion as unimportant. I find myself saying ‘yes’ to just about every opportunity that comes my way. I speak about my art in front of live audiences, in groups, to individuals and on Zoom presentations. All of this has had a huge impact on me and my work habits.

You have to first of all “do the work”, that is, just put your head down and make your art without worrying about what other people will think. This not only makes your work better, but by doing things, you’re opening yourself up to new discoveries that you would have missed if you think you have to be in the perfect mindset to get in the studio and work. Inspiration comes mostly from the actual doing. So many times I’m headed in a direction that gets radically changed by things that happen when I’m in the process of making art. Those epiphanies rarely come in a vacuum. Get busy and beautiful things will happen.

Don’t wait for inspiration.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I get to create the world that I want to live in. I get to show people an alternate universe, one that exists in my mind and no one else’s. I make it real by creating my art. I fully believe that the world would be a darker, more boring place without me and the art I make.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.glengauthier.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glengauthier/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glengauthierart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glengauthier/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/glengoat
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpf_7tGeIKPXjs7zt339SDw