We were lucky to catch up with Talia Swartz Parsell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Talia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
Very early on in my art and teaching career, I worked on the most meaningful project that reassured me I was on the right career path. When I was getting my undergraduate degree in Toledo, Ohio, I worked at Toledo Arts Commission’s Young Artist At Work program. As a mural painting teacher, I led a group of Toledo teens in a collaborative mural project with incarcerated teens at Toledo’s Juvenile Detention Center. The biases that both groups of teens brought to the mural planning table was intense but over time was dissolved as the two very different groups of kids got to know each other’s thoughts and struggles. The incarcerated teens felt empowered to help design the mural using imagery that was symbolic and personal to them. Seeing these two groups of teens work together to design and execute a large, impactful mural inside the juvenile detention center was not just meaningful to everyone involved but really underscored the power of public and community art. This is why we make art together and why community art programs are essential.
Talia, 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?
Art has been my passion for as long as I can remember so it came as no surprise to anyone in my life that art and teaching would become my careers. I studied art and education at the University of Toledo’s Center for Visual Arts at the Toledo Art Museum campus. After three years as a full time art teacher, I was desperate for more landscape and more studio time. I moved out to Colorado over a decade ago to pursue a Masters Degree in Art and have called Denver home ever since. I currently reside and paint in the Berkeley neighborhood in northwest Denver and love to escape to the mountains and beautiful parks when I can. I am represented by a gallery in my neighborhood called Westward Gallery. I also run a small tutoring business where I help students build their art portfolio in preparation for applying to art schools. Being a licensed art teacher, I have had the privilege of teaching art to so many students of different ages, abilities, and backgrounds and really believe my experience teaching has helped guide my personal art practice.
For the past few years, my work has focused on exploring the visual concepts of memory and place on canvas or wood, using geometric shapes and a bold color palette. Every one of my paintings is a story about a connection I have to something in my life. It’s so deeply personal and a physical expression of exactly who I am at that moment in time. I’ve never felt so connected to my art before and craved being in the studio more. I’m focusing on finding my own voice and letting my connection to the natural world guide my art. I’m super proud of the fact that I have gone outside my canvas comfort zone and starting doing mural work again. I absolutely love painting big and using my whole body to create large scale work. It’s physically exhausting in the best way.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
One of the most rewarding parts of being an artist is just knowing that my kids get to see me pursue my passion everyday. I think that is one of the best things I can give my kids is the opportunity to see that life has so many different paths and possibilities worth exploring and there isn’t just one way to do it. I watched both of my parents eventually go back to school and pursue a career that they were passionate about later on in their lives. They both ended up retiring from jobs that they loved and I think that was really important for me to see. It wasn’t a clear cut path for either of them but they both found it and pursued it after they’d already had their kids. I never know what the future has in store for me, but keeping an open mind and heart is essential to my creative growth.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Something I’ve had to defend or explain is this notion that being an artist is simply having fun, creating art all day. When people say, “awww, that’s so fun you get to just paint all day,” I feel the need to explain that being a career artist is so much more than this fairytale notion that people have of an artist’s life. Behind the scenes of being a self-employed artist are the endless hours promoting and marketing work, researching and planning work, updating websites and documenting work, bookkeeping and budgeting, packing and shipping work, dealing with emails and sales, applying to shows and opportunities, keeping track of inventory and gallery work, teaching and generating other income, cleaning/organizing/purchasing supplies, creating space and emotional energy to make creative work, and then actually MAKING the work. It actually requires a lot of different skill sets, both organizational and creative, all at the same time. But I love it. That’s why I do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taliasart.com
- Instagram: @talia_swartz_parsell