We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Annie Decamp. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Annie below.
Annie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 have worked both as a professional in the tech industry as well as being an artist and full-time business owner. Having experience in the corporate world and business has significantly provided me with a basis to run an art business. Being a successful artist encompasses much more that the making of art. This career requires time dedicated to building relationships in the art world by making connections through frequenting art openings and galleries, attending talks and classes. Many artists I know are more on the introverted side as I can be, so developing a skill set around networking is important. This can be hard in the beginning but becomes easier as one creates a supportive group around them. Art also requires the artist to learn marketing and financial management skills.
Having spent about a decade working regular jobs in tech, I transitioned to the arts in 2001 when I began a jewelry design business selling to stores world-wide and running a brick and mortar store of my own. I painted during that time, but became a full-time painter in 2017. I don’t regret time in business by any means but know that painting is exactly where I need to be.
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.
After graduating from U.C. Berkeley in 1998, I went directly into tech working for Oracle, Peoplesoft and Frame Technology (now Adobe). Although I enjoyed the work, I knew that there was a place for me that felt more meaningful and where I could utilize my creative talent. As is so happened, I met the IT director of Francis Ford Coppola’s winery and chateau store in Rutherford, CA. I took on a consulting role with the winery, helping to develop and build its ecommerce site in the very early days of ecommerce. Not only was this is a wonderful challenge at that time, but working around creatives energized me to pursue creative work. By happenstance again, I met someone who was studying metalsmithing at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, CA who helped me get started in jewelry design. Because I had a marketing background, I was able to launch a design business rather quickly. I’m proud of taking the risks I took both as a consultant and as a business owner and to follow my instincts to pursue work that helped others directly and that brought me a way to connect with others more intimately.
Flash forward to 2017 – That year I drew from my love of working with wax carving for jewelry work and tried my hand at encaustic painting. Initially I focused on figurative painting – mostly Native American subjects as I have a deep interest in our history and the Native American story and esthetic. Encaustic painting utilizes wax and resin and blends the mediums on a hot palette. I did not go the conventional route of how many people use encaustic. Instead I pursued the challenges of doing very detailed figurative work. Because there is an immediacy with the drying time of encaustic, doing fine detail is slow and methodical but I enjoyed the meditative aspect of this work and I felt the medium elicited a sense of warmth and texture that speaks to our historical past. I then began working in oils having made friends in the arts who taught me not only about the medium but who helped me improve my drawing discipline. Initially, I utilized the reductive method of painting which is a wonderful way to explore figurative painting. I then began experimenting with digital media and improvised with using oils and encaustic. This exploration created a layering effect that I feel speaks to the many layers of being human.
As beforementioned, I believe that being an artist goes beyond just creating art, and that connections are as important in the art world as they are in any line of business we are in. So, in 2020 I developed a curatorial process for producing an art show with my friend Michael Dowling. During that year, most shows were cancelled due to the pandemic, so we decided to find a way to help ourselves and others continue to show and sell work. Yard Art Contemporary is now in its 4th year, garners great press and has become a successful series of annual events. This casual art ‘salon’ moves throughout Denver neighborhoods and allows patrons to connect closely with artists and visa versa. We believe this intimate connection helps potential art collectors better understand art value and the stories behind art and artists. Beyond YAC, I have curated other shows in Denver as well as in Aspen, CO. I also teach several times a year with Michael Dowling out of my studio.
In 2022 I went through two challenging situations. I was diagnosed with a rare and near fatal lung disease that made me limit my exposure to chemicals and stopped working with encaustics as they can be quite toxic. I went ahead with oils only after several months of being on oxygen. Shortly after being released from the hospital, I was the victim of a home invasion where I was held at gunpoint by four men. The trauma of these to experiences has deeply influence my work. For a time, I stepped away from figurative painting and decided to focus on floral and still-life painting.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The rewards of being and artist are vast for me. Most notably, the opportunity to express my world view, in particular my desire for the world to be a more connected place for humanity. This is the spirit of my work. The biggest complement I receive is when someone feels deeply connected to a particular figurative study I have done and it enables to them to see our commonalities rather than our differences. In our busy and technology-driven world things move so fast that we don’t often pause to truly see or hear one another. This is one reason I find my digital work important as it reflects subjects through a contemporary lens but is a freeze-frame of sorts. Instead of quickly swiping through an image online, the permanency of the work takes us back to what is real. Much of my square paintings are a reflection of what we see on our iphone.
Secondly, working in and around a body of artists and helping to build that community means daily support and inspiration, and I work hard to be in support of other artists.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In 2008 when the market crashed, my once thriving jewelry business took a big hit. I was a single mother of two and needed and exit strategy to pivot back into the work force. By this time I had been out of tech for over a decade and that was no easy task. Ultimately I found my way back in through technical recruiting. I valued an opportunity to help others and tried to bring compassion to that role.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.anniedecampart.com
- Instagram: @anniedecampart
- Facebook: @anniedecamp
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin-anniedecamp
- Other: Instagram – @yardartcontemporary
Image Credits
Portrait of Annie – Mark Woolcott Photography