We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Abby Daleki. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Abby below.
Abby, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
With a BFA, MA, and MFA in drawing and painting, I have spent years refining my work inside and outside academia. That is not to say my work is “refined” as I am always trying to do so. I have had many mentors through the years- notably Brian Frink and the late Peter Williams. As painters who have/had worked for 40+ years, their best feedback I’d ever received was “Keep going. Keep doing what you’re doing. Just make the weird thing.” and I have always done exactly that. I like to think that I move brashly forward without looking back. I try and fail and try and fail (and try and fail) over and over again. Letting failure consume me stops me from doing anything. I revisit old ideas and techniques frequently. If they didn’t work in the past, I try again with knowledge I had gained in between tries. Nothing is off limits. I don’t think I could have sped up my learning process. I learn very differently from other thinkers so I believe it would have taken me “this long” (whatever that means) no matter how I got here. Plus, I’m not done yet. I’m still learning new things every day. I’m re-reading (and reading for the first time) art books I bought in grad school. One of the biggest skills that is the most essential to my process is resiliency. Embracing failure. Resting, but mostly getting back up and trying again. Obstacles that are always there are personal. Getting in the way of my own self. Learned behaviors, etc. But the good news about learned behaviors is that there is a way to unlearn them. I am always unlearning things as much as I have learned. It is a great way to humble oneself.
Abby, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Originally from Onalaska, WI, I received a BFA and MA from Minnesota State University, Mankato and an MFA from the University of Delaware. Currently, I am an abstract mixed-media painter based out of Kansas City, MO. Using color, shape, and form, I layer collected materials to build a tactile surface to distract from what is beneath. In the same way I cover, hide, and disguise my skin, hair, and body- I obsess over building these layers. Sometimes using simple painted flowers, in different shades of pastel and vibrant color, highlighted in bright-colored puff paint, but covered in cut-out shapes of painted sateen and embroidery thread. I explore this feeling of compulsion by continually making marks, sewing thread, or gluing yarn. Ruminating thoughts, obsessive thinking. Repetitive patterns, vivid colors.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2020, I was working as a receptionist in an office that was quite toxic. I was making really safe paintings- not taking risks or trying new things. I was sort of numb to my artistic process. In March, COVID-19 shut everything down and I was able to actually rest. I was recovering from a wild few years leading up to that and I had the privilege of taking time to myself to heal and rejuvenate. A few months later, I became a food delivery driver. It was something to make ends meet and I knew it was only temporary. I was starting to get burnt out and ended up working from home for a short time. While this new job was fulfilling, it still wasn’t what I had envisioned for myself: working on a computer every day in the cold, dark, basement. At this point, I was not painting at all. Total creative burnout. I came across an opportunity I knew I couldn’t pass up- but it required a big move from Southern Minnesota to Southern Missouri. I was offered the job as assistant professor of art and my partner and I made the move in Fall of 2021. A year later, I am thriving in my new position and my paintings have taken on a new life in my home studio. I am grateful, in more ways than one, that I took the leap and made the move. Pivoting was not easy, but it was well worth it.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My attitude has always been to stand against stereotypes. I think back about the women in art who have excavated a path that runs straight through a male-dominated artworld. The drive while working in my studio has always been to somehow confuse, anger, or disgust the viewers or critics who I already know won’t like my work. I think it’s a defense mechanism of sorts out of fear that someone will hate or dislike something I make. But if I know that going into it, it’s sort of like setting myself up or preparing for that feedback. If I were to hear someone say my paintings are too “this” or “that or lacking in some way, I can say, “I already knew that. I did it on purpose.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.abbydaleki.com
- Instagram: @abbydalekiart