We recently connected with Antoinette Wysocki and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Antoinette, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Taking risks is what you sign up for as a painter. The first big risk was choosing to attend art school where every statistic was against your success in your chosen career. When you told anyone you were looking at going to art school and you always got the lecture of making smart choices about your future. I received my BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 2000 when the song in the air was ” painting is dead.’ The other song that soared was “there was no room for women painters.” I dived into that risk working as a painter on paper which just encouraged ongoing disapproval from my fellow artists. Upon graduation-I then had to support myself and had the art of rejection down which made it easy to apply for jobs in other fields that I really didn’t have any experience in. I worked in couture retail, a teacher within the inner city, up to a GM of a Nightclub/lounge and then restaurant , becoming a wine buyer and then into start-ups and branding down the line. I showed up ready to be told NO but to my surprise the door opened. The lessons I received from these day-to-day experiences would end up on my paper as I returned to the studio after work. The conquests at work became applications of value to then turn around and use towards how I would represent myself as an artist. The risk is-how you show up. First.
The understanding that rejection is 100 percent what we fear as artists. Once you can internalize this- then the initial risk doesn’t carry the weight of fear. The second part is you have to keep clawing and you have to be authentic in risk taking. As a painter I have been fighting for recognition, shows, exhibitions, networking, and then GASP you have stay relevant.

I was told if I chose motherhood that I was not going to be the painter I wanted to be. That in order for my paintings to hold the weight, my energy could not be diluted from emotional commitment to anything else. If I chose to be a mother- I chose to not be a REAL painter.
I took that risk twice.
I painted 9 months pregnant in my studio on 38th after my work days in Chelsea. Right after I gave birth to my first son, I got my first International exhibition in Hong Kong.
The journey continues everyday. Showing up with a blank canvas is risk taking in itself. The pressure to make something out of nothing.
I tell young artists all the time to take risks in their work, getting their work out there and not to put limitations on themselves. Wait to be told no and then try and try again. As soon as you get comfortable in your work then you are failing your creative gift.
You have yet to make your masterpiece.
Take the risks. You have to keep pushing through to make your magic and the world needs your bravery in your work. Bigger, badder, strong, kinder….
We have to learn not to get in front of ourselves- to challenge that voice that tells not to take that risk.
I suffered a traumatic accident this past year when I was hit in my car at a stop sign by a pick-up truck head-on where my right fore arm was shattered. I am right handed. I’ve had 2 surgeries, suffer from daily pain and have lost great movement in my wrist. The arthritis will only worsen with time and I will eventually need a bone fusion to make the arthritic pain tolerable. I will loose even more movement in the future.

I was told I won’t be able to paint….
I won’t be able to move like I have done all my life.
This is it.

Challenge accepted. I’m diving in and taking all the risks to show them I have yet to complete my masterpiece.

Antoinette, 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?

I always knew I would be an artist. It wasn’t so much a choice but a necessity to create. I have always been attracted to the beauty of things that surround me and a deep curiosity of my environment. I am a painter. I am inspired by process. I love to work with all types of media so that I am not confined by one result. I believe in the importance of “play.” Playing with the materials as they combine or detach creates a foundation for the story. My job is to navigate the beauty in the messy- the control and the chance-The synergy of spray paint and watercolor. I am drawn to organic imagery and inspired by the everyday. In my studio I work while listening to all kinds of music, podcasts, series and sometimes silence. The day dictates the vibes in the studio. I work between paper and canvas. I love to draw. Drawing is the foundation of all of my work. There is always a pencil in my hand at some point. I use the work to record passing thoughts I am experiencing and place them in the piece. Like a journal capturing current affairs. I hide imagery within the brush strokes with hopes to be discovered by those who chooses to become intimate with the piece. These “ghost like” images or easter eggs is a dialog to the viewer like little mysteries to be discovered.
I often collage papers I have collected from travels into the pieces- restaurant napkins to notes ripped out of a book.

In my early years I painted mostly abstractly but found that people had a hard time looking at something they didn’t understand or allow time to stand in front of it. I wanted to speak more to the viewer. I started to add a few recognizable objects into the pieces. A landing spot for the brain to feel comfortble before moving around the page. I had to work slower and more detailed in my process. 20 years ago I made myself take botanical watercolor painting under the head botanical illustrator for the Smithsonian. It was a painstakingly slow class. I remember I was the youngest there by at least 30 years. It was not art school that I was accustomed too and I wanted to quit right after the first class. However, I knew I had to be uncomfortable. I had no choice but reteach my brain process. My eyes learned to hyper focus at the smallest details. It changed how I looked at flower and n the end the class taught me to see. Flora became a big part of my work moving forward.
I choose imagery often for symbolic purposes so that the intention in the work is more than the actual painting itself.
My series come together on their own. The work dictates to me and I just continue to create it.

I do a lot of commissions for clients who need a certain size piece or have fallen in love with a painting that has sold.
I have a fun process I have created over the years working with clients. Besides working with customized pallets for example I get to know them a bit more through things like their music preferences; creating a playlist that I listen to while I work on their piece. I believe music can control the vibe and I want the vibe to be what resonates to the client. Another example is I identifying organic imagery that has meaning to them sometimes by hearing their stories and finding imagery that symbolizes events in their lives. Then I hide within their piece notes, quotes, images-their easter eggs that speak only to them- so the work has it’s own secrets only to be understood by the client. It’s all very subtle. I like the quiet whispers.

The intention in my work is to evoke beauty but with shadows. The most recent work THE ICON SERIES was a series I had been conceptualizing for some time. I was able to dive into it when I returned from a trip to Venice. The work is inspired by the Renaissance religious paintings and I wanted to play with these images in a contemporary setting. In the age of consumerism I wanted to push the idea of what we each worship and attain to be part of. The saint like or “influencer” images are ornamented with designer brands that our current culture obsesses over. This series has brought on quite an interesting response which has been weighted by personal faiths. Some of the pieces have diamond dust, collage elements, and gold leaf that I bought in Venice from the oldest makers of gold leaf.

I spend a lot of time in antique stores admiring things that have been collected and the craftmanship of the old. I feel at home in a museum and the freest by the ocean. I love the trees in the woods and the concrete of the city with the same passion. Traveling is everything and my greatest is fear is -there is never enough time….
I am learning “to be” and before my big accident was a big yogi. I have now turned back to running and am training for a half-marathon. I run without distractions hoping to hear or see something the universe could be offering up. I work out a lot of creative ideas after the third mile and get rid of the anxious energy I often carry. Then I am ready for the studio.

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

Art is a real job. It’s my job. It’s not the same as “your niece who is eight and also a great artist”. Please stop relating to creatives this way. Society lacks the understanding of the arts as an occupation and does not credit it that same as other occupations. I always have to explain in length that I am a full time artist and then continue to validate it with a flash of my CV all the way down to who represents me.

It’s expensive to be an artist. Our work holds it’s price tags because of our education, hours of labor, materials, overhead and years we’ve been in the game. This should be respected. Please don’t ask artists to “give you” a piece of their work. Instead try to buy something or network them to someone who might be interested in their work for purchase or exhibition.
(I’ve had an idea forever to create an installation that would be like a walking into an artist studio and put a price tag on everything.)
Galleries take 50%. People don’t seem to know this part of the equation. I am not going to comment on the percentage because in the end artists NEED galleries. Thats another conversation.

If an artist shows you their work- please give the piece more than 3 seconds of your time. Pause in it- be uncomfortable. Remember this person made something out of nothing. It’s ok not to like the work or understand it, they just want you to really SEE it.

We need to be looking at more art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is seeing the world differently. To be moved by the aesthetic beauty that surrounds us and be able to focus in on all the tiny masterpieces that are in our everyday. I always tell people who believe they aren’t creative to start taking pictures of things outdoors. It’s the quickest way to see light and shadow and it will automatically change your perspective in simple objects. It will change how you SEE.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.antoinettewysocki.com
• Instagram: @antoinettew
• Linkedin: Antoinette Wysocki