We recently connected with Derek Meier and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Derek thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

The most important thing is adhering to the process and accepting that it takes discipline in your studio routine and hours spent to achieve higher outcomes with your work. Much of the learning comes from simply moving paint, but also dedicating time to study and process historical and contemporary work.

There’s never any shortage of obstacles to a creative career. Time, bills, low return on efforts when starting out. Just have to paint through it.

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 am a painter and mixed media artist based in St. Paul, MN. I studied the studio arts, primarily painting, at the University of South Dakota and started my studio practice thereafter.

My work is primarily painting/mixed media abstraction and centers on material exchange, immediacy, aesthetic dialogue and invented territories.

My work is available for private and commercial purchase, and I also provide commission opportunities for both.

I enjoy engaging clients and spaces and providing them work that engages and completes the space.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For myself, visual art holds an opportunity to consolidate visual languages and dictate the terms of new realities, which tends to allow me to do the same within my own. Creating a dialogue with viewers through work and curation holds the most rewards beyond the completion of the work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The primary goal for each painting is to feed into the next, growing in language, depth and nuance. I want the body of work from the past five years to pale to the next five. My goals lie with my studio process and seeking higher outcomes. I feel like goals of business, opportunities, and the sort will follow with the strength of the work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.derek-meier.com
• Instagram: @derek_august_
• Facebook: Derek Meier

Image Credits
Derek Meier