We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eileen Doster a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

EILEEN, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Having a mentor in each of my creative areas has been extremely helpful. I have never earned a full-time living from my art sales but I do earn some money now which supplements my income. I earned my living teaching art. After several jobs that didn’t suit me, I felt at home among the art materials of a chaotic classroom.
As a young child, I grew up without grandparents. An elderly neighbor who was a professional artist took an interest in me and some other children. I bonded with her. She generously taught us about portraiture, landscape, still life in painting, and drawing. We also learned how to use the potter’s wheel and all aspects of ceramics, including creating ceramic glazes from raw materials. This informed my studies in school. Instead of saying “Why do I have to learn Chemistry in High School,” I was excited by the relationship between science and art.
This also benefited me when I was studying painting in art school because I needed a job. I was hired as a part-time teacher in an arts-based preschool program. I was not confident at first because I didn’t think I wanted to be a teacher. As time progressed, I gained confidence and distinguished myself in my field. I had only attended 2 years of art school so after ten years I returned to school and added art education and early childhood education to my studies of painting. Luckily, art was valued in the school I worked at. They encouraged me to get my degree. I stayed there for 36 years. I wish I hadn’t been so loyal to them. As the administration changed our mission was not respected. The school became more corporate and less of a neighborhood institution. The covid pandemic was used to remove the higher-paid teachers and younger teachers with less experience remained. Art was not valued as it once had been. Undaunted, my commitment to my own work increase and my sales benefitted.

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?

Well, I do programming for places that show art, and have poetry readings, lectures, classes. workshops, book launches and small scale music events. These are galleries, theatres, bookstores, bars, cafes, hair salons, libraries, parks and gardens. I got into this because I come from a mindset of community, and the old punk DIY aesthetic. If you don’t see something happening – make it happen yourself. It’s a service I provide and I do it for my friends, colleagues and the greater community. I know people who want to participate and I know the owners of the venues and I enjoy doing this. So the upside is that when other people do programming they include me. I document arts events on social media and I create a buzz. I make a conscientious effort to use social media in a positive way.I feel people appreciate me.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Once I attended an exhibition titled “Primary Fear”.
A friend curated it and I was unhappy that I was omitted.
I mentioned this to her and she laughed.
Primal Fear! When someone curates a show called “Primal Joy, ” you will be at the top of the list.
She was right of course. My work did not fit in.
I later used “Primal Joy” as the title of a painting and a springboard for themes in my work.
Collaborating with other artists requires a sense of humor, buoyancy, and the ability to speak up for yourself.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Society can be more supportive of artists by-

1) not asking artists to do things for free

2) not assuming that artists are flaky people who don’t work hard

3) not presuming an artist can do something that is not in their area of expertise

4 )don’t show your student work to them and act like a colleague. (Sorry, your High School art projects
may not interest someone who has given decades of their life to perfection their craft)

5) Society should pressure the government at all levels to see the arts as the economic engine that they are.

6) Create more ways of getting funds into the hands of the people who are responsible for putting their region on the world cultural map

Contact Info:

• Website: Everybodywiki.com EiLeen Doster
• Instagram: eileendosternyc
• Facebook: EiLeen Doster
• Youtube: La MaMa Galleria Profiles – EILEEN DOSTER “Waves and Water Lines”
• Other: Art Loisaida Foundation https://www.artistas-deloisaida.org/alt/2014/03/22/eileen-doster/

  WARS -Women Artists of Rivington School https://www.womenartistsofrivingtonschool.com/members

  Poetry Weebly http://newbrunswicksliteraryoutlaw

Image Credits

Photo by Ave Doster (portrait of the Artist-personal image
All other photos by EiLeen Doster