We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eizabeth DeMarco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eizabeth below.
Hi Eizabeth, thanks for joining us today. What was one of the most important lessons you learned in school? Why did that lesson stick with you?
Recognizing that her teenager was a “problem”, my mother signed me up for art classes and steered me toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art nearby in NYC. With this foundation I was accepted at a college with a Fine Arts program but also other academic majors. In the first class I felt “out-gunned” and folded, taking a far easier path as a Spanish Major. I took art anyway and as a senior I encountered a teacher who told me I was a writer, not an artist. I didn’t paint for 10 years.
I was successful in business but after a few years I realized that something was missing, and i enrolled in art classes at night. This fed my soul.
Half a century later, I am still painting, whereas others in my class, are not. I currently have work in 3 galleries, have co-owned a gallery and am leaving for another residency in a few days.
Lesson:
Follow your heart,
Eizabeth, 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 have had a number of careers, all of which have lent something to my “success” as an artists, I believe that being deeply engaged in living for me is the heart and soul of why I paint and what I produce. I ran a million dollar dress business for a major retailer. I was an in house executive recruiter for a Fortune 500 retailer. I worked as a client advocate at a non-profit and taught for 10 years in an inner city high school. I have a huge library of books ,hat have formed my philosophy. I have been a single mother, and am now a grandmother. I love and am loved.
All of the skills I honed , my years of reading and studying art in all different environments, allows me to produce large scale abstract expressionist paintings that are respected by my peers and some even sell. I do not paint to sell. I have made enough money in my other careers to support what I do.
I paint to reflect my experience as a woman, a mother, a politically aware person, I paint because I have absorbed and intuit the nature of my time on this planet, to leave behind my addition to the history of art. This passion is expressed in my work.
I am proud of the body of work I have produced, for networking for other artists, for running a gallery for 6 years and for raising an amazing daughter.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I believe one becomes successful in two ways;
1. Support for your dream
2. No support for your dream.
I am a product of #2, thus, resilience….or, I had no choice. People ask why I am an artist when I have had successful careers in other fields that make money. My answer is; I had no choice. Art chose me. Despite getting poor marks for coloring outside the lines as a kid, for dropping out of majoring in art, for working in business to support younger sisters still in college, despite being rejected too many times to count from shows and galleries, I’m still painting. Despite being a single working mom with little money, I found a way to paint. Despite demanding careers and graduate school, I painted. Despite not selling my work, for leaving my gallery, for being 78, I still paint and I always will To do this, I show up in my studio and work, no matter what.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
After taking many art classes in northern New Jersey, I knew that I wasn’t going to learn anything more here. So I explored the possibilities in New York. I was accepted and enrolled in the New York Studio School, where I was thrown into a new level of art study I had never dreamed of. No lunch break. Resolve painting issues by poring through their Art History library. Check your brains at the door.
What?
I was dumbfounded. How does one “unlearn” 20 years of art? Why? And the door opened and I went through.
That was the beginning of my journey from painting realistically to abstraction. Evidently I had absorbed all the technical information I needed and had to rely on my instincts, my gut, the unknown…and it worked. A lesson I am still learning on a much deeper level.
The other lesson I learned that kicked me in the ass was from a quiet, lovely older artist I studied with, who invited me to lunch at her home. I was surprised at the invitation, but happy to join her. As she prepared lunch, I sat at the table and made small talk, until she turned around and yelled,” When are you going to get that you are an artist? I want you to bring your best energy to my class”.
I was shocked speechless. That’s when I knew who I was.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ecdemarcostudio.com
- Instagram: Betty.DeMarco
- Facebook: Elizabeth DeMarco
