We were lucky to catch up with Genie Appel-Cohen recently and have shared our conversation below.

Genie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I was a slow starter. I grew up during the time when women were expected to choose a career as a nurse, teacher or secretary. I volunteered at a hospital; but the smell of alcohol made me dizzy. I went to a stenography class to learn how to take dictation; but I couldn’t read back my notes. Since I wasn’t a great at math, becoming a school teacher didn’t make any sense. In high school, I worked various part-time retail jobs, but the clock, on the wall, never seemed to move, at all.
I started selling some of my work when I was a teenager. Even though I was happiest in my college art classes, I didn’t really believe I could make a living as a full-time practicing artist. Eventually, I got married and had a wonderful little girl. During that time, I worked part-time in physicians offices, answering phones and making appointments. I like helping people, but the money I made barely covered child-care, and we were always in debt. After my divorce, I made up my mind to pilot my own course. I studied with several established successful artists that helped me hone my skills. When I was finally confident with my abilities, I put an ad in my local paper and started teaching art classes for kids and adults from my garage.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I live in Florida and the majority of my students, (both on Zoom, and at The Boca Museum Art School), are retired from some very high level careers. They want to learn how to draw and paint; but they want to learn quickly. I’ve created two innovative programs for both colored pencil and oil and acrylic painting that produce amazing results. I’ve been teaching for over 10 years and I’m very proud of my longevity as a teacher and a mentor. What most surprised me was the absolute joy that is given and received when my students get that “light bulb” moment and they produce great art.

The second, and just as important part of my career, is that of an exhibiting artist. I create large format still life and tropical paintings that are influenced by the Japanese art of flower arranging called “Ikebana”. Instead of focusing on static still life or traditional landscapes, I strive to infuse my art with motion and energy, which brings a renewed sense of vitality to each piece.

My creative process is intricate and requires significant time to complete. I employ stenciled designs and use imported paints from France that produce a glass-like three dimensional effect. Every section is outlined in gold. Instead of brushes, I use pipettes to place the paints inside the designs.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Eleven years ago I received a very serious cancer diagnosis. There’s probably nothing else that helps to focus your thought process, about your life, more then a health crisis. I really didn’t know how much time I had; but I knew I was going to “give back” to others, all that I received from other teachers and mentors.

I became part of the faculty at The Coral Springs Museum of Art and The Boca Museum Art School. During Covid, I opened my Zoom art school which is still going on today. During this time, I was offered a commission to create a painting for a wealthy client. He was a huge fan of the painter, Gustav Klimt and wanted a lot of gold and bling. From that commission, I invented new ways to use the Pebeo paint materials that are featured in my work, today.

My goal was to sell these works to a larger audience and I was lucky to find a gallery in Palm Beach Gardens that carried my work for three years. That association has now ended, so I have just started the process of finding another similar opportunity.

This is resilience for me. I will be 80 years old this summer, and I’m still creating, still teaching. It’s a great life!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

At first, I didn’t know what a NFT was. I did a little research just as it exploded into the next big art investment. The art that was the most popular, wasn’t anything similar to what I was creating, so I forgot about it. Like your readers, I started to get queries from my website about how my work was so fabulous, blah, blah. I thought they were interested in my actual art, so I answered them. No, they wanted the image for NFT’s and I would be paid in Crypto.
I kept writing back that I did not digitize my artwork. My patrons would be insulted if their original art became a NFT.

Then, one day, I get a email from a woman that sounded entirely different, authentic. I wrote back, and this started a conversation that almost had me convinced to open a “wallet” and go with her company. I kept wondering was I being “old fashioned”. Luckily, I had AI do a deep dive into her company and found “red flags” that caused me to back-out.

Artists are a vulnerable population. I’ve been subject to all different scams over the years; but this was the closest I ever got to falling for one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.appel-cohen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artbyappel
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genie.cohen 9
• Linkedin: https://www.appel-cohen-66119730
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@genieappel-cohen.