We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ginger Lou a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ginger, thanks for joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
Quite honestly the best investment I have ever made is investing time in myself. Striking a healthy and productive balance deems necessary in one’s own creative practice as well as being able to survive the ins and outs of the changing times by expanding inside of one’s own creative field. During these past 2 years I have invested a great deal of time in educating myself in order to spread my wings into other avenues of creativity in order to monetize my trade not just by selling art but teaching a variety of classes as well. Part of this process included learning a great deal of technology, and with this new technology I created many online classes which kept me occupied productively throughout times where I might have felt more lost and hopeless. It was incredibly rewarding providing this same level of comfort to my students. Teaching my classes also gave me the opportunity to learn about subjects that I had always wanted to learn about but had never made time for. My new classes include growth mindset vision boards, self care vision boarding, knitting, children’s art, collage, mixed media collage, reverse glass mixed media collage and art journaling. Having the experience of teaching classes online gave me the opportunity to meet people from all over the country. I even had an attendee from Australia. These people shared with me their stories and their time and it was very enjoyable having that connection.
Ginger, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
How did I get into the art industry? Well, I have always been an artist. I believe that everyone is intuitively talented at something and art just happens to be my something. I worked in a nightclub as the coat check girl for 10 years. Everyone knew of me as the coat check girl. When I stopped working at the nightclub I decided to be a full-time artist but I still really enjoyed a bit of the social spotlight. So, I started off creating events and group shows for artists and musicians, poets you name it, I welcome them into my circle. My art was my own style of airbrushing and painting. Then, I became ill. The illness lasted for several years and made me chemically sensitive and unable to tolerate paint. So, I was forced into a hiatus for 3 years while I worked on my health and recovered. While I was getting well I started using collage as my medium. When I started making collage art I began with a series consisting of the major arcana tarot cards. I feel the progression of the cards mirror Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. This resonated with me because of my experience of being sick to becoming well, the strife, struggles and coming out on the other end a better person. The better I felt, the more I could tolerate and the more I expanded on what I could use. I am now fully recovered and creating mixed media collage art. My resilience made me a better artist because it forced me to push outside of my boundaries to work harder for what I really wanted to do and that was to make art. The content, theme and the imagery of my art also changed and became more of an intuitive presentation of symbolism and color, each piece telling a visual story. The stories are subjective because each viewer attaches their own interpretations to the imagery. I am always curious to hear the stories that are interpreted by others. Anyway, I did start to put together art events again but this time I made them more interactive. I supplied the art materials and people could come out listen to live music, DJs, have a cocktail, socialize, have fun and make art together. The process of creating together is a fun and bonding experience because you need to let your guard down a little to open up creatively. It’s also a huge stress reliever. Currently, I offer classes online. I am involved in group shows around San Diego and Santa Ana. I teach in person classes for children. I have my work for sale on a few different websites and am in the process of building gingerlou.com. My art is also on Fine Art America otherwise known as Pixels and Le Galeriste a print on demand fashion site based out of Canada. My art is unique because my journey has been unique. My art imitates my life with each piece a time capsule of the moment it was created.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
There are several rewarding aspects. I enjoy teaching art because I’m sharing something I love with another person who shares in that Joy. I love seeing what others create based on my instruction and tips and the smile on their face when they complete their project. It is also rewarding when someone who really loves my work purchases a piece for their home. I like the fact that they love it so much that they welcome it into their space to add beauty to their surroundings. Of course I also enjoy the process of creating art, it is therapeutic for me. I don’t need to talk about what is on my mind, instead I create it as art.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
NFTs are interesting. In a way they are more about crypto trading than art. You can find some really amazingly beautiful art or some really basic run of the mill art and that has a place too even though it’s not traditional. Of course I am impressed by Beeple’s work. He creates a new piece every day. I enjoy following him on social media. His content is political mixed with Sci Fi. I plan on creating NFTs of my own very soon. I created a profile on coinbase today and I’m navigating the process. I feel like my art easily crosses over into the digital format and that people will have an appreciation for it in there. Technology is a curse and a blessing because it creates so many different outlets that you can easily feel spread too thin. Sometimes I need to step back and analyze where to focus my energy and that can be difficult decision at times. Less can be more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ginger-lou.pixels.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gingerlouart/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GingerLouArtist/
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC_qV57Q4AzvP-25hEVu1LMg
- Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/gingerlouart Fashion Art https://www.legaleriste.com/en/ginger.lou Art Channel Podcasts https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPsSz3EpUNEAW-RZV5R_bR6yhYkiaEeB1 Classes https://coursehorse.com/online/classes?teacher=ginger-lou1
Image Credits
Ginger Lou