We were lucky to catch up with Ingrid Wells recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ingrid, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

​T W I R L: A Decade of Artist Interviews came about in the interest of developing an archive of artist stories comprised of interviews and visual imagery. This project is for those both curious to see how this select group of artists will persist in making art despite life’s unforeseeable challenges and eager to watch their artwork continue to progress over time. The digital platform will host annually updated artwork and interviews from working artists over the period of a decade. As an artist who studies creative resilience, I am intrigued to see where chronicling these artists’ practices in this way may lead.

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

​This project is directed by Ingrid V. Wells. Wells earned her MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and her BFA from Arizona State University. Wells’s recent paintings investigate how the elements of art can affect and improve mood. She enjoys using playful subject matter to address difficult topics including women’s issues and mental health. Her work has been shown in the Bay Area at Voss Gallery, New York at the Untitled Space, PULSE Miami with Treat Gallery, internationally in South Korea at the CICA Museum and online with PxP Contemporary. Her work has been featured by The Jealous Curator, The Huffington Post, Daily Mail, BUST Magazine, El País, Create! Magazine and Teen Vogue, among others. Wells is a multiple time grant recipient from the Center for Cultural Innovation. She manages San Francisco Artists Studios, enjoys teaching advanced painting courses with SFAI’s Public Education program and runs TWIRL: A Decade of Artists Interviews. Wells currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

With my annual artist interview project I am investigating artist resilience over the course of a decade. Additionally this year I released my new collection of “Emotional Support Paintings,” and am happy to share more about that work as well.

As an artist who works with the concept of joy, I paint about the weird and wonderful journey of radical self-compassion. It is a fierce rebellion, I consider it pretty punk rock, to stay in your joy when blanketed in depressing circumstances. With this painting collection I am responding to my grief coming out of the pandemic which includes the loss of a loved one, a deeper understanding of my generational trauma and the shared loss of women’s rights in America. My paintings serve as a visual respite for joyful rebellion in the face of terrible circumstances.

I see my role as a joymaker as needing to comb through everything in my purview, with my Harriet the Spy-style detective magnifying glass, to collect sparks of positive visual experiences. In my artistic process I seek out joy, identify it, enlarge it, and share my discoveries. The oil on linen paintings in this collection are based on tiny confetti, enlarged to a 60 x 40″ scale. The collection title “Emotional Support Paintings” is a nod to the need for uplifting support in this moment in America. This body of work taps into a playful and magical energy.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

In order to overcome our shared challenges (and we have some big ones mmkay), we have to become joymakers first, before any other title. It is crucial to be vibrant and visible when doing this work – fully aware that joymakers have been historically outright dismissed (their records not kept, their histories not documented). So I implore you to go down the rabbit hole of following your curiosities. Unlock the video game-style level-up moments within yourself and find delight in where that takes you. Enjoy having your own, “Rocky-the-champ,” moment when facing your difficult circumstances and growing your capacity for joy. It’s crucial work, and it’s crucial we do this together now. Like omg right now.

Contact Info:

• Website: ingridvwells.com
• Instagram: ingridvwells

Image Credits
Paintings by Ingrid V. Wells Artwork Documentation by ArtBot Photography