We recently connected with Laurie Lipton and have shared our conversation below.
Laurie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Yes I am a self-supporting artist, but it was a long, hard schlep. There are no easy/breezy solutions or fast-track ways to earn a living form the fine arts. You simply have to believe in yourself to the point of self-delusion, and enjoy what you’re doing more than anything else on earth.
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?
I have been drawing consistently and obsessively since the age of 4. At the ripe old age of 70 I am now one of the most accomplished, and most borderline fanatical, drafts-people alive.
I was inspired by the religious paintings of the Flemish School and tried to teach myself how to paint in the style of the 16th century Dutch Masters… and failed. When traveling around Europe as a student, I began developing my very own peculiar drawing technique building up tone with thousands of fine cross-hatching lines, like an egg tempera painting. It’s an insane way to draw, but the resulting detail and luminosity is worth the amount of effort. Each piece takes eons to create, and a lot of them are rather large.
It was all abstract and conceptual art when I attended university. My teachers told me that figurative art went “out” in the Middle Ages and that I should express myself using form and shapes, but splashes on canvas and rocks on the floor bored me. I knew what I wanted: to create something no one had ever seen before, something that was brewing in the back of my brain. What I wanted fell between “isms”. It wasn’t “surreal”, it wasn’t “real”… it was lurking between the two. I used to sit for hours in the library copying Durer, Memling, Van Eyck, Goya and Rembrandt. The photographer, Diane Arbus, was another of my inspirations. Her use of black and white hit me at the core of my Being. Black and white is the color of ancient photographs and old TV shows… it is the color of ghosts, longing, time passing, memory, and madness. Black and white ached. I realized that it was perfect for the imagery in my work. When people see my drawings in real life, as opposed to online, they are struck dumb by the amount of work in them. They require your complete attention. You need to come close and examine every detailed crazy inch of every amazing piece to get the full astonishing wow effect.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In my 20’s I had to waitress in order to pay the rent. I was living in Holland at the time, and had to waitress speaking Dutch (which I eventually did quite well, in spite of the fact that every Dutch person can speak at least 4 languages & will speak to you in yours if they hear an accent). I also worked in a box office, and came home exhausted to my very bones, but drew all night. I would not compromise. When I brought my work to a gallery, and they told me, “Wow! These are great! We don’t show drawings, though. Do you paint?”, or “These are disturbing. Can you make us something with a little less bite?”, I said no and moved on. I kept to my vision, my Laurie Liptoness. I was told that I would never, ever make a living from making disturbing, black and white pencil drawings. I am living off of my art work, and have been for decades. A lot of artists I know who paint pretty pictures are not.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Waking up every morning and being able to draw all day every day. I feel like a chocoholic who has been locked into a ginormous candy store. I feel very very grateful.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laurielipton.com
- Instagram: @laurieliptondrawings
