We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lucretia Torva a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lucretia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you 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?
I currently make my living from my art. I became self-employed in 2000 basically because I was a difficult employee at my job and was asked to leave. I am not sure if I would have had the nerve to become self-employed without being thrown into it. It has been a roller coaster ride and I have taken some jobs in the process. I did not understand how much marketing would be involved. I simply thought my talent is obvious and people will want to work with me! LOL. Initially I marketed myself to interior designers and that’s how I got my income moving. It worked well for a few years. I painted wall finishes as well as murals then the 2008 recession happened and I lost all my work. I decided to get back into doing more canvas work and I began painting images of classic cars while holding a job as a driver for a town car service. I became known as an automotive artist. Though I now do a variety of subjects, I am known for my automotive art. Over time I grew my business to doing mostly commissions, both murals and canvas paintings: portraits, scenes, cars, logos, animals, etc. I have been doing this long enough that word of mouth is by far the best promotion for me. I also apply to artists calls and am selected occasionally. I occasionally have time to work on paintings of purely my own ideas, which I enter into shows and exhibit.
The action that could have sped up my success is marketing. I tried a few things, yet did not find the right people or technique to find my best customers. To be self-employed as an artist, you have to be risk tolerant and not fret a low bank balance. My relationship with the universe and knowing that everything will be OK has been a big help. I have often received money for a project just in time to pay my bills! I have come to know that income will arrive from unexpected places.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Art is meaningful. I have always felt that in my core. My family visited many museums when I was a child and I reveled in the rich imagery I experienced. Art is important, compelling and to be created with gusto and heart. Society and culture is pale without it. Look at the the temples and sculptures of ancient civilizations, or the liveliness of a Frans Hals portrait, or the emotive style of Egon Scheile. This is what I took with me to art school, a deep respect for the creators that came before me. I studied art history, I practiced drawing, learned about design and color theory, practiced painting, honing both my skills and my ideas. I am intrigued by the nature of reality and our perceptions. Visual communication can use symbols and hieroglyphs and metaphor and strange contrasts of objects and concepts. Using realism as my basic style, I can turn to surrealistic juxtapositions to tell a story. I can emphasize reflections and refractions which distort reality. I can pick and choose what to include in a composition. As a young MFA graduate, I thought I’d get gallery representation and then just make art. Life did not provide that path!
As a painter for hire, I bring everything I have to your project: every figure drawing, design assignment, portrait, every museum visit, every epiphany, they all tag along and inform my design decisions and my level of commitment. I make sure the composition leads the eye through a story, through depth of space and interesting details. Every client receives the benefit of decades of practice, experience, thought and feeling.
I used to use the tagline: “I help bring your vision to life!” I interview a client and through our conversations, I can glean their vision. In my unique fashion, I create something special to them. Because I am able to paint anything: landscape, architecture, people, animals, complex scenes and lettering, I am not limited in my visual solutions.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I realize this sounds cheesy…my goal is to make the world a better place. How do I feel I do that? One aspect is that I strive to be my best and show up with my best. I regularly challenge my painting skills and I treat every project with respect and my complete attention. When I work with public facing art for a business or community, I make certain I listen for their point of view… for their story. I assist them in bringing their story forth, not my story. I certainly paint it in my way with my skills, yet the project is theirs.
In all my painting, I look for ways to tell a story in a unique fashion. It could be in a unique point of view, an interesting contrast or perhaps a compelling detail such as a reflection.
My work, both commercial and personal, is generally colorful, full of textures, contrast and interesting objects. On the surface, I want to entertain people and help them enjoy life, bringing them some light hearted feelings and joy in beauty. those who want to look deeper, can often find something. Perhaps it is in the distortion of a reflection or an object held by the portrait subject. On whatever level, I strive to bring enjoyment and appreciation.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
The short answer is for non-artists and arts administrators to take artists seriously and to become better educated.
Taking artists seriously means to actually listen to them. I have decades of experience not only in producing art, but in participating in juried shows, calls for artists and other events. I know numerous artists who also have decades of experience. Yet, when we give advice on how to handle an event regarding artists, we are ignored. It seems that the very people for whom an event is designed may have some expert suggestions on how to organize and run it.
Education is the foundation of fair and discerning decision making. My observation is that some people participating in decision making regarding arts projects don’t know much about art. Those in a decision making position need to be comfortable with the visual elements and principles of design/composition, along with current trends and even art historical styles. When people are uneducated, they tend to make decisions by gravitating towards what is familiar or they take advice from other people who do not know much. I have seen this in several mural projects sponsored by developers for which they choose a style of mural that has been placed already in several locations instead of going with something different. I have also observed exhibits with uneven quality of art as if the selection committee did not have a mission statement or clear goals for the show. How can decision makers do justice to the process if they do not know and understand the subject well? How can they develop a coherent and fair judgement rubric?
Of course, more money for the arts is good. Take care of the above items first before tossing around more money.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://torvasm.format.com/
- Instagram: @torvasm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LTorva/
Image Credits
The photo of myself signing a mural: Jessica Abril The photo of Chef Silvana mural (woman holding a spoon): Diane Bond