We were lucky to catch up with Margaret Zox Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Margaret, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 am completely happy being an artist and a creative. I have had full time and part time regular jobs and they felt stifling to me. I thrive on the open ended and I am excited by creativity, even if it is creatively thinking about how to achieve different things in my business. I am happy when I have external goals as in deadlines for projects but the work to meet those goals must come out of me creatively in order for me to be passionate about what I am doing and also to do my best work.

I do not wear a watch and only set an alarm if I have a commitment for something after I am in the studio. Art is very freeing for me and I know that I need that.

While working at regular jobs, I felt so much like they were not me and not right for me that if I ever was in the neighborhood of where I worked on a weekend or during a vacation, I felt sick; genuinely uncomfortable.Iinitially it represented something antithetical to how I saw myself and how I wanted the world to view me. And then early on I was able to feel the joy of being an artist when taking an evening art class at the end of the regular work day. The difference for me became very clear. I just loved the feeling of creating art, thinking about art, talking about art, sharing art and seeing the world in relation to art.

As an artist, I am excited by all the challenges and it fills me just about completely. As I go about my life in other significant areas like being a mother or a friend or a daughter or playing sports or traveling or reading or watching movies or listening to music… art and my art life is always right there with me.

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 am an oil painter painting large, representational paintings that highlight the beauty of the everyday. Their size signifies for me the abundance of life. And, because I see and thus express these everyday moments as exceptional, I also make them expressive in color and thick, luscious paint. I share the majesty that I see in my surroundings within a space of figurative intimacy so that anyone can identify with my art. I do this all with the intention of providing a connection for and with my viewers.

I start by recognizing a feeling, a mood, a moment, or even a shape that moves me. Then I look for the scene or objects that will help me bring these feelings out. From the very beginning as a young child, I was drawing my world from the people who were important to me to the familiar corners of my home. And still to this day, I begin each painting with a drawing because this is where and how I see. I then paint to find my feelings making paintings which are of authentic feelings and intimate realities that I have experienced firsthand. Being a lifelong New Yorker has also influenced my art with both my quality of form and color language that come from the city’s exceptional creative energy.

Personally, having lived through some difficult times as a single mother, I found that my painting was what got me through. I chose to paint whatever beauty I saw. I had majored in Psychology in college, always being attracted to human connection but not understanding how to emphasize it until I tapped into my own art making. Today I am always looking towards the positive, expressing these exquisite moments that I notice and thus sharing them for all to see and feel with my art. I do this by taking both my drawing and my painting and use them to allow me to always be seeking pure awe.

I am proud of my unique yet relatable vision. I have evolved as an artist and have developed a sense of color, design and even subject choice that encourage my viewers to look, feel and marvel at moments they recognize and relate to.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

As an artist, It is important to see yourself as an entrepreneur and Social Media is a tool, if not the tool that you use to promote and grow your business.

Just like the intention of my art, I want to connect. Initially and surprisingly when I first thought about being an artist, I was attracted to the idea of working on my own, away from people. But as I lived the life of an artist, it became very clear to me that connecting to others was paramount to making it work.

I have many collectors and a strong email list. I have the same energy with my social media accounts of Facebook and Instagram as I have had with my ever growing email list. I am always connecting with others, both around my art and also on a human/friend level. I share my art with confidence and I share who I am with pride. People know I am an artist, are aware of my art and also have been introduced to my family, friends, travels and hobbies.

Social media like Facebook or Instagram are ever evolving platforms. To master it enough so that it can grow, it is important to learn the nuances of the algorithm. This can be as creative as thinking about an idea for a painting. It is a challenge but also a lot of fun.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.margaretzoxbrown.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaretzoxbrown/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MargaretZoxBrownArt/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-zox-brown-1a20375/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MargaretZoxBrownArt

Image Credits
Rosie Lopeman