We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Giacomini a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mary, appreciate you joining us today. Do you manage your own social media?

I run my own Facebook (Mary M Giacomini’s Artwork) page and Instagram (@marygiacominifineart) I’ve done research and experiments on how to grow my audience and have been fairly successful at it. I find by keeping my audience engaged, changing styles of posts, adding videos and works in progress keeps people interested. I answer and ‘like’ every comment but have learned to do only one or two per day. Each time a post gets attention it will go back on the ‘loop’ of what people see. I also invite folks who like a post to like my page (FB) I share to different groups to get more attention from those who don’t know me. I’ve recently discovered that my Nextdoor page posts get even more responses than the others do.

Mary, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been a professional artist since 1999 although I earned a BFA degree long before that. When I moved back to Colorado I decided to take my art to the next level. I have been teaching art since 2002 at both the Loveland Museum and my home studio. Although I teach many different mediums at the museum, I have been focusing more on oil painting at the home studio. Here I get a group of adults who want to improve their skills. I no longer have students paint the same thing but have them choose from their own references and desire to paint what they really want. We generally have a theme which is student led. Last year we spent a month focusing on Georgia O’Keeffe. I found out what pallet of paints she used and we either copied her style with our own work or one of her paintings. We learned how she shuffled paint samples to figure out a painting.
I am proud of the fact that many of my students have been with me for many years, as long as 8! This keeps me on my toes as I strive to make the class interesting and not repetitive. I continually learn with them.
As a starting artist in Loveland I got involved with local art groups, volunteered to paint a 70′ mural, painted some of the outdoor art here; a transformer box & a 5′ heart.
I paint “Peaceful places’ whether that be a landscape or a figure in a landscape. I like to create things that make me feel good and when I get a response from others that it makes them feel peaceful, I’ve succeeded.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I decided to turn my front living room into a full time studio I wanted to teach art. At first I only had 2 or 3 students. Years later my classes are full. Often my students become friends and we enjoy each other’s company. I enjoy watching them progress into excellent painters.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Like much of the rest of the world, when Covid hit in 2020 I had to slam on the brakes for my in person classes. No more home studio or museum classes. No more income. I learned to hold zoom classes and in the summer held plein air (outdoor) classes with mandatory masks. I helped get the museum classes get back on track by having everyone wear masks, disinfecting everything and social distancing. It’s not easy to speak loud enough when teaching with a mask!
Last year my students asked me to resume classes so I set down some rules (must be vaccinated & I’m not responsible if you get sick) and now we’re back to ‘normal’.

Contact Info:

• Website: marygiacomini.com
• Instagram: @marygiacominifineart
• Facebook: Mary M Giacomini’s Artwork
• Linkedin: Mary M Giacomini
• Other: http://mgiacominiart.blogspot.com/