We recently connected with Melissa Goodman and have shared our conversation below.

Melissa, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned most of what I know now from largely trial and error. I began my journey of learning art when I studied Visual Arts at BYU. I think obtaining artistic training, in the traditional sense, can be done in a number of ways. Inside or outside of a University, it’s just the way that I happened to start. Either way, when I exited campus I knew a lot about how to draw, and how to tell a story but I didn’t actually know half as much about anything I do now. Which is not to say the University didn’t do a good job, on the contrary looking back I think BYU prepared its illustration students for the technical abilities they would need as well as any institution can. But that’s still only 4 years of artistic training. After leaving Uni I went on to study under Master Painters and even Concept Artists at various art workshops. I spent hours in the studio pouring over art books and doing master copies. I did so many figure and portrait drawings that I ended up focusing on still life professionally as a result (this is a joke but there’s truth to it as well). Knowing what I know now, I do not think there is a way I could have sped up the process. Whether this is just that I am a slow learner or that art really does take decades to learn is beyond my comprehension as I only have my own experience to judge from. I cannot imagine that I would have been able to learn it any faster though, it’s just such a challenging skill set and requires so much knowledge and willingness to try again and change things not even about what you’re creating but how you see things and experience life.
I actually think the most essential skill to learning how to become an artist is likely based on each individual person. For myself, I think it was grit. Being an artist is a unique career in the sense that anyone can quickly glance at your work and judge you based on it. That isn’t clear in almost any other field. There is no hiding where you stand on your journey as an artist, no matter who you show your work to they will know what level you’re at and judge you. That’s a lot. I think that alone stops people from progressing in studying art from a young age. I mean around 11-13. So many kids love to draw and hit adolescence and completely stop. I’ve always suspected it’s because they become aware that they are actually not the best, and that’s the thing about art. You’ll never be the best. Once I arrived at the collegiate level, far from being the best I was likely at the bottom of the barrel at that point in time. Regardless of where you stand however, you’ll need to sit through critique after critique and professionals will not hold back, because when you graduate the people you work with won’t hold back either. No one will. Your success can never be determined based on how hard you tried. It’s only based on what others see in front of them. I think this is likely a common challenge for people and why so many give up.
From my perspective, anyone can become an artist. You don’t need a degree, you don’t need workshops. What someone needs is to be able to sit and study and work and draw things again and again, looking at how other artists draw and drawing from the world around them. Living art and experiencing it and trying and trying again despite set backs and failures. The largest obstacle is often being able to pick yourself up after a harsh critique or difficult failure, and being able to work through an artist problem and study. But it’s possible, and with the time and determination it will happen if you really do put your all into it. Don’t let the set backs stop you, eventually things that you couldn’t accomplish you’ll look back and be surprised you didn’t know that thing before, or couldn’t figure out how to create it.

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 a fine artist focusing in oil painting. I work mostly in still life and fantasy art, trying to bring my paintings to life in unique and interesting ways. I want to create a painting that makes someone look at it, and instead of just glancing away think about it. My pieces have hidden objects and tell little stories in them if you look closely enough, and I often find a painting is the most successful when I see someone looking around trying to puzzle out what I’m trying to say. It’s difficult to say what I’m most proud of, but I actually think it’s the little things. I remember my first ever figure drawing class and how bad I was. I have no issues with drawing anything at all now, I am so proud of the work I put into that. Each painting is so unique and I think my favourite moment is right when I’ve finished working on something and I can sit back and look at it and think that, I did it, I made something I envisioned come to life so that other people could see it. That’s a really big deal to me. I want my work to make people feel something and when I have that finished painting and it has a heart and a soul of its own, that is the thing I am most proud of.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Personally not a fan, I kind of think all crypto is a scam. There’s an environmental impact as well on NFT’s that I don’t agree with. I try to live as green as possible.

My mind works in a very physical world kind of way. I want to be able to really touch and feel what I’m creating and building. A lot of art today is digital, its hard for me to wrap my brain around it actually existing. It’s very real, its beautiful, but it’s hard for me to understand because I can’t touch it. I do create digital art and I always have to make prints of it because otherwise I struggle to believe I created it. I don’t understand the concept of an NFT, in my brain, it doesn’t really exist. A physical painting appreciates with time, most notably as an artist ages or dies. An NFT is solely digital, the buyer does not own a copyright, it does not have a physical print or painting, it appears to be just a file and I can’t wrap my head around that as a viable product.
The positives I see in NFTs is as an avenue for artists to make more money, which I think is great as the arts are generally underfunded anyway. I just personally can’t get into them because it feels so far removed from my reality. I can’t immerse myself into it like a video game, film, TV show. I can’t touch it like a print. I can’t see the texture built up like an oil painting. I am currently just limited in the regard that I truly do not understand the value of an NFT outside of it being a fad.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think non-creatives often think that the creative fields are filled with “talented” people who just woke up and were magically good at what they did, or born that way. It’s such a strange concept to me when people say things like “oh I could never do that, I’m not talented like you.” I wasn’t talented either. I don’t think doctors are born knowing how to perform surgery, they go to school for that for like 15 years. It takes time to learn how to do anything in a creative field and a lot of skill goes into it, just like other occupations. It’s something people need to study and grow and learn their ability at, which is why most people don’t stick with it. Not that they aren’t as talented as someone else, they just don’t care as much to pursue it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://melissagoodman.me
• Instagram: @melissavance_art

Image Credits
The images were all painted by me and photographs were taken by either myself or a family member.