Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Wendy Bale. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Wendy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I have worked on several solo projects that were meaningful and rented the majority of space in my head for months, even years, but it is a long-running collaboration that gets top billing for my most meaningful project to date. As a member of International Online Art Collective, I have been involved with a group project that has escalated to unexpected heights. The concept we began two years ago with a single 10×10″ piece, with each piece informing the next, provoking a chain reaction of other artworks—until we will have created 100 works, assembled into one big multi-media installation.

Chain Reaction, we call it, and the 14 members of this worldwide group are all working hard to bring it to the public.

Members of IOAC come from Europe, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the UK, and the USA. Each artist brings unique talents to the table. I have a background in marketing and graphic design, so I have focused my volunteer efforts there. We are currently working on a grant application to help us premiere the completed project into its first gallery in late 2023. From there it will embark on a world gallery tour.

As the project has evolved I have become more and more passionate about not only the art we are creating but the bond we are experiencing as we work together to make this happen. In the beginning, none of us knew each other and certainly didn’t know where this collaboration would lead. Working closely with artists I’ve never met from eight countries, has taught me more about how much we are alike than how we are different. Our members’ art is just as varied in mediums and style as their geographical location, varying from realism to abstract, sculpture, and photography. But through this ongoing project, we have become fast friends and a close-knit art family. Chain Reaction celebrates our journey to make the whole wide world feel a little more intimate and friendly.

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.

Things happen for a reason, they say. Art school was cast aside for raising a kid. I later gave up my traveling side-show of not-very-profitable street fairs to take on a corporate creative design career. Perhaps it was for the best. The art of my twenties—drawing and printmaking—lacked the story-telling quality I value in art today. I remember often sitting down at my drawing table and wondering “What should I draw”? Now, with three decades flown by in an instant, I never struggle with what to create. A lifetime of inspiration was bottled up inside me waiting for the perfect time to let it all out.

As a Creative Director, I traveled regularly to beautiful locations doing photo shoots. My busy career didn’t allow time for more than photography. While working on a tropical island, I remember the fashion photographer, calling me back to set, asking “What are you going to do with all those bird photos?” At the time I didn’t know. But it was the only artmaking I could do, so I just kept taking wildlife photos.

A few years before retirement, I transferred to a different company, and my husband and I moved to Western New York. I had an opportunity to “reinvent myself” and focus on my personal art. Networking with other artists gave me opportunities to discover—or rediscover— new mediums. I took a short workshop on paper cutting. This sparked my interest in the field and ultimately I joined the Guild of American Papercutters (GAP). I combined paper sculpture with drawing and put together several major shows locally and regionally. Now, I even teach paper-cutting workshops.

The time I spend artmaking is my time. Time just for me. Once I send the work out into the world—to a gallery or online—it becomes about connection. My goal is to find kinship with other people through the stories I tell in my work. Whether that is a favorite bird, a shared experience in the forest, or the feeling you get floating down the river, I am looking for that bond.

Connecting with the local art scene began with simple networking in my little towns of Jamestown, NY and nearby Warren, PA. From there I found artful help and camaraderie in the kind folks of GAP. The next leap, a coaching program called Art NXT Level (ANL), introduced me to better ways to market art and find my audience. It was through ANL I found my global posse and we founded International Online Art Collective.

Yes, things happen for a reason. Changing jobs late in life brought me to the wilds of western New York, a place of infinite natural beauty and endless inspiration. We’ve been here for eight years now, and my art has been heavily influenced by the local wildlife, the waterways, and my budding environmentalism. I’ve learned so much about the local birds. Curiously, I dubbed 2023 as the Year of the Mushroom and am enjoying learning all I can about these amazing species. I have excellent resources here with Audubon Community Nature Center just three-quarters of a mile from my county home and Roger Tory Peterson Institute (RTPI) just 15 minutes away in Jamestown.

It has been my dream since moving here in 2014 to one day have my work displayed at RTPI. I’m a lifelong birder and this place is the holy grail for birders. Ironically, it was my recent foray into mushrooms that got me invited to show there during the 2023 Art that Matter to the Planet exhibition in June. This year’s show “Interconnectivity” centers on the connection of trees to Fungi. Nothing could be more up my alley!

For my gallery installation: the Mushroom Menagerie, I am showcasing over 50 ceramic mushrooms. I haven’t seriously worked in clay for 47 years, and don’t own a kiln, but by the luck of timing, Pearl City Clay House opened for memberships just as I was presenting this concept for consideration. Things happen for a reason! Now, I have another circle of art friends and helpful potters right here in Jamestown to bring it all full circle.

I love taking on things that challenge and excite me—through my friends, I’ve been around the world and back without even leaving home. I am Wendy Bale, I am a multi-disciplinary artist in Western New York. My goal is to make connections with people worldwide or right next door. We live in an amazing time and we have more in common than you might think.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Art Nxt Level, an online coaching program by Sergio Gomez and Dr. Yanina Gomez has been instrumental in guiding me in my art career. In addition to introducing me to many people who have become dear friends, their resource library is a valuable tool teaching such things as how to write a proposal, how to navigate social media, and how to create and market a body of work. My annual small works series is a favorite time for my collectors and is a direct result of my following the business and marketing plan laid out by Sergio and Dr. Yanina.

Have you ever had to pivot?

While moving from Wisconsin to New York state we gave our realtor three criteria: it must be in the country, have space for a woodshop for my husband, and room for an agility field to play with my dogs. Notice no mention of an art studio. At that time in my life, my main passion outside of work was Dog Sports, particularly Agility. We settled on an old former boarding house on four acres.

I found a training center and signed up for my first competition that spring. My dogs were well-seasoned and happy to be back in the game. Saturday, I woke up early to drive to the event and discovered my car was stolen out of the garage. (It was quickly recovered and I lock the doors better, now.) The next day, I arrived on time, ran my dogs, and blew out my knee. Ten years of competing and I had never had a serious injury. Clearly, somebody was trying to tell me something.

I spent the rest of our first summer in NY sitting on the porch learning how to oil paint. My dogs became studio dogs, which was OK with them. My knee won’t let me run anymore, so I made a major pivot and embraced my art practice. The house was better set up for art studios than agility fields anyway. And I am a way better artist than an athlete!    

Contact Info:

• Website: WendyBaleArt1st.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/Wendy_Bale_art1st
• Facebook: Facebook.com/WendyBaleArt1st
• Linkedin: wendy bale
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WendyBale
• Other: For information about my most meaningful project, Chain Reaction, follow the hashtags #chainreactionIOAC and #internationalOnlineArtCollective. Check out the website for details: www.ioac.art.

Image Credits
Wendy Bale, photos or Photos all curtesy of the artist.