Fantasy Artists Emerging

1. Who or what inspires you to create?
  Mostly I am inspired by other artists to create art. Some of those artists are family members such as my great-grandfather and his daughter my grandmother who both created many beautiful paintings in their lifetime most in watercolor. It is their soft style of watercolor painting I lean towards as to the modern vibrant style that today’s watercolor painters tend to favor.

2. What creative activities do you enjoy?
 I love to do arts and crafts from find a fun and unique way to frame a print I have bought to decoupaging a box with cards I have cut up. I also like to paint and sculpt of course.

3. Your art has grown in leaps and bounds over the past year. What do you do to improve and grow artistically?
I read other artists suggestions and hints and tutorials and I just experiment experiment experiment. I have learning difficulties that make it hard for me to sit and read a book to learn how to do something I am very much a hands on learner. So I will read tutorials with pictures and then just try to do something using the same techniques but never the same images.

4. You do a lot in support of fellow artists.
 Tell us about FaerieDust Galleries and how it got its start. FaerieDust Gallery is a gallery that showcases over 150 artists from around the world. The artists being shown change from time to time when I find new artist actively creating art that catches my attention. Sadly I have also removed artists from the sight when they no longer have a website of their own or their own website has not changed in YEARS. I must do this because the cost of running the website in paying for my host server and buying my programs to create the websets is completely non-profit in fact it brings in NO income even to fund itself. It is a labor of love. How it started is because of my love and respect for the hard work artist put into their art. I would find a beautiful piece of art on websites like webshots.com with no credit being given to the original artist and the names of the paintings even being changed. I would then have to search who was the wonderful talent that created that piece of art. It was after months of seeing this and many other sites theft of art that I finally said enough and create Faeriedust fantasy art gallery as a place to give credit to the real artists and links to their own websites. Over time Faeriedust has evolved into a gallery that not only shows the established well-known artists like Amy Brown but also the up and coming new artists such as Dawn Obrecht and Kelly Smith. It’s goal being to introduce visitors to artists and guide them to the real Artist’s websites.

5. How much work goes into maintaining such a large site?
Good question and one I have never measured in hours spent. I do all the html coding myself. I create individual backgrounds for each artist’s page which can take 15minutes to an hour. I use the images themselves to help determine the colors and pattern that I use for the background so they will nicely frame the Set of art. I periodically search the internet for new fantasy artists often using larger galleries or art forums. Unlike many websites I take the time to email every artist I show regardless if they have a faq page that so I can use them in a non-profit way.  I also try every couple of months to visit each and every one of my artists own sites to see what new art they are showing. Recently I also added a new page to show any Ebay Auctions the artists are having. I now have all the artists from my sites Ebay accounts added to my favorites so I can easily find new auctions and update that page and I try to update this page almost weekly.

6.   How do you choose which artists to feature in your galleries?
You know that is actually the HARDEST question to answer!! Sometimes it’s one piece of art that crabs my attention enough to make me search thru and artists’ gallery looking for more. Sometimes it’s getting to know and artist and taking the time to watch their art grow as well as their websites. Sometimes it’s just finding a well known artist whose work I like that will say YES. But always there is at least one piece on each page that I truly love.

7.   According to your bio at Elfwood, you claim some interesting ancestors in your family tree. Tell us about them. 

I am related to Lady Godiva an English lady that protested her husband’s taxation policy by riding unclothed thru the streets of town to gain his attention. My 10th great-grandmother was Suzanna Martin a resident of Massachusetts during the witch trials whom was outspoken enough to gain unwanted attention. She was hung and was one of the Last witches to be declared Innocent of all charges post humously in the last 1990’s several 100years after her death. My grandmother was also a strong woman whom during the 1950’s did the unheard of and divorced her husband and raised her three daughters on her own working as a national representative for an international dye company based in the US.

8.   Are there other members of your family that are creative?
 As mentioned above my maternal grandmother and her father painted watercolor landscapes. My maternal grandfather was also an oil painter as well as my mother. My grandmother, mother and aunt are all experienced and professional photographers. My sisters both have far more talent with a pencil and pen then they use as did my little brother before his death.

9.   Do you hope to pass on your love of art to your daughters? If so, how will you do this?
 I certainly hope to instill in them a love for art. In fact Hobbit my elder daughter is already amassing her own collection of art owning a few original paintings and several prints, postcards, cards and ACEO’s from various artist from around the US. I also intend to encourage them to create their own art in whatever medium they choose giving them the supplies and chance to discover that which they love.

10.  What artists have you met in real life? What was your impression of them?
 I have only met two artists in person at a very busy book signing. I had some time before the Amy Brown arrived to talk with Rob Carlos who is a part time employee at the shop as well as a wonderful fantasy artist in his own right. He was very friendly and showed interest in seeing another newer artist’s work as well being very informative and willing to share some of his knowledge. Sadly it was too busy to really talk with Amy Brown but she gladly signed not only books we purchased but a print and even a card for my older daughter.

11.  If you could pick one thing (artistic or non artistic) to excel in, what would it be? Why?
 I think for everyone that should be a unique choice for them. For me I would like to go back to college and get a degree that will better allow me to produce a professional website and open a physical store in which to show and sell art. But mostly I want to raise my daughters to be healthy happy young independent women!

12.  If you were to offer advice to emerging artists, what would it be?
 Don’t be shy! Ask questions, Take advice, offer your art to others artists to critique and keep creating. Share your art with the world by placing it in a gallery or on its own website and listen to what fans and critics have to say when it is useable advice.

13.  Who is/are your favorite singer(s) and why?
 Oh my now you have opened a can of worms. At the moment the Dixie Chicks rank foremost in mind because they got mistreated by the country music industry, radio stations and supposed fans for voicing their opinion. They took a step back collected themselves and decided too bad for the rest of you we are NOT going to let you knock us down and keep us down we are going to keep on making music because that is what we want to do and do best. They have come back with their best most heartfelt album yet and I plan on supporting them for years to come because they are like the women in my own family that have stood up to that which they felt was wrong and been proven right!

Sophia-Christina
FaerieDust Gallery
http://faeriedustgallery.org/