Christine Goldbeck is a photographer, painter, published author and a gallery owner, as well as a huge asset to the market and blog. Christine has used her talents in writing to help with numersous press releases for us. She opened her gallery walls to MMCA Marketplace members for our first group exhibit and has given many of us advise and opportunities to share our work with her community in Middletown, PA.
MP: How do you describe yourself as an artist?
I view being an artist as a constant growth process. I experiment with new techniques all the time, forcing myself to learn and practice new ways of doing things. For biographical purposes, I am an interdisciplinary artist, working in both traditional and new media and often blending the new and the known to make mixed media and multimedia work. A lot of my first artist’s statement still holds true for me. It’s available here, in the online version of my MFA portfolio.
MP: What are two art supplies you don't think you could live without and why?
Well, if you are talking to Christine the photographer, then I will tell you that I cannot live without my SLR camera and my 75-300 mm telephoto lens. Although I shoot with the Holga and the Diana (toy, medium format film cameras), I love being digital and I love my DSLR because I can change lens and there is no shutter lag.
If you are talking to Christine the mixed media painter, then the answer is molding paste, because I love making textures, and Golden Fluid Acrylics Green Gold, my favorite color.
MP: Do you have a favorite technique that you use a lot in your work?
In my mixed-media paintings, I love to spread modeling paste and draw into it before painting. I love the textures you can build with this process. As you draw, you can erase and have no lines, providing you do it while the paste is still malleable. In my photography, I love exaggerating color through saturation and I love motion, either natural or movement I make when I am making exposures. My new limited edition series “Natural Patterns” features both saturation and motion.
MP: What inspires you to make art, and how do you handle it when things get "tough" in the studio?
All sorts of conditions, issues, observations and feelings inspire me. The natural world is my biggest inspiration. I love working with nature to tell a visual story. Trees, flowers, water, webs, berries … I spend hours with these elements and I love every moment of it. Often, I incorporate flowers, tree branches and other natural elements into my mixed media pieces.
When things get tough, I keep reminding myself that no matter how the piece turns out, I will have learned something important about the process. I make myself work through the problems. In a recent Facebook posting, I said something like “painting today was agony.” It was. I just could not figure my way out of some mistakes and I could not focus on the next steps on the 36 by 48 canvas. But, I stuck with it and I think it is done, or almost so. As rough as it may be, follow through. Often, in these situations, something good, even AWEsome, is just around the corner.
MP: As an artist, we have many roles, which do you find to be the most rewarding and which the most challenging for you?
I like the role of “artist as storyteller” best. I find “artist as entrepreneur” the most challenging.
As a mixed media storyteller, I love the challenge of determining the best way to share a story and I love to watch a story evolve. Because, you know, often the story changes as we work, especially if we work intuitively. Story, for me, is integral to a piece of work. This could be the writer in me or it could just be the storyteller/actor coming out.
MP: Christine, not only are you an artist, you work full time and own your own Art Gallery. What advice do you have for growing a creative business?
Commit. That is commit yourself to an institution. They’ll feed you there and probably give you pencils and paper and cute little art supplies. Okay, I’ll be serious. Look, if this were easy, a lot more folks would be doing it. Being an artist is NOT easy. Being a small businessperson is NOT easy. But, as we artists/entrepreneurs know, even a bad day is good. Believe in yourself. Believe in your work. Learn and practice new techniques. Network with other artists who pursue art as a business. Get your art out of the house/studio/closet. Put it in galleries, nontraditional markets (coffeehouses, libraries, hospitals, hair studios, etc …)
MP: What do you love most about owning and operating your own business?
I am the master of my destiny. Besides that, I love discovering student and/or emerging artists who are serious about pursuing art as a career or side-career and giving them opportunity to show their work and to learn about the business-side of being a successful, selling artist.
MP: As an artist and a business owner what are the three biggest mistakes we make when marketing and how can we change them.
I am not sure what mistakes fellow artists make when marketing, but I can tell you what my key shortfalls are. (1) I don’t do it enough. (2) I don’t plan as well as I should, and (3)I don’t follow up as well as I should. Any of this sound familiar to you?
I am getting better at all this, but I still need a lot of practice and focus.
MP: Do you have any upcoming projects/books/events/etc we can look forward to seeing in the future?
I recently unveiled a new, limited edition photographic collection,
Natural Patterns and will be bringing out more prints for 2010 show season. I intend to continue to develop the large canvas, mixed-media painting series “
Conception.” I will continue to teach at the
Art Association of Harrisburg. Watch my website,
blog and Facebook (Arts on Union) to keep up with what’s going on in the gallery and studio.
MP: Is there anything you would like the art world to know about you that we did not cover in our interview?
Yes. I would like to share a little, but true, story with each of you.
The most important lesson I ever received came from my Father. He bought me my first motorcycle when I was about six. It was a Yamaha 80 and I could not touch the ground with my feet when I sat on it, even when he removed the seat and placed some sort of makeshift cushion in its place. Naturally, I made road pizza of myself on numerous occasions. Following one of the more serious accidents, which scared me, I walked away (bloody) from the cycle. I left it lying on the ground, the engine still running, sputtering really. Dad came running toward me. After ensuring that I had broken no bones, he asked what I was doing and I told him I no longer wanted to ride. I will NEVER FORGET HIS RESPONSE.
He said: “Here’s your mistake. You let the MOTORCYCLE control you. That’s not the way it is. YOU control the motorcycle. Now ride.”
No matter how you look at it, he was talking about life, really. Okay, we cannot control everything about our lives. We cannot control disease, the economy, our teenage children’s friends or our cats. But, darn it, we can try. We can chart and follow our own courses and we certainly can and SHOULD control how we act and react to situations, including the crappy economy, revolutions in the art world and all other personal and professional situations with which we deal.
Enjoy the ride!
Christine, thank you for this wonderful look inside your life as an artist, photographer and business owner.
You can see more of Christine's art on her website, and blog.
