Interview with:Michelle Milburn [michellemilburn]
ART
 | What do you do? How do you define yourself as an artist? I work in two areas with my art, firstly producing acrylic and pastel paintings of nostalgic terraced streets and their inhabitants, and secondly streets and architecture in soft pasel to allow me to indulge in my passion for buildings and atmosphere.
I paint everyday, becoming absorbed in my world. I am constantly striving to move forward and seek new audiences for my work.
My paintings have been shown nationally in the Uk through Art Fairs in London, Bristol, Edinburgh and Dublin and work now resides in private collections all over the world.
I often work to commission for private and corporate clients. |
| What is your message? Painting is a passion, a privilege and a pleasure. |
| Your biography in four lines. Self Taught
Determined
Sensitive
Motivated |
| Do you upload your work to the web? If so, where could we see it? |
| How is an idea born? For you, what is inspiration? The inspiration for my terraced street paintings comes from watching and listening. Listening to other peoples reminiscences, ideas that appear in my head, things I see around me. They are all stored away for future reference and translated at some point into a piece of work. Light colour, smells, sound, music can all inspire and spark a new piece and there are usually about 20 paintings jostling for attention in my head! |
| What role does technology play in your creative process? I use my computer and digital camera a lot. I used to produce my own fine art Giclee prints, but now i use it for all sorts of reference storage, archiving and record keeping.
I use it a lot for updating the website and blog too.
I use email and the internet mostly as my means of communication with the outside world.
Apart from that it's just good old fashioned paper and pen and the phone if I can hear it above the music! |
| What is art? Wonderful. |
| When do you get your best ideas? I get my best ideas when I try the least hardest. It may be somthing I see on the street whilst shopping or just nodding off to sleep that stirs the creative juices, either way there's no rest until it's sketched, drawn, painted or photographed. |
| How do you evaluate whether an idea is good or not? Usually it's just a gut feeling and I get extremely excited about the idea and then the piece takes a life of it's own. |
| When and how did you begin to see yourself as an artist? I have draw all my life. I knew from being a child I would do this, so I've always seen myself as creative. An artist...well that came later. I guess getting some shows made me realise I was now an artist, but I suppose I always have been. |
| Why do so many artists and creators have such volatile personalities? Do we? (she laughs manically!), yeah, Ok I'll hold my hand up to that one!
Something I do know, I generally have to paint every day and if I can't then I get very twitchy. If I have an enforced holiday (like the two weeks my family lock me out of the studio at christmas), then it's hell on earth and every body suffers and if painters block descends , well......
I think we basically live in a different dimension to non creative people (for better or worse!), bt it's nice in there, you should come and see! |
| Do you consider yourself postmodern? No, I would just consider myself a working artist. |
| How should a work of art be evaluated? To me if I am happy with my work then it's fine. Sometimes I see things in other peoples work that make my mistakes glaringingly obvious when I come back to the studio, and I spend some time re-evaluating them, but my aim is to be the best i can be and I have to take that statement on a daily basis. |
| Must an artist reinvent him/herself everyday? Don't we all? It may be concious or unconcious, but I think we all do that. |
| Which artists do you admire and how do they influence your work? Oh there are so many artists and I admire them all for their own reasons. I visit commercial galleries as much as museums to look at work.
I usually find something exciting to look at and it's not long before I'm over there having a good close look. I think I am mostly influenced by the construction of a piece, how it's composed, how the brush strokes are laid down, how the paint has been used.
I have no idea if it feeds into what I do, because I just paint the way I paint and it seems to evolve all by itself, but other people looking in might think differently.
If I had to choose, I would say I am enthralled by the Bloomsbury group, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Quentin Bell and by Stanley Spencer and Gwen Reverat. I also like Jackson Pollocks work, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Christo and Jean-Claude, well, the list could go on and on!!! |
| Is art necessary? Well, it is for me. What a dull world it would be without art. remember man has been creating works of art for as long as he's been able to grub around in the dirt. It's not only necessary, but it's vital to life. |
| Does it pain you to let go of a piece you have sold? Not now, but I used to get terribly worried about it! Now as long as it's making someone happy and I'm getting some money somewhere down the line, then thats cool! |
| In art, there is no guide. How do you know what the next step is? Trial and error! As long as things move forward somehow I'm happy. I hate stagnation, I am always looking for a new show, a new gallery, a new publisher etc.
Artists generally (and I am no exception) seem to have little self value over their work, 'oh, I'm not good enough for that gallery' (or maybe thats just me!). It's all rubbish really, but it's a huge hurdle to climb. Thank goodness for email and the web, proposals and submissions aren't painful anymore, these days it's a case of just getting on with it and if you get a knock back, you dust yourself off and carry on regardless!
Having said all of that, if work hangs around too long and doesn't sell, I get doubts about its merits. I have been known to have 'clearouts' now and again of stuff I think is rubbish, feeding works on paper through the shredder, (although I haven't done that for a couple of years now...maybe it's overdue!). |
| How do you feel about the fact that the pieces exhibited in contemporary art museums are often of artists already deceased? Well, it's got to happen to everyone eventually!! It does create confusion that the art world uses language in it's own way. It doesn't help it's reputation with Joe anybody on the street. art should be engaging and exciting, but it's often seen as stuffy and high faluting and showing work from the 1920's and labelling it contemporary doen't help!
The thing that really anoys me about museum collections is the fact that most of them only show about 20% of the total collection they hold. They have huge archives of amazing work that never sees the light of day, now thats a big problem. |
| What role have the figures of art dealer, gallery owners, representatives, and intermediaries in general played in your career? Being represented has always been high on my agenda, but having discovered that they are only in this for themselves, I have begun (only begun mind) to see they really aren't bothered if you are down to the last crust of bread and mouldy bit of dried cheese, as long as they make money.
BUT...
I have to say when it's going well it can make a difference to have a good gallery as long as they respect you. Without them getting to the art fairs etc is out of many artists reach.
i only wish they would communicate with their artists. It gets tiring to hear that they are working so hard to promote your work, do loads of marketing etc, when they always seem to forget that without artists they would have no business and we work hard too. ;0 |
| What types of jobs do you usually do? Paint!! I also do all the canvas priming and buying of materials myself, sourcing and introductions to new galleries and proposals. I need to have that element of control to a degree.
Stuff like the book-keeping, making of the bespoke canvases stretchers, shipping of work, paperwork etc is delegated!
i paint usually seven days a week, and if a painting is nearing completion I'll paint until about 11pm at night without missing a beat. Mostly I stop work at about 5pm to spend some time with my family.
Ideas for work, new paintings, changes to things i'm working on right now will surface as soon as I open my eyes (and sometimes before if they get a chance!) but I'm always in the studio by 8am. |
| Which of your jobs or tasks do you most enjoy? Painting of course!!! But I love devising new work and expanding on ideas and thoughts. |
| Do you personally collect any items? Just ideas, stories, images, books, props, quotes and sayings. |
| Which websites do you frequently visit? I just plash (good Northern word that, plash!) about all over the internet, you never know where you will find information or inspiration. I like blogs a lot, and I like clicking on links that take me to sites I would never normally look at. As long as they are not rude and I don't end up on something unsavoury, I'm happy, it's just a great big adventure!!!!! |
| What advice would you give to those just beginning? just paint, paint, paint, the get yourself out there and do it.
I grew as an artist in a fairly public way in my area, just painted and got it into shows and galleries, if there weren't any available then I made my own opportunities and found somewhere to host my own exhibitions. I'ts not quick, it's not easy and there are as many, if not more knockbacks along the way, but they make the successes all the sweeter! Just focus on where you want to be in say a year and go for it one step at a time, and keep that philosophy tattooed on the inside of you eyelids! |
BLOGGING
| What is your blog address? What subjects do you deal with? http://michellemilburn-paintings.blogspot.com/
It deals with the gossip about my career as an artist, all the new information and exciting things that may come along will end up here. |
| What was it that made you create your blog? On what date did you start it? I just love blogs. I love reading them, I love writing them. This current blog is about a month old, but i've had a few others in the past. |
| What blogging system have you adopted and why? I use blogger. It's just familiar now and I can use it quickly. |
| How often do you post? Does regular posting of your blog require a lot of effort on your part? I only blog when I have something to share. It's easy to find smoething to blog about then as I'm so excited, it all just comes tumbling onto the screen!!!! |
| How do you promote your blog? It's linked to my website and to other places I promote my art. |
PERSONALITY
| What hobbies have you got? I am an avid reader of books and blogs of all kinds. I also love my garden when it's warm and sunny! |
| What is the greatest loss you have had in your life? Members of my family, especially my grandfather and my great aunt. |
| How do you respond to telemarketing calls? That depends on my mood, if i'm busy painting then it's a sharp retort, if I've nothing to do I'll go along with it until I'm bored. Sounds evil doesn't it! |
| Of what are you an addict? Chocolate, reading and my career. |
| What toy gave you the best moments of your childhood? OOO, probably my bike and my sandpit when I was about seven. My bike was a green raleigh (It had solid wheels!), which doubled up as a pony, a get away car, a stunt bike to crash into walls and something to dismantle with a spanner when I was bored. The sand pit was full of toy cars and Britains farm animals and was the source of many happy days. |
| Does knowing someone's zodiac sign help you to better understand that person? I while back I would have said yes, but I am so unlike my star sign that now I would disagree. I think it's more about life experience that makes people who they are. |
| A word or expression that you love. Marvellous. |
| A word or expression that you detest. Bring it on. |
| What do you imagine yourself doing for your retirement? Painting. |
CULTURE
| What do you have in your wallet right now? Loose change, a few notes, some reciepts to go in the accounts folder and a few business cards, just in case! |
| How do you kill time? being impatient. |
PHILOSOPHY
| What is the secret to happiness? Realising that happiness is a state of mind. |
| What is a friend? Thats a tough one. I think a friend is someone whom you can trust implicitly. It doesn't matter if you haven't heard from them for ten years or ten minutes, you can just pick up where you left off.
My biggest wish in a friend is honesty, someone who will tell you the things you don't want to hear as much as those that you do, will keep their mouth shut when you pour out your heart and are always willing to share a laugh and a bar of chocolate.
I'm lucky enough to have a few people like that in my life. |
| Does the soul exist? Yes, I believe it does, as a form of energy. I believe it has to continue beacuse energy can not just 'end'. |
| If you were a millionaire, what would be your charitable work? To set up a foundation that visited schools to give children more of an opportunity to be creative. they don't get that much of a chance to get really messy these day. |
| 
626 visits Whohub
Michelle Milburn
Morpeth, England
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95721 interviews created
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