02 May 5 Reasons to Attend W.E.S.T and 2 Artist Interviews!

“Leaf Trinity” by Judith Simonds.

It’s already May and the WEST Austin Studio Tour is upon us. Boy, are we excited!! It was so fantastic last year (our first time participating) that we decided to have our studio Deborah Main Designs participate again this year with SIX artists!

Not familiar with WEST? It’s the west side of Austin’s EAST Austin Studio Tour, and it has been growing rapidly. Hundreds of artists participate in both tours. EAST is always in the fall, and WEST is always in May.

It’s so fun to grab some friends or family and take a whole day or two to wander through the artist’s studios. You can purchase, or commission, art directly from the artist. Or, if you find a piece you love but need to think about it, you can come back the following weekend and see even more art. Grab a catalog at the NEW Austin Public Library, and plan your day with WEST’s new online map HERE.

Here’s 5 reasons you should attend the West Austin Studio Tour May 11 – 12 & 19 – 20:

• You will see hundreds of pieces of a wide variety of art,
• You will see the inside of many of the artists’ studios (including ours!),
• You will meet the artists and have time to talk to them about their work,
• You will have fun, see friends, and make new ones,
• You will come away inspired (I guarantee it!)

We’re  very excited to have two artists from last year at our studio again, one photographer, a sculptor, and a Dutch artist from Oklahoma. Here is the list and our STOP #’s which is very important. I’ve linked each to the artist participant page in the WEST Austin Studio Tour Catalog.  You will see NEW work that is not on our websites as well.

To see the work of all these fantastic artists, stop by our studio, Deborah Main Designs at 1906 Collier St., Austin, TX 78704 (512.447.9807).

253 Deborah Main
254 Kerry Christensen
255 Judith Simonds
256 Jamie Leasure
257 Irmgard Geul
258 Denise Jaunsem

Now, on to interviews with two of our “Guest Artists”: First up, Judith Simonds (a prolific artist and teacher), then Irmgard Geul (who is driving down from Oklahoma to participate in WEST).

PG: You’re an artist in the upcoming WEST studio Tour, what events in your life prompted you to become an artist?

JS: I’ve known that I was an artist since I was a small child. Art is all I ever wanted to look at or create. No one told me to be an artist, I just felt that I was one.

PG: What inspires you to create?

JS: Quiet moments in nature are when my ideas come to me. They are epiphanies or moments of bliss. I don’t have those moments happen often due to the fast pace of Austin and my working life, so I have to tap back into those feelings while creating my art.

“Snail ” by Judith Simonds

PG: How much time do you devote in your studio to your craft? To one piece?

JS: Well, it depends on the size and detail of what I’m working on. Some small drawings I can knock out in eight hours, larger drawings twelve hours. My oil paintings are another story, it’s a process. I’ve spent up to six months on some of my larger paintings. I tend to jump from one painting to the next while they’re drying in between coats. A typical studio work week averages, about thirty hours, but that depends on my teaching schedule at Austin Community College and the Dougherty Arts Center.

PG: Whats the best thing about being an artist? The most challenging thing?

JS: The best things about being an artist are my freedom of expression, watching my work develop and grow, and escaping from the world while working in my studio.

The most challenging aspect of being an artist is getting myself and my work “out there”. Marketing and technology are not my thing, but with the art world changing so quickly, along with technology and media, it’s tough and a must. However, I just learned Photoshop and bought a new scanner and digital camera, so I’m on a roll lately. 

PG: What one tip would you give other artists just starting out about creating and exhibiting their work?

JS: I have five:

• Believe in what you are doing and work HARD. 
• Research galleries and the owners before approaching them. Make sure your work is a good fit and that the owner’s have a good reputation for paying their artists on time.
• Plug into social media and create a good website with professional photos.
• Have a solid, cohesive, professional body of work in your portfolio. 
• Connect with other artists to form a strong community of support.

“Moon Tunnel” by Judith Simonds.

PG: You exhibited sculpture last year.  Tell us about the paintings your exhibiting and what inspires some of your pieces?

JS: I’ve always been a painter, sculpture just sort of took over while I was a student so I stuck with it for a long time. 

I recently decided that I really wanted to go back to painting and give it another shot and I’m very happy with the results. I’m now able to create ideas and illusions that I couldn’t get across in my three dimensional work. I had some serious hand and wrist surgeries in the last three years which put my teaching and sculpting on hold. While I was healing I would take walks and find beautiful flowers, nests, pods, bones, etc. along the way. I started arranging these forms on black fabric and photographing them. I call them my photo-sketches. Most of the arrangements are centralized or cropped. The imagery is all of nature, they have a mystical, spiritual vibe (in my opinion). I’m fascinated by the natural world and our eternal relationship to it. Some may notice symbolism in my compositions, this is no mistake. I’ll just leave it there. 

PG: You’re an excellent teacher and I really enjoyed taking that drawing class from you last summer. What classes are you teaching this summer and where?

JS: Thank you, I’m so glad you enjoyed the class! I’ll be teaching a combined Ceramics I & II class at the new, beautiful ACC Highland Campus. It’s a six week class that meets Monday – Thursday from 9:00 am – 12:50 pm. I’m also teaching at the Dougherty Arts Center on Thursday evenings from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. Thanks for allowing me to “plug” my classes! haha!

Artist Irmgard Geul at work on one of her paintings for WEST.

PG: You’re an artist in the upcoming WEST studio Tour, what events in your life prompted you to become an artist?

IG: My great aunt and uncle where both artists and from early age my mother took me weekly to their studio. From the first time I remember visiting them and see them paint and sculpt I felt that I wanted to be an artist and the need to create. From then on my mother took me pretty serious and introduced me to many great museums, galleries and art exhibits. I pretty much grew up in an artistic environment, my home town is historical known for many famous dutch artist and my mother was a fashion designer.

PG: What inspires you to create?

IG: In my case it is an unstoppable urge to create, something I have had since I can remember. It is my meditation, that awesome feeling to be lost in time. I get anxious if I am not able to create.  

“Complete Chaos II” by Irmgard Geul.

PG: How much time do you devote in your studio to your craft? To one piece?

IG: I work daily from 9am to 6pm in the studio, accept for Sundays when I spent the day with my husband.

Usually I work on 5-6 pieces at one time, probably for about 1 month.

PG: Whats the best thing about being an artist? The most challenging thing?

IG: The best thing about being an artist is the freedom you have, working for yourself, on your own terms and time schedule.  

The most challenging thing for me is the business side, to be able to make a living as an artist.

PG: What one tip would you give other artists just starting out about creating and exhibiting their work?

IG: No.1!!!!!! follow first some art marketing courses! Because you can create whatever you want but at some point you need to start showing and selling. Find someone who can coach and guide you.

“Electric Storm” by Irmgard Geul.

PG: Your paintings are full of color and lots of squares. Can you tell us a little bit about the meaning behind your painting style?

IG: My abstract paintings are best viewed as colorful aerial and topographical maps capturing a bird’s eye view of my internal creative explorations scanning the tracts of landscape below and the unfathomable ocean of sky above.  

I am mapping out the paths of my environment and inner emotions that I walk. 

The rectangles function like open windows into my creative world.They are loosely structured, then orderly composed, then erased, painted over and reworked, then built up with textures again as if to chart the highs and lows of my personal and professional journey.

PG: I know you have a background with horses. Do you do horse portraits too?

IG: Horses are my second love, first art, then horses. I have been riding since I was 5 years old and still own horses and live and have my art studio on a horse ranch. Yes I paint horse, cow and pet portraits but for now, solely as commissions. In 2011 my series of mustang horses was featured in an Austrian documentary.

Thank you both for taking the time to share with our readers more about you and your art. I know that many people will want to see your art in person and meet you.

The WEST Austin Studio Tour is Saturday and Sunday, May 12 – 13th and May 19  – 20th, from 11 – 6 all 4 days. Till next time, when we interview 2 more of the 6 artists showing at the Deborah Main Designs studio, enjoy perusing the websites of these talents and following them on Insta. Ciao, XO PG

Note: This is not a sponsored post. Images and interview answers are from the artists and WEST; opinions are my own.