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Interview: Marilyn EllisAugust 30, 2005
1. How long have you been a resident in Siskiyou County?
We are going into our sixth year here.
What brought you here?
I followed my husband here because of his job.
2. Can you give a short explanation of your specialty or your artistic medium?
I am absolutely in love with watercolor and it frustrates the daylights out of me. Maybe that's why I like it. It is a beautiful medium and when it is done right you get this wonderful glow in your paintings. I get frustrated with it because it does have a mind of its own. When I get really frustrated I go back to oils and do traditional rosemalling.
3. How long have you been making art (professionally and unprofessionally)?
I have been a doodler all my life, but I didn't do it seriously nor did I do it full time until I followed my husband here and no longer had a job. I am doing art full time now. I have spent a whole life drawing but only recently started watercolors.
4. How have you learned your art? Have you had any formal art education? If so, where, when and for how long?
Trial and error. I can draw anything so it was a matter of learning how to use color as the value in paintings. I have had some drawing classes but I have never had a watercolor teacher.
5. Can you talk a little about your experience as an artist in Siskiyou County? (In other words, what is unique about being an artist in this area?) (Pros and Cons) (economic, cultural, physical/geographic)
As far a subject matter, I don't know that I will ever run out of things to paint. I suppose I could say that if I were anywhere as long as I like what I am looking at. It is also sparsely populated. The business of art can be frustrating. There aren't enough places to display. The places that I have displayed, on the upside, they have been very inexpensive, but the downside is that the same clientele go to the same galleries, the same coffee shops and the same mercantile. Pretty soon my stuff disappears into the woodwork. So I have to shift and go to a different place.
Another aspect is the camaraderie among the many artists per population. We all seem to realize that art is not a competitive sport for one thing and that all of us looking at that same landscape will come up with something else anyway. What I am coming around to saying is that they are a great group of people to be with.
6. Do you feel like living in Siskiyou County has influenced your art? What aspects have you drawn inspiration from?
I have lived all over the United States and it seems like everywhere I live is my favorite place. The color up here is different from other places that I have lived. It is unique. I have never seen it anywhere else.
7. Do you feel like art in Siskiyou County has any prominent trends or patterns? If so, how do you see your own art in relation to these?
It is pretty conservative. Since I am essentially just starting out in what I like to paint, I am pretty conservative. So, that is where my art fits in.
8. If you had to describe your style in a few words how would you do this? First 5 words that come to mind?…
I have no clue!! It's emerging, I know other people recognize my stuff. I like to find where the dynamics are in something I'm looking at. Even a still life is dynamic. But I couldn't tell you how I do it and if I could it would probably change tomorrow anyway.
9. What is it about making art and the creative process that you find most interesting or are most passionate about?
I'll tell you a short story. I used to be the director of counseling services for a small university. Over a period of time, young students, freshmen, would come in and they would equate intimacy with sex and nothing else. It was like we don't have any other way to be intimate in our lives. Well, I could have either stood in front of a bunch of yawning students lecturing about all the different ways that humans can be intimate. Instead, that semester I called for art that expressed human intimacy in any form. I gave a list of things that they could do: recreation, intellect, spiritual, sexual, etc. Much to my surprise, I got fifty-five pieces of art to hang in the Social Services building. I was expecting a handful. I had faculty join, community members and students who predominantly made the art. I had a reception for the artist and the show hung for a month. The students learned about intimacy via the art. To me art should be able to say something that I can't say in words.
10 Is there any way you would like to see your county arts organization better assist you?
Activities that get artists together but get us together with the communities.