Lynne Feldman Artist Interview

How has Rochester influenced your work?

It’s been kind of a roundabout way of getting to that, because I grew up in Manhattan, so it's like, I suppose that's the epicenter, sort of in this country, or one of them. But I hate lots and lots of people and I hate pretense, and I hate everything it stands for. So I was able to get a fabulous education down there. I went to a wonderful art school that I could not have gotten here, and then came here. So how has Rochester influenced [me]? I think just a way better way of living. Maybe [it] isn't as cool a city, but it's just less stressful, less people. I have a fabulous art community. I've been in [Anderson Alley] 38 years now, so this building has been my art life, so that has influenced me incredibly. 

Who are your biggest artistic influences?

Probably Matisse. There's a special magnet art school in New York City that you have to prepare a portfolio for. It's called the High School of Music and Art. It's now called LaGuardia High School. It's very famous, yeah, and it didn't used to be downtown. It used to be up on 130/5 Street. And to get into that school, you have to have a portfolio. So I started going to the Art Students League, which I went to for 15 years. And I did not like college very much. I did like art departments in college. I love the Art Students League, and I consider that more my Alma Mater. And I probably discovered Matisse around then. So I was a young teenager, probably eighth or ninth grade, and I would say he would be my biggest long term influence. I think right now I'm more influenced by people like Milton Avery. I would like to simplify my forms. I've never been non objective in my art, although I do a lot of assemblage work. But my painting has always been objective, and I love the way Milton Avery simplifies everything. He's influencing me also. I [also] love David Hockney … love Juan Miro. There's a whole bunch of people.

Tell me about your favorite medium.

Okay, I worked in oils. I loved, loved, loved, loved oils. And I worked in oils for about 40 years, and then I took a week long workshop at Bennington College, and it was called painting with fabric, and I always did a lot of pattern in my paintings, so this kind of showed me how I could use the actual fabrics and glue them into the painting right directly on the canvas. And because the glue is water based, I had to change to acrylics. When I was in high school, acrylics were terrible. They're really fabulous now. And even though they come in tubes, they look like oils, they're not like oils. And it took me a while, but now I really love acrylic. 

Why is art important to you?

Art is my life. It's everything. I mean, I started doing art. I've never not done art. I've never done anything but art starting [at] probably three years old, just drawing all day and making things. 

What motivates you to create? 

I'm very disciplined. So what motivates me? I just, I work all the time, and I need to, I basically work on my art, and I read, and then I love my family, yeah. I feel like, right now, when things are so terrible in the world, I'm not doing anything, you know, but then I have to remember that we need art to feel our humanity.

How do you define success as an artist?

Well, I would say I was very disappointed in that I didn't have more financial success. But I have worked. I've worked so hard all my life, I've made a huge body of work. So now that I'm 75 I feel that I look at success [as] less of the financial part and the fame part. I get very angry when I go to exhibits that I see work that I consider absolute crap. Yeah, it upsets me a lot. You know, why is my work not here. I sort of let that go, and I just say I was so lucky. I spent my whole life doing this, and I'm leaving behind a huge body of work that respects people and animals and the land and just makes people happy when they see it. So I suppose that feels successful. 

How has your style changed over time?

I think my style has simplified. I worked real hard on my drawing skills when I was younger, and I've sort of let them go. So I would say it's, I suppose you could use the analogy of playing the piano, that if you practice every day, your fingers just know what to do. But because I'm not really looking carefully at what I'm drawing, I'm much more interested in shape and color and composition, my drawing skills have really deteriorated. Color is so important to me, and making the colors. There's something incredible that happens in music. It's called a harmonic, and it's like this unearthly sound that's so beautiful. I don't know it’s just, something that the strings do when they're vibrating and they make a sound. Well, I like to do that with art, you know, to make the colors, not the least bit flat, least bit sharp, but perfect. And I sometimes I'll go through 30 colors on my painting until I get the color right.

What are your favorite and least favorite parts of professional art?

A lot of people don't think I work [as an artist]. [It] always bothers me, you know. What do you do? I'm an artist, you know, that's easy. No, it's not. I just think, you know, what would the world be like without art, just [like] without music, just how horrible it would be. People say, you know, you majored in art, that's easy. Well, it wasn't easy. I didn't do it because it was easy. I did it because I had to do it. I give a lot of talks in schools and stuff and I tell kids, don't do this unless you have to do it, and if you have to do it, you have to do it, but it's a tough life. I mean, you have to have someone to help. I kind of have a patron. I consider my husband my patron. I sell enough work to cover all my expenses. But, you know, I couldn't have done that. If I lived in my studio, I probably could manage but I couldn't have paid for college for my kids and stuff. 

[So] my least favorite part is [when] people don't respect what you do. I really hate that. And I want to say, you're an idiot, but I don't. 

Describe your ideal working environment.

This is my ideal. This is absolutely the perfect working environment.

What’s your favorite part about being based here in Rochester?

I love the affordability of Rochester. I love how close we are to rural areas. So you could hike a lot. I love that there's really, you know, what we consider traffic is not traffic.

How do you stay connected and up to date with the art world?

 I don't really stay up to date, but I do. Our kids and grandkids live in Washington, DC, so we go down there every month, and I go to the National Gallery, and I go to the museums down there. So I suppose I stay up to date in that sense. You know, we go pretty often to the Phillips Collection at the National Gallery and other museums down there.

What are you working on currently?

One of the things I do to pay for my expenses is do commissions. So like that painting there is going to go to the zoo. And then I'm doing a painting now for the Mental Health Association. So these are commissions, they pretty much pay all my expenses.

How do you know when a work is finished?

I've just been doing this so long. There's like a contentment when it feels right. And a lot of times something is bothering me, and I don't want to listen to it, and I don't, and I have thought a painting was finished and even showed it at places, and you know, that really bothers me. And finally I go back to it and complete it. So sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes I'm feeling a little lazy. You'd want to get on to the next painting and say it's finished, but it's not quite right. I know it, it just it pops. It's like, it has the harmonics. 

What are your long term goals?

My long term goals are to do this to the day I die.

What’s the biggest challenge of being an artist?

I think it's public perception, public perception and the lack of support. I mean, I wished we lived in a country that thought of [artists] as national treasures that really respected what we do, that we're not lazy. This is what we do, and we make life much nicer for everybody.

What’s the biggest mistake you have made within your career to this point?

Well, I wish I was a little more aggressive as a younger person. You know, face this fear of rejection, and gone into galleries or had tried to get myself more in front of the public, but I don't really have the temperament. So I would say I wish I had done that more when I was younger, but now I feel like I'm just going to have a great body of work, and hopefully people will know it eventually.

What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?

I work every day, and when I'm in Washington, [with] my kids I'm planning so that when I get back into my studio, I just sort of hit the road running, and I know what I'm going to do, so I'm really always working.