Brian Emerson: Portland Art Gallery

Today I have with me in the studio artist Brian Emerson. Thanks for joining me today. Good morning, Brian, you're a new Englander by background. That's correct. Not technically a Mainer, I guess. Yeah, I'm sure that's true. You're not born here. Well, I wasn't born here either, so I can't claim it even though I've lived here all my life. So where are you from? Born in New Hampshire. The only one in my family actually born in New Hampshire. Everybody else is Massachusetts. So we grew up in the form of years in North Shore, Massachusetts, Beverly Danver, pioneer Salem, and then moved up to Concord, New Hampshire, getting back into the woods again. I think that was my dad's doing, kind of get back out of the city a little bit and up to the country, and that's where I did all my high school days. So that puts me at 93. I graduated, did a little traveling after Seattle area, mid nineties you had to go to Seattle, but I got back, that's right. When I moved to And I hear you moved to Maine because you were chasing somebody to Maine. Not in a weird way, But a little pre-story there. Yeah, exactly. There was definitely a cute girl, Colleen Barter, that was living in Midcoast, Maine. So I moved up to Rockland, Maine to be a little closer to Colleen, and worked at Hoboken Gardens in Camden and fell in love with Maine right away. I mean, it's a special place. There's a lot of coastline. There's no coastline. Quite like Yeah. New Hampshire has a little bit of coastline. Yeah, it's Great. I loved it. I was there all the time. Yeah, exactly. It's a little bit smaller. Massachusetts has a very different and distinct coastline. Yeah, Cape Cod is, we go there every summer too and love Cape Cod too, But it's gorgeous. Yeah, but Maine is It's Maine, yeah. You have to experience it. Yes, that's true. And so you're here and somehow you've connected with maybe unwittingly, perhaps this art family, the barter family. The barter Yeah. Tell me about That. It was definitely a very awesome, lucky move up here. I've always been interested in art and done art through my whole life. My brother is an artist and you always do what your brother does, older brothers. At least that's what I did. So I had art in my life and through high school entered competitions and won grants and stuff that I'd never used. But moving back to Maine and seeing, say Philip Barter and Matt barter, Philip making this career out of it, doing it for fun and for a life, I was like, definitely I want that. It was nice to work hand in hand with Phil and other members of the family. I remember probably right away, I think we might've lived with Phil and Priscilla for the first few months of our marriage. They have a big house that rambles on. We lived above the studio and he had a project building, I forget what it was, l lo bean or somebody commissioned a bunch of outdoor furniture pieces to be painted up and built. So me and Ruben barter were building 'em, and Matt and dad were painting. So I got to really experience that. It was great. And of course Matt has an entire sort of magical village of people and things that he has created, little physical structures. When he came in, he brought one with him. Oh yeah, I'm sure his lobstermen or something like that. Yeah, exactly. But it's like this whole world that he's created, His sketchbooks are just almost scary. You can just see into his mind of this madman artist that he pulls it off. His stuff is really awesome. He's out there doing his own thing and I love it. So when you are a painter obviously, but were you ever drawn to do something more like that With sculptural? That's a good question. I will say I am more of a two D painter, but I did silversmithing for a bit when I moved to Maine. So I'd say later nineties we moved up with Phil and Priscilla. Priscilla and I was working at a jewelry store, Colleen, my wife and I both were, and they apprenticed me to do silversmithing. I actually went to haystack school for it, and that was an awesome experience too. So there is that. I still have a jewelry bench set up at the barter compound up north, and I'm actually wearing one of Phil's pieces from the eighties here, comet, which he doesn't do much with the jewelry stuff, but I'm going out if I'm wearing that thing right there. Absolutely. It's a rare piece. So there's the jewelry, but as far as sculptural stuff goes, I have never done big installation pieces or anything like that. Yeah, not yet. Not yet. This stuff with Phil, me, I've helped him on some stuff and install it at post office or schools back in the day and that kind of thing. But yeah, not yet. Not yet. The beauty of Art life is hopefully long Young artist here. Yeah, exactly. So why painting? I guess I just like to adventure. I'm always out. We're out camping last we weekend, we're up on Don l Pond, near Ick Mountain, near M D i, bar Harbor. And what are you supposed to do? You're looking at all this beauty. So I love to at the time draw it. I always have my art bag, so there's watercolors or gache in there for plain air painting or whatever, and then I just bring it back to the canvas or panels or whatever. Back at the studio, there's a certain feeling when you're done with a painting, signing your name just feels good that you put your own interpretation on what you saw out there on So you brought with you today a couple of pieces and one of them is Phippsburg. Yes. Talk to me about that connection. Alright, yeah, I've got some friends that I grew up with in New Hampshire that have this camp right on, it's called Barnacles. It's right in this little cove and it's got that little golf course there. I'm just forgetting the cove's name there, but it has burnt Co island is what you're looking at on their dock out there. So we'll meet them there often and just sit on the dock all day long. It's a great little cove there. You see boils of fish. It's a real deep cove, so you see all kinds of stuff out there. They'll take their paddleboards out. And so this is a painting I brought I'm looking at over here, but that is the sunrise on burnt coat with a little boat, the neighbor's boat hanging out there. So when I look at this, I'm struck by kind of the brilliance of the yellow, and I know it's a really inelegant way to describe art, but it's really striking as it comes out into the blues of the mourning, but it's also, there's a spareness about it that is interesting to me because I think a lot of people when they look at a scene and they're like, oh, here's an entire cove full of all these things, and you're like, no, I'm just going to put this dock, this boat, this sunrise. That's correct. You did a good job. I Mean, I'm a pretty elementary art describer here at this point. Took all the words right on my mouth, but it's Very striking to Me. Thank you very much. I think, yeah, so that is the style of art that I'm drawn to that Phil Barter had a bunch of books in his, he's an extensive art library and library in general, but all the artists he seems to have books on were that early, mid 20th century art that was putting away the pastel colors and really going the bold images and compositions and harsh colors and bold lines. I love that. Just kind of strip away work from reality, get the framework there, but then just kind of strip it down like you were saying, and maybe turn up the volume a little bit on the colors and it's not realistic, but you get the image and hopefully the artist's perspective and how I want to see it. Well, and I think one of the reasons that I like it is it's quiet, but it's also dramatic. And I do get exactly what you're talking about that you're really going to, you're kind of push it just a little bit so that you can have that impact of that moment. Yeah, I agree. And this one, I did a painting, this drawings actually from several, maybe even a decade ago, and I did a smaller painting one, the same kind of size, a really long skinny one, and I came across this canvas. I'm like, this reminds me of the same. So I repainted it again, which I'll do sometimes, but change things up a little bit. And I brought the dock back a little bit on this painting in particular. I overworked the boat at first. It had too many things on it, and I came back the next day. I'm like, it was so simple the first time. I like to see that point of inspiration that you can kind of trace it back to almost that first brushstroke. And I lost it on the boat, so I just smeared it out and just did it again. So it could be in relation to the rest of the painting. It was too detailed. So I like that vagueness. It lets the person, the viewer, kind of fill it in a little bit on their own too. So tell me about this other piece, which is actually quite different. It is, I agree. It's from a Trip. It is, and again, this goes back a couple years, but that same camping trip I think I was just mentioning on Donne Pond, which is just a gorgeous area, Maine, if you hike up over this, you're surrounded by Chuuk Mountain, black Mountain. I don't want to give away all the details. It's a gem. I don't want everything. I'm just kidding. But if you hike up over Scoot, you're looking right at M D I, all the mountains on the ocean. It's so unique anyway, how often you get mountains out in the middle of the ocean. But the neighbor actually caught these fish that in the palm we're in. There's obviously you have trout over here in the river coming in, and then it's deep enough that they have salmon there too. So he caught a landlock salmon and a trout and brought 'em over and we just fried 'em up and did a painting as well. The reason I like this, and the reason I like art just generally is that you're telling this story and I'm looking at this and I'm thinking of my dad, and I'm thinking about the times that I used to go fishing with my dad. Right. And that in the moment experience. And I wonder how often you are sharing a piece of art that you created, that you're coming at it from your perspective and somebody else comes along and says, well, let me tell you what I think this means. I love that about art, music, all that creative stuff that I've listened to a song all my life. And then it's almost weird to hear the artist explain it. I'm like, that's not, you interpret it your way and you apply it to your life. So you just did with that painting and that is good. I agree with that, that you make it your own and you adopt it. And that's totally beautiful. And I think that's a great thing to do with art. And sometimes when I've talked to people who create art, they'll say, well, I purposefully am vague because I actually don't want to impose my story on this piece because I want other people to interpret it that way. But I kind of like it both ways. Well, unless I'm a little disappointed by the story, in which case I'm like, all right, well thanks for telling me. I feel bad now. But anyway, wish I never met you. I usually don't take it that far, but, but I do the fact that it can be both. It can be both what you are bringing and if there is a narrative to it, to what you're bringing. And then you're kind of being met by the person who's sharing that experience now with the art itself, which I think is kind of the magic of it. Right? Yeah, I agree that I love it. Everybody can look at the same thing and to see a different way. And to some of my favorite artists, I love seeing how you can paint something kind of boring like a loaf of bread, but if you do it with your own style, unique style, I could be like, whoa, I love that composition, how the backlight comes in. Or you could paint a beautiful sunset and just a little bit drab or boring. I just pass by it. So it's all just perspective. I love that perspective and storytelling and narrative that a painting gives. But I do agree that I like to tell my story, but I do like to leave a little bit there that somebody could adopt it as their own or see it a little differently. Tell me about your favorite artists, and I'm assuming you've had probably lots of different favorite artists maybe at different times of your life. Yeah, I mean, Maine has a lot of great artists. I think the ones that influenced me, again, going back to the books I read out of Phil's library, were like that dove. And he loves Marsden Hartley and John Marin and Giorgio O'Keefe and these people that were just bold colors and stuff like that. And that stuff's all locked away up here and hopefully influencing. And I was taught Picasso said, rip off an artist if you need to, if, oh, I love the way he did that sky. You can adopt stuff and make it your own and melt it in and stuff like that. So those are a lot of the influences I had that time period. So as you've continued to evolve as an artist, you've had formal education and then you've kind of continued to learn alongside the barters and you've brought in other artists that you've studied. What types of things are you drawing upon for inspiration now? Yeah, it's definitely Maine. I mean, you live on the coast of Maine and I've been venturing inland towards my home state of New Hampshire too, to the mountains more because I'm always on the coast. The family's all on the coast, mid-coast, southern coast where we live in South Portland and by M D I. And then we went to Campobello Island camping that was pre Covid, so a couple of years ago. And that whole rugged coast is just amazing, just so inspirational. So if you were to go on my webpage or Instagram, I'm sure that you'll find that Maine, new England, not that we don't travel, we did a lot of traveling before our kids. And now my daughter's 17, our daughter is 17, so we have more in our future, but for now, just traveling around New England, it's just so inspiring. And so I do like to work from that framework and then of landscapes and seascapes and some still lives and stuff. And I live in South Portland, so Portland buildings and the harbor right there, you got the fishing wharf and stuff is loaded. So as you were describing your family to me before we started talking on the air, you were very complimentary of them. And also they're not artists from my understanding. Well, I mean, I guess you said your brother. Yeah, My brother. My brother is an active artist and he was always my inspiration from young, my formative years. We won an art contest on the radio or something like that. I was in kindergarten. That actually was pretty cool. My stuff got on TV and I was like, wow, that's awesome. And so I always follow your big brother what he does. And so luckily he was into cool stuff like art, and so I kept up with it. High school, we had a really uniquely great art department there with two awesome teachers that kept me motivated and then marrying into an art family. And that certainly doesn't hurt. Seeing how the inner workings, how you can make this thing actually your life, and that was so exciting. So that was a real moment. But my daughter Honey is 17 and she's actually an awesome artist and writer, so there's a lot of talent in the family. Alright, but were your parents artists? No. You know what? My parents were not artists, but they were supportive. No matter what you chose, they had your back. So I did have that going for me that they 110% go for it. And I think that that's mean about that a lot. Like my parents, for example, my dad's a doctor and I'm a doctor. Great. That worked out well. But then my mom and dad who regularly, hi mom and dad regularly will watch this podcast, which or video cast and they reflect back with me and they'll say, oh, well this week you talked with, I dunno, Jane Damon and I learned this from that. And for either one of them, it really wasn't within their conceptualization of a life, but they're still like, okay, sure, go ahead, jump in. And that means so much to have somebody, even if they don't understand what you're doing, provide the space for you to explore It. Yeah, you got to have your team for sure. I agree with that a hundred percent. And hopefully I can provide that for our daughter too. Now, as a 17 year old, she's probably thinking about life beyond where she's been so far. Just starting to open those eyes, just Starting to open those eyes. Yeah. Covid kind of shut a lot of stuff down, I think. Yeah, that's so true. But do you have a sense that will she pursue art? Will she pursue Writing? I think writing's to her little passion, buck the old art system a little bit, but she'll just pull out some watercolors. I'm like so amazed. I'm jealous a little bit, but she was just up at U M F, the college in Farmington for a writer's workshop and things like that. So her stuff's exciting. So what is that going to mean to you and Colleen? I mean, I have a child that just finished college and she was the last of the six children that are in our household. Between the two of us graduation, that final tuition payment was quite exciting to send off for sure. But it really does change your life in a pretty significant way. It changes the way that you interact with the kids. It changes the way you interact with the significant person in your life. And for me, it has just changed the way that I kind of exist creatively. So do you have a sense for what that might look like for you? We'll get back together in five years. I'll have Better. You're not there yet? Yeah, we're not there yet. She's just going into senior year and we're super excited. She's just another adult in our house now. She's not like the little kid. He has to keep bossing around. But it'll be interesting. I'm actually very excited we both are to see where this goes. Any parent, but we'll be there. I Promise to support. You're right. So I guess that's true. Yeah, no thinking, peeling back the years here, I'm thinking about that final year of high school and that actually was a big time. I wasn't necessarily thinking about the other side. I was at that time like, oh my gosh, this is the last one of all of the things that we are going to do. And so I think every moment of that year was a, okay, let's take a picture. Okay. Okay. First last day of school. Okay. Of course my daughter wouldn't let me take a picture. Learn simple. Yeah. Well, I feel better now because you can fail. That's right. Now oral Power, I'm not sure. Yeah, Okay. Either way, I guess we're good. It doesn't really matter at this point anyway. We still love our daughters, whether you let us take a picture of them or not. But anyway, a group shot Of four of Us. So I think for me though, that last year of high school was sort of a leave taking and it was sort of a really significant sense that what I had, I had to encapsulate it somehow because it was never going to exist that way. Again, Life moves on, right? Yeah. I don't think I'd ever had that large sense of how big this thing was that was now in my rear view mirror. And I don't want to scare you. No, You did. I'm Sorry. A deer headlights. Look over here. I'm so sorry. Yeah, Yeah. No, it's all exciting right now. She's got her schedule and she's pumped on her senior year coming up. So we're just going with that one for now. But there is, I'm sure that whole empty nest syndrome or you have the house to yourself and stuff, but I think we're going to be all right. Okay. I'm excited for the next page to turn in our lives and her life and Well, I guess that's exactly what I was trying to get to was really like, and I guess you can't answer that, so you'll have to come back next year. Yeah, seriously. Every year we'll have a conversation year. Yes, we could definitely do that. I'll hold you to it. That's right. I guess that's what I was really trying to get to because I've spoken with other people. I spoke with artists, Laura Razek, about kind of stages of creativity and one's life related to where one is as a parent, for example, because so much of what we do when we usher humans along with us in the world, we call them raising our children, but I'm not really sure that that's entirely true. I think it's a Big kids ourselves. We're kind of coexisting and we're trying to mostly stay out of trouble, I think, as we go. Right, exactly. I do think there is a lot of creativity that goes into that co-generation of a life. And so then when you take a step back and you're like, okay, here I am, different phase. Where does my creativity go now and how does that manifest? And for me, it's been really interesting and surprising, but maybe for you, there have been other things that have shifted kind of the way that creativity has flowed in your life. Yeah, I hear what you're saying. I do think that as an artist or anything, you do focus on art, that evolution and changing is good. Maybe you switch back to something, but trying new things for sure is a must. You look at artist modrian, his stuff, he's a Dutch painter, painted fields and windmills. But then by the end, he's painting this primary colors of black lines and whatever Broadway boogie there and stuff. It's like, wow, how did that happen? And so I'm not going to change that much, I'm sure maybe, but as an artist, I'm looking forward to keep pushing it and getting your own voice and stuff like that. I learned under the wing of Philip Barter, so I'm heavily influenced in a good way. I have all this little, I wrote down all little secrets as he's talking, how to mix my ilian blues, my raw Ss to make it cool, whatever it is. And I'm like, I got all those notes and I've got this information, but I'm just finding as an artist, your own voice out there. And I think I'm again excited about the future. Well, and I was mentioning Jane Damon before, and even in the short amount of time I've known her, I mean her work has just changed dramatically. She's awesome in such interesting ways, the color and the way she does trees and the way she introduces rivers and her pieces. And you're absolutely right. You look at it and you're like, oh wow, I never would've thought of doing it that way. That's so interesting. Yeah, good to have a bunch of artists out there doing it. I saw one of the birch trees and it's just so basic. It's a nice big painting, but just like it's awesome, just perfect, do anything else to it. She left it alone at that right moment. That's the thing. Sometimes I'll get to just poking out of a painting, I'm like, oh, I should have stopped an hour ago. There's a point where it's like, you're not making it better. Maybe just put it away for a little bit, work on something else. But a lot of her stuff, maybe I would've poked that a little more, but I'm like, I love that she left it alone. That's another thing hard to do for an artist sometimes. Some paintings take a long time and some paintings just take one setting, but just know when to stop. And I think she knows she's a good person, knows when to stop. Yeah, I do. I have heard that more than once. That to know when something is finished is actually really tricky, which I guess is true. If you get to the end of a, I dunno, if you're writing a report, you're like on page 10 at the end, all done, right? And that is all. But if you're doing art, it's like, well, maybe that over there could be a little bit more orange. Or I can add a brushstroke there And halftime, I'm just making it a little bit muddier. So again, I might do a couple paintings at the same time. I've had, you know what, especially if it's watercolors or if I'm out doing stuff, I'll have 10 going. And I was keep like, alright, let that dry and move another one. And then by the end, maybe I have two that I like the rest hit the campfire. But I was definitely taught by the barters, don't be afraid, go for it. What's the worst that can happen? You mess it up. Oh well, you just learn from that. Don't do that again. Or maybe this whole thing's messed up where this color touches that color. Look at that amazing new tertiary color you just made and you just learn from that one. But fear is definitely the enemy as far as art goes. So you're bound to make a bunch of messes, but then if you can get a few awesome ones out of it, that's learning. And would you say that a lot of artists are working on multiple pieces all at the same time? The ones I know, actually, I think that is true. I know some that are amazing artists and I respect them all the way, but they're definitely focused on one painting and it might take months or maybe even a year to paint. I've heard. Whereas the people I tend to associate with an artist are a little bit more wild with a brush and are doing multiple paintings at one time, I remember reading about Paul Clay, he always had a bunch going. And if you look at from that year, I can almost see the same colors in those paintings. And it's probably because you had 'em all splayed out and was just walking around the room painting multiple paintings at the same time. So I think it's good. It works for me anyway. Well, I'm wondering, you've recently become affiliated with the Portland Art Gallery, so that's kind of a new experience For you. Very excited. Very, yeah. So I'm interested to hear where did you come to the place where you're like, I think this is a good idea now in my Life? Alright, that's a good question. I'm a bit of a, I mean, I don't dunno bad self-promoter. I've shown at galleries for years. Ive been like to think an artist all my life. It's kind of funny to say that, but definitely for 25 years I've been really focusing on painting and building my skills. And I've been with a gallery up in M D I for a number of years. I've shown at other galleries around Maine. I've done pop-up or shows with Matt and Phil sometimes, but I've always been a little bit hesitant. I am not sure why it's personality or if I'm like, do I feel like I'm ready to step out of the shadows? And again, I'll bring my daughter into this one again. We were walking around town the day I came to a Portland art gallery and submitted to be with you guys. She had to do a read a poem on stage, and she was super nervous about it. And I'm like, all right, you know what? I'll go face my fears and I'll walk into Portland Art Gallery. I knew I was going to be doing this right here and I'll do it if you do that. So anyway, I wanted to be with Portland Art Gallery. Anyway, it's my favorite gallery in town. I think it's a great space. So I just needed that push to step it up. And I think I'm totally ready now, whereas maybe five years ago, maybe my art was ready, but I wasn't ready or something. So I feel like it's taken a long time to feel confident enough to present myself. So why? Yeah, it's got to be a personality thing. But I am glad I did mid forties, late forties. It's now or never. What are you going to do? Just always paint your studio and tuck it away on your shelf. So I guess maybe with art and music and writing and anything creative that you're kind of putting yourself out there. So they're always going to be a critic. I don't know if I mind critics. I don't know if it's that as much as just making that step. I've seen it happen. I've seen other people do it. Why aren't I doing it? So it's a new time. I'm doing it. Well, I mean, I honestly ask this, not because I'm questioning the fact of it. I mean, I've written multiple novels. Have I published any of them? Absolutely not. They are sitting somewhere and they have not seen the light of day. I'm going to interview You next time. Exactly. So I know my own why, but I am kind of fascinated to hear the whys of others. Why now? Why not? What's the fear? Is it the light of day thing? Is it that somebody might, you said it's not that you fear of criticism. Yeah, I don't think mind getting, I like a critique. My wife's not afraid to critique. Just like Priscilla's not afraid to critique Phil. And so I think they could be very useful and I at least listen 30%. And sometimes I don't change something, so I'm not afraid of a critique or critique her. So I think it's maybe my own self-critique. I'm going to go with that. Do I have the body of work to really get this thing up off the ground? Do I have whatever it is? And I'm like, yeah, I do. What am I waiting for? I was just like, I don't think, it's not laziness because I'm always hard at work. So it's just something up here that talking to friends is my age too. In whatever profession they're in, I can see them all making that changeover. I'm in charge now. This is my new business or whatever. So I'm like, it's time to step it up as an Artist. So maybe it's somehow a different level of commitment. Yeah. Yeah. I hope I didn't come off cocky or something that No, it's, it's a commitment thing. It's like believing in myself or something like that and committing to something. And I'm super excited to be in the Portland Art Gallery that's got some of the best artists from Maine and around that can't believe I'll be sharing wall space with. So it's going to be a great year coming up. Well, pretty soon we won't need any other artists except for people who have an association with the barter family. We'll just keep over expanding and Expanding and expanding. Yeah. So when you talk about trying to achieve a certain feeling in your composition, is there an overriding feeling that that is, or is it Every situation is slightly different? Just personality. I probably do inject my own personality into a scene, but I do try to let the scene talk, whatever it is, if it's a seascape or landscape or still life. But there's a lot of sketching going on just for composition, I think. I love composition, so I learned that every good painting comes from a good sketch. So I definitely have a notebook full of sketches. There might be 10 sketches for a drawing because like the one I did this wee