Starting a Family and an Art Practice: Miriam Webber

And this is our video podcast where we explore and celebrate creativity in the human spirit. And today to celebrate and explore creativity in the human spirit is Miriam Weber, who is an up and coming. I would say artist. You've been working on this for a while. A couple years now. Thanks for coming in today. Yes, thank you for having me. It's awesome. So what I love is that you are fully committed to the art piece, but it's also just one piece of all the things that you're trying to do right now in your life. So tell me why it was so important that you said, well, on top of having a family, I would really like to start doing something in addition. Yes, I think it was just sort of, I needed something to help me kind of refine myself. After becoming a mother. I've always been involved in the arts and painting is one of the, I think, easiest things to do from home when you have a little one, especially acrylic paint. Dries quick, didn't have to worry about the smells that come with oil paints. So I think just needing something to kind of ground me and bring me back to a sense of myself, I don't think I was prepared for how profoundly changing being a mother is. It changes you a lot. So that definitely helped. I don't think when I started painting, I had any intention of showing my artwork that came with a friend of mine who owns a business in Hollowell. She hosts a different artist every month, and she offered to have my art there, and I kind of freaked out at first. No, no, no, I don't want anyone to see it. And then I did it and I sold out in a week. And it was very reaffirming to me that that was a good thing for me to keep pursuing. Well, there's so many rich elements of what you just said in the tapestry of words. So one of the things I want to go back to is this idea of grounding yourself again as a mother and the profound change that you're describing that went through that you weren't prepared for. And let me take a step back. I mean, I've given birth to three children and I have three bonus children also in my life who are now adults. So I certainly can relate to that, and I know how it felt for me. How did it feel for you? Everyone tells you how much the love you're going to feel and all of that, but it also just kind of ripped my heart out of my chest in a way. I felt so vulnerable and I'm responsible for this little life that I just created in my body. It kind of makes you feel like a superhuman because you just grew a person inside of you and at the same time makes you feel vulnerable. And Yes, just your heart is literally outside of your body and you're carrying it around. So it's intense, but it is beautiful, and you do, it's a love that you don't know until you do it. So Yes, it's kind of hard to explain, but I definitely felt just overwhelmed by the whole experience in a good way. And also, I can relate to what you're describing because I think when you first learn that you're carrying a little being around, it's all of a sudden the world kind of shifts in a way. The food you're eating maybe is a little dangerous, and you have to be careful about changing the cat box, for example, these very kind of normal, mundane things you didn't spend so much time thinking about. But then you're right, you give birth to this child and you're like, wait a minute now I can't protect them inside of me anymore. Exactly. I was like, put them back if they're safer in there. That's right. That's right. And I think you're right. There's no way that you can actually know how that's going to feel. Yes, it's actually been really good for my creativity just now that he's a little bit older. He's very involved in what I do, and that's been really fun and just a whole new lens on creativity in the world. It's refreshing and exciting. Well, tell me about that. How do you involve him in the work that you do creatively? Yes, so I tried to, not at first, he would always see me painting here and there when I could get him in it and he would comment on them, but I didn't want to ever push it. I didn't want to make him do it or anything. But he has a big whiteboard that he likes to draw on. So that's kind of where it started, was him doing his own little drawings. And then one day over the summer, he just woke up one day and said he wanted to paint with me. And I said, okay. I wasn't sure how we were going to do it together, but basically he had this whole story about a little bird that he wanted me to paint. So he helped with certain elements, like the background color and drawing the shape of the bird. And then he had me, he's a very good director. He likes to tell me what to do. And so from there it sort of evolved. Our next painting was a fruit solar system. It was like all the planets, but he picked fruits that would represent them instead. And now that he's a little bit older, he's really just taking the lead on doing all the drawing and then having me fill it in with paint sort of at his direction. Again, very specific colors, very specific patterns, but it's just amazing. Children aren't limited by the same, I guess society kind of, I think limits your, can limit your creativity sometimes, because you worry about will people like this? Would somebody buy this? You're just thinking of a lot of external factors and children don't have that. So his drawings, it's like he's not tainted yet by the world. He's unlimited imagination. Nothing's impossible. Nothing's off limits. So that's really cool. That's a good perspective for me to take sometimes too. Fruit solar system, is that something that you came up with? No. Or this was entirely him? That was entirely him. And I actually have photos of the process of his initial kind of drawings on the whiteboard to, we went to the grocery store and bought each of the fruits that he wanted, and he lined them up in order of how the planets are lined up and some of the fruits. I would try to encourage him to pick something different that might make a little more sense size wise or whatever, based on the planet. But he had his own ideas and we went with it and it was fun. And my husband and I thought fruit salad, solar system would be the name. We were like, that's a great name. Let's do that. And he's like, no, this is called the mischievous rainbow. Or oh gosh, I can't remember right now. The Lonely Rainbow and the mischievous planets or something completely unrelated, but amazing. So that's what it's called instead. Well, I love that he has this vision already and that he not only has a vision, but he wants to collaborate with you in creating this vision that he has inside of himself. Yes, it's very special. It's sweet. And I love the idea of him getting older and having a collection of artwork of what we do. A lot is on canvas now when we collaborate. So I intend to have it all framed and just sort of ready for him when he has his own home, because a lot of what kids do, it's on construction paper or little scraps of paper here and there, and it might get saved, but you can't really do anything with it. So I love that we have some really big tangible pieces of art that he can decorate with someday if he wants to. If not, I'll keep it. And then someday, if he decides that he would like to have children who could be like, this is what your father contributed to the world back in the day. Yes, he's very set on. He thinks when he is come to my shows, he thinks that it's in a museum, my art. So he'll always say, I want to bring this to the museum that your art is at, and I want to sell it. I'm like, okay, we'll talk about it. I'm not ready to let go of them. But he loves that idea too. He wants to have an art party, is what he calls it. Those are my openings he thinks. I mean, they are art parties, but Well, I love that he values so much the work that you do that first of all, he thinks that he's going to a museum. I mean, this is my mom and her stuff is in a museum because to him that's what it is. Yes, it's so cute. And also that he's a little entrepreneur. Somebody else is going to value this work. Why wouldn't they? Exactly. I know I have sold prints of some of the ones we've done, but I don't know if I can let go of the originals. We have a very big one right now. It's I think four feet by five feet, and it's just a collection of little monsters that he drew, and there's a little story behind each of them. It's pretty funny. Well, I'm glad that you're keeping this, because I have to admit, I actually have my children's artwork, and I told you they're all north of 20 now, and I have it on actually their walls and it's still here with me. They haven't taken it back yet. And they looked at it and they're like, mom, but why would you do that? That was from third grade. I'm like, why would I do that? I wish I had kept more of the stuff that I did when I was younger. Interesting. My dad actually recently found a piece that I made when I was, I got to say seven or eight, I'm not sure. But he had wrapped it up in some type of plastic, and it's a pastel oil pastel drawing of flowers, and it's amazing to see how my style was sort of solidified at that age, and there's such a commonality between that and what I do now, and I forgot. I didn't even remember that drawing or know that that's always been something I've liked. So I wish I had more of my old stuff that I could sort of reflect back on and just see more of what I did. But I definitely got rid of a lot. My parents gave me stuff, and I just chuck the timing has to be right on that one. Yep, yep. Well, and again, that speak to, I mean, you mentioned this idea of wanting to be protective of our children as they leave us, and also that we already have a sense of ourselves even when we're very small. So you're not just protecting their little physical bodies, you're also protecting the possibilities of this vision that somehow your parents made possible for you to continue through with. Yes, exactly. Exactly. I love just, I think especially young artists, so I think it's fragile in the sense that saying something that you might think is well-meaning could set them off track and have them decide to just not do it. So I try to be really careful when I'm talking to him about his stuff. I try not to critique any of it when he gets frustrated if something's not coming out the way he wants it to, I see him get frustrated and want to give up, and I talk him through it. And I find myself often being like, I needed to take my own advice. These are things, it's like I'm talking to a little piece of me as well. I think when we're creative, we all, we have those moments where you're stuck or you're frustrated or you want to scrap the whole painting, and I definitely have those moments. So it's kind of funny to talk him through those moments and realize like, okay, I need to listen to what I'm telling him and take my own advice sometimes. So do you feel like your parents did that with you? I mean, clearly they valued what you were doing, they saved it for you. Yes. My parents, looking back, now that I am a parent, I realize how much they did to kind of help me in this journey. I took so many art classes they signed me up for, I did weaving on looms, ceramics, drawing, painting, just every extra little summer camp or class that I could take. And they always got me in on those, and I was too young to be asking to do that. So they definitely fostered that for me a lot. And it kind of becoming a parent to realize it's a sacrifice. It's expensive, it's time. Carting your kid back and forth, and Yes, it's awesome. It was a great opportunity. It's definitely something I hope to do with my son as well, if he's interested. Well, that sounds like at the very least, he's interested in having somebody else do his art for him. So maybe you have to bring him and yourself to his art class and see how that works out. Exactly. I'll be like, I'll draw it. My mom's going to paint it for me. She'll fill it in. I mean, collaborative art that actually works. Yes, it's fun. So tell me about, I mean, I know that you are also a separately a small business owner. I don't own a business. I work for a small business. I'm a hairstylist. Okay, so you're a hairstylist. You work for a small business, but I mean, every person that I've ever known has worked in that field. There's a certain amount of needing to be entrepreneurial, even if they are, say, renting a booth from someone. It takes a lot of networking and building trust with clients. Yes. So definitely has that entrepreneurial feel. Well, I think there actually is a translation, right, that you have to, I mean, I love this idea that the networking piece is important, and I'm assuming that it's also important for art. Oh, absolutely. There's a lot of parallels between being a hairstylist and art. I mean, not only is being a hairstylist creative in nature, but color theory is a huge part of hair and it's also a huge part of art. And it's when I was in cosmetology school, I really thrived in the color courses that we took and learning about the color wheel and all that because I already knew it from my art background. And then now kind of stepping back into the art world, a lot of my hair knowledge is sort of helping me in that way too, because the color wheel is still so fresh for me. I use it every day at work. So it's something that's kind of permanently in my brain. So that's been convenient. As you're helping people, I can see the parallels and I'm thinking, so when you have somebody and they're sitting with you and you're helping them, you're kind of trying to understand what they would like their hair and their makeup, but specifically their hair to look like and what you think their hair could actually do, which sometimes maybe is not exactly the same thing. Is there any parallel with, okay, here is this art, I'm creating this, and maybe I could actually see this in the home of this person who came to my quote art party to quote your son. Have you done any sort of work with that to help people understand how this art might fit into their lives? So I don't do commissions in the general sense of someone being like, I like this picture. Can you make this for me? But the commissions that I have done are very much that. It's like they know they want a piece of art, they know where they want it, so then we narrow it down to size and shape of canvas and then maybe a few focal colors that they want. And I think my best commission work has been when I've been in the person's home and I can see the space where they're going to have it, and I can kind of look around at other little details and sort of pinpoint that into something that I basically say, you can tell me about some colors you like. You can tell me about size and shape. And then from there, it's going to just be my creation because I don't do well working from images. Or when I try to do something inspired by somebody else when it's their inspiration, it doesn't have the same feeling. I don't really enjoy doing that. But Yes, for example, one commission that I did was at someone's home and they wanted green. They were really drawn to different shades of green, and they knew where they wanted it. And I noticed they had some sort of a gold lamp and some gold picture frames. And I also noticed they had green peace lilies somewhere else in their house. And when I mentioned those, she talked about how when her kids were little, they used to rip them off as soon as they'd grow out, and it drove her crazy. But now whenever she looks at that, that's what she thinks of her kids being little. And so that's what I ended up doing was Greenpeace lilies with some little gold accents in there, and it fits the space so well. So I enjoyed that type of sort of collaboration. I love hearing this because having talked to other people who are artists, the commissioning process can be challenging, and a lot of artists won't accept any commissions at all, and many artists will accept very limited commissions. But it sounds like you actually, you're similar. You'll accept limited commissions in a way that you think will maximize the possibility that you're going to produce something that really will fit in someone's home. Yes, fit in their home. And it has to be a certain feeling when I'm making it too. I think I personally think you can almost pick up on those feelings or you can pick up on a feeling when you're looking at art. And so it has to feel good for me to make it, otherwise I don't enjoy the process. And maybe that's why I don't love the finished product either. It doesn't feel right to me, I guess. So I don't know. But Yes, so the type of commissions I do are specific in the sense that you have to be open and just want something and trust me and my style. That's the way I can do it. Describe to me your style. You said that you use acrylics because they're fast drying and right now that's what you need to have happen, but what would you describe, what type of imagery are you attracted to? What types of things are you generally, I mean, I've seen some of the work that you've sent forward for us to look at and it's beautiful, but how would you describe it? I do a lot of plants and animals. It's funny, I paint as far as animals. So far it's just been birds and snakes, which I don't really like either of those in my personal life. It's not something I would want as a pet or even to be near, but they're beautiful and they're colorful. For me, every painting just starts out as a color palette in my head. I just get inspired by either a color I saw somewhere or a color combination that I saw somewhere. And then I try to think of how I could incorporate that into a painting and what would fit those colors. Or even sometimes it doesn't have to fit. A leaf can be a teal instead of green or a bird can be pink instead of white. So I just try to think of what would look cool shape wise to go with those colors. But Yes, I do a lot of leafs, flowers and birds and snakes. I guess those were my, I guess inspirations right now. But as far as describing my style, I kind of struggle with that. I think naive is a style that I think fits mine. It has sort of that childlike quality to it. I'm also not formally trained. Some of my pieces I think have a folk art sort of feel, but also I'm very inspired by graphic art. I like it to be really flat. I try to avoid texture when I can on most of my pieces. So that takes doing a lot of really thin layers to not create brushstrokes and all of that. And I don't know why that's important to me. It seems silly. I like textured artwork and I even do some that. I do some of that occasionally. But for the most part, my style I would say is very kind of flat, two dimensional. I don't do shading and I outline everything. Everything has bold outlines to make it pop. So is it because you're trying to put the focus on the color itself, that you make things flat so that you're not drawing the focus away from it? I don't know if I can specifically say why I do. That is just something I enjoy doing, I guess. I like the way it looks and feels. The color to me is the most important. I think color is such a huge part of art when you look at it. I think 90% of the art that I'm drawn to has more to do with the color palette than the context. So I don't know what got me kind of starting to do that, but it just feels right to me when I do it. And over the last two years, I think I've really solidified my style. I mean, like I said, I think it was already solidified as a child, but then going through art classes and stuff, you're forced to try different things. And I think that's part of what kind of talked me out of pursuing art school was I didn't like those classes where I had to try to do a still life in a certain style. They have you do in art history, you study different artists and they have, you try to make a painting in their style, and I would do it, but it didn't feel as freeing to me or as, I don't know, kind of liberating. And then I think as I didn't see as much art that looked like mine around, I started to think, well, maybe I'm not. I don't know. So I didn't really pursue it. And then I think it took me having a child, the world kind of shutting down and maybe just being a little bit older and caring a little bit less about if other people think I'm an artist or not. I think that came into play as well. I think having my own home too, and figuring out my interior style, what would I want on my walls, what looks good with my kind of funky style. I think that all those little pieces kind of came together. Do you now have your art on your walls? It's funny. I did at first. Now I do not. I don't know why I have other artists on my walls. I will occasionally, they'll take temporary spots, but I think the entrepreneur in me, thanks. If I can sell it, I should sell it. But also, I don't know, for some reason, I don't like the idea of people coming into my house and me being like, I did this. First of all, I love the fact that you're thinking to yourself, well, I created it and now it can go to somebody, and this is a business and I'm wanting to put it out there in the world and have somebody buy it. I think that that is actually really important. If you were say a real estate agent, you couldn't keep all of the houses that you liked. So I think that that makes perfect sense. I also, having just visited, we did a studio visit, which ended up being a home slash studio visit with I saw that. And she's one of our artists. And it was so interesting because I loved the way that she put other artists' work in with her own work and walking around her house, I was honestly so jealous of the way that she had kind of pulled together. Here's a Rick Hamilton, and then over here we have somebody that I met at the Clam Festival when I was selling art back in the day. And I think the ability to bring in other people's pieces is really powerful, I think. So it's just nice. It's refreshing. I spend so much time staring at these paintings when I'm working on them, that a lot of times by the time I'm done, I'm like, I need a little break from it. I need a little space. So it's just nice to have other people's stuff up. And Yes, again, everything I have mostly I would say is chosen because of the colors. And I dress in mostly neutrals, but my house is like blue, pink, orange, red. I like bright, bright colors, and that's reflected in my artwork. When you think about what you would like things to look like in your artistic future, what does that look like for you? You said that you've had art parties, i.e. openings, and you've had a few of these with people in the gardener or hollowell area. What's next? I just plan on putting myself out there more. I think I have been afraid of doing, I'm afraid of the word no, I guess sometimes. And I'm trying to get over that. I'm trying to really force myself out of my comfort zone and put myself in situations where I get turned down. So it's been scary for me. Every opportunity I've had so far has been a very natural one. It's come from connections or networking or knowing someone who knows someone, and that's great, and those are awesome connections to have, but I need to start putting myself out there. So next for me, I would say, is trying to break into some other markets. I want to get out of central Maine and start being southern Maine, coastal Maine. I just want to move around, get my stuff, more eyes on it, and Yes, just hopping out of my comfort zone. That's my resolution for this year. I just need to push myself. All those uncomfortable boundaries. It's like I need to get out of my comfort zone where the growth happens and try to remind myself of that every time I'm nervous to hit submit on an application for something. Yes. So I think next for me is just getting more eyes on my work and getting out there more into different markets. Well, having sat with Laura Mrazik, who I know well, and her saying, my goal was to get my art in a gallery, and then seeing how as a result of just pursuing the process of doing that, it actually happened. I think what you're describing is, okay, I'm going to show up. I'm going to put myself out there. Maybe it doesn't feel that comfortable, but that's sort of the only way that you can move things forward. Exactly. Exactly. Now I've applied for a couple of grants and stuff, and I've gotten nos, and I'm getting better at taking its, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean I can't be an artist. I need to just not make it mean so much. It's tough. Art's a vulnerable thing. It's a big, so I think that's what makes me, or has made me in the past, kind of play small. But every time you do something, you get better at it. It gets less scary. I mean, I just remember making my Instagram for my art and sharing it, and I was like, oh my God, I shouldn't have done that. What did I do? I was mortified. And then now I'm like, well, why? I don't know. I make things a bigger deal in my head, talk myself out of stuff. So trying to not do that now. Well, when you talk about not being a trained artist, it's interesting to me as someone who I think my art training stop probably in, I don't know, whenever grade school stopped and they stopped having us go down the hall to Art class. So I have literally never had any training in art, but I talked to some artists for whom training art school training is extremely important. Other artists who, they train themselves, but they train themselves in different ways. And so you are describing, you actually have had training, you've had much more training than I've ever had, and it just, maybe you don't have a degree from an art school. So for me, it's funny to hear that that's kind of something that, and I'm not trying to invalidate your feelings around this at all, but it's just an interesting perspective for me. Yes, I mean, I think it all comes down to the impostor syndrome. I think we all suffer with that. I don't suffer with that in the hair industry anymore, or I don't know if I really, I don't remember dealing with it as much in that, and I don't know if that has to do with the fact that it's maybe because I was licensed in it and I just felt more confident in it. And that's not to say I don't ever question myself or decisions I make when I'm doing hair, but it's just different with art, I guess. It feels more personal. It feels more, especially all my art. I'm not painting from an image. I'm painting from something I came up with in my mind. So it's start to finish. It's my creation. It's from me. And so I guess that makes it feel a little more personal. So I dunno. That's the best way I can describe it. it's your own little personal fruit solar system. And you're expecting other people to say, oh, yes, I love that fruit solar system. But in your case, your child's parent and these other people, they're not invested necessarily. So somehow you have to convince them that your own personal fruit solar system is legitimate and worthy of value. Exactly. And I think the value piece is also a hard part of being an artist is you put the price point on your art, you decide what it's worth, and that's a hard thing to do, or it's been hard for me to come up with what feels good to me and good to the person buying it as well. There's a lot of, I guess, uncharted territory for me in this world. So Yes, I'm trying to get with all those aspects of it, but I've had great feedback so far. I haven't had anyone be ruthlessly mean to me. I've been fortunate. So Yes, I'm ready to start putting myself out there. Speaking of that, how would people actually find your art? Yes, so it's on Instagram and Facebook. It's Miriam Webber paints. That's my tag. And then I have a website, it's just miriamwebber.com. And I try to keep up to date on where my art is showing on social media and stuff. So updates are on there. Yes. Thank you. It'll be exciting to see where things go for you. Yes. Awesome. Thank you so much. Yes, I appreciate you coming in and talking to me today. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. And here on Radio Maine, we explore creativity and the human spirit, and we celebrate these things. And today we've been doing this with artist Miriam Webber. I hope to see more of you in the future. Yes, thank you.