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Interviewed
By: John & Christie Amen
CA: I just wanted to say how happy I am to be here interviewing you.
JA: Yes, I’m glad we could all get together.
CF: Me, too.
JA: Can you tell us a little about your background, when you started painting?
CF: My dad was a hobby painter. He worked with oils, did a lot of landscapes and realist paintings. As a child, there were always paints around. I took drawing classes in high school and graduated (in 1992) from UNC-Charlotte with an art degree. When I got out of college, I took a job framing and learned how to do that. I started to make connections with people in the art business. Soon after that, I opened a small studio space on North Davidson Street (in Charlotte, North Carolina). I had that space for about two years.
CA: Is that when you began to really sell your art?
CF: When I had that space, Davidson Street was just beginning to get really popular. I started out selling color copies of my work as well as small originals. I began attracting collectors at that point.
CA: How long did the shift take for you, from selling color copies to what you do now, selling originals--some quite large--for higher prices?
CF: Well, I started out selling originals for $50.00 or so; then, over a seven year period or so, I raised my prices slowly as people grew more and more interested in what I was doing. In June 2000, I opened this gallery. I’m at a point now where my style is where I want it to be, so now I’m focusing on the business end of things a great deal, too, trying to take my art all over the country, to a more national market. I’m looking for a national distributor, a company that would distribute my art to galleries all over the country. Also, I have plans to participate in several Art Expos over the next year.
CA: You’re one of my favorite painters. I’d like to ask you a little about the challenges involved in balancing things--running a home and taking care of the details of life while still maintaining your commitment to painting.
CF: It is hard to balance things. As an artist, I require a lot of solitude, so I have to be very careful what I choose to bring into my life. The most important thing to me is to be creative, so, for example, I don’t end up going out a lot (laughs).
CA: With the solitude, you mean even when you’re not painting?
CF: I think it’s a sort of lifestyle, really. There are so many things that can take up your time. The hardest thing for me hasn’t been the actual process of creating. I’ve always been pretty prolific; it’s the business part of things, though, all the networking, the time required for that that gets stressful sometimes. If I had my way, I wouldn’t have to do anything but paint. But that’s not realistic for my life. So now I have a pretty set schedule. I know I have to be in certain places at certain times. I know I have shows at certain times. I’m here in the gallery from 11:00-3:00 Wednesday-Saturday, so from 3:00-6:00 I run errands or do whatever I need to; then, from 7:00 until whenever I paint. I like to paint at night. I feel more comfortable and alive at that time. Sometimes I go on painting jags, though, when every free moment is taken up with painting. Sometimes I’ll take a week off, too, just to rejuvenate. It’s hard for people to understand how much energy is expended in painting. Sometimes I just need to regroup and clear myself.
JA: I want to talk a little about your actual approach to painting. I know with realist painting an artist is motivated, at least to some extent, by predetermined goals. The intention is to in some way or another replicate or reproduce a model or certain image. With abstract painting, on the other hand, there seems to be a need to let go of predetermined notions, to allow some perhaps unconscious part of your make-up to drive the work.
CF: Yeah, in my studio, one of the walls is very long. I usually set up four or five canvasses or paper. Then I just have at it. I don’t plan out color. I don’t plan out image. Some canvasses I’ll texture beforehand and let sit for a while. Then I’ll build up the surface of these pieces, whether I’m working on faces or purely abstractly. I’ll work on these pieces until they’re at a point where I feel like stopping. They’re not finished at this point, but I’ll set them aside and start a new series. It might be four or five days before I go back to the original ones. I always have something going, something in-progress. Also, most of the time I listen to music while I paint, which influences the nature of the work. Music helps me to get into the physicality of painting. I’ve actually always wanted to do CD covers. I’m really good at listening to music and then capturing the mood or essence through painting.
CA: Do you move or dance around when you paint?
CF: Yes (laughs), that’s why no one can see me when I’m in my studio. Painting for me is a physical and emotional experience more than an intellectual one. I mean, I might stop in the middle of a piece and evaluate it, but I do this visually, not intellectually. And after a while, the process becomes instinctual. Your instincts take over, and you can let your energy and emotions flow through you into the work. That’s what I hope to express. I don’t necessarily care about how a face looks, it’s more about conveying feeling and energy. Maybe a certain experience I had with a person will come through, or how I feel about a certain thing, such as the environment. Art allows things that don’t ordinarily get expressed to be expressed.
One of the major reasons I do artwork is to connect with other people, since I don’t do it that much through social interaction (laughs). I mean, I still have a need to be part of the world. Art is the way I connect with people, and it’s a deep connection, not superficial. It’s a relationship, really.
CA: I just want to say that I seriously resonate with what you are doing.
JA: Yes, I love your work, Charlotte.
CF: Thank you. I’m very glad to be involved with The Pedestal Magazine.
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