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For today’s episode, we sat down with Stephanie Marzella, a painter living in Charleston, South Carolina, with a preference for painting intimate landscapes that pull the viewer into the scene as well as big sky landscapes that provide an escape to peace and tranquility. Stephanie discusses her artistic journey, emphasizing discipline and perseverance. She tells us how she transitioned from textile design to oil painting, and how she was influenced by the American tonalists. Stephanie highlights the importance of having a cohesive body of work, having the courage to paint what you want, and suggests making strategic moves if possible; In her case, she moved to Charleston for better artistic opportunities. She shares her experiences with social media, galleries, and the challenges of being an artist, including financial struggles and the need for a supportive environment. She stresses the significance of emotional connection in her work and the joy of seeing her paintings evoke strong reactions in viewers and discusses her spiritual approach to painting, emphasizing the emotional connection between her work and the viewer, which she believes completes the artistic process. Finally, Stephanie lists her current and upcoming exhibitions, including shows at Reinhardt Fine Art, Ballards Fine Art, and the Southeastern Wildlife Expo.
Stephanie’s FASO site:
stephaniemarzella.com/
Stephanie’s Social Media:
instagram.com/stephaniemarzella/
facebook.com/stephanie.marzella.5
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Transcript:
Stephanie Marzella: 0:00
Your heart and soul is tied to your work. It takes courage to paint what you want. Artists are willing to go out on a limb. You know, because, like flying without a net, it takes a lot of courage to be an artist.
Laura Arango Baier: 0:17
Welcome to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Baier, and I’m your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights for today’s episode, we sat down with Stephanie marzella, a painter living in Charleston, South Carolina, with a preference for painting intimate landscapes that pull the viewer into the scene, as well as Big Sky landscapes that provide an escape to peace and tranquility. Stephanie discusses her artistic journey emphasizing discipline and perseverance. She tells us how she transitioned from textile design to oil painting and how she was influenced by the American tonalists. Stephanie highlights the importance of having a cohesive body of work, having the courage to paint what you want, and suggests making strategic moves if possible. In her case, she moved to Charleston for better artistic opportunities. She shares her experiences with social media, galleries and the challenges of being an artist, including financial struggles and the need for a supportive environment, she stresses the significance of emotional connection in her work and the joy of seeing her paintings evoke strong reactions in viewers, and discusses her spiritual approach to painting, emphasizing the emotional connection between her work And the viewer, which she believes completes the artistic process. Finally, Stephanie lists her current and upcoming exhibitions, including shows at Reinhardt fine art, Ballard’s fine art and the southeastern wildlife Expo. Welcome Stephanie to the BoldBrush show. How are you today? I’m good. How are you today? I’m great. I’m so excited to have you because you are so down to earth. And funny enough, I feel like your work is so magical and mystical. It’s dreamy. So it’s such an interesting reflection of your inner world when you yourself are so down to earth. So I am excited to pick your brain about your extremely beautiful, mystical, amazing tonalist and colorful pieces. But before we dive into your gorgeous work, do you mind telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Stephanie Marzella: 2:32
Well, I’m Stephanie marzella. I’m a landscape painter, and I live in Charleston, South Carolina that I moved to almost 10 years ago now, and mother, daughter, sister, dog lover, nature lover, definitely outdoorsy. Do a lot of walking. And I don’t know that’s a good question. Who am I?
Laura Arango Baier: 3:02
Yeah, it is. I think that’s a perpetual that’s a pretty deep question. Every day I ask that question, yeah, it’s one of those stare in the mirror questions and then dissociate and then get back to work. Right, right. Yeah. Too much time on that? Oh, yeah. But I think, you know, the synopsis you gave is quite accurate and quite great, because it leads right into the next question, which you have quite a unique answer to, compared to many of my past guests. And that is, when did you begin to follow the path of the artist.
Stephanie Marzella: 3:42
I, unlike many of the other artists that I’ve heard interviewed, I did not, at a young age, have some child prodigy esque experience that was like, you’re going to be an artist. It wasn’t like that at all for me. So I, however, I did have a really profound connection to nature, and that’s when I think back to like how that came about. I think that had a lot to do with it. We had a, I come from a Italian family, not a very outdoorsy bunch at all. My mom always was dressed up every day, and, you know, ready for the day, and there was no no go into the park, or, you know, going not up, yeah, definitely not a nature loving family so, but we had amazing backyard that had woods and that led down to a ravine. And, you know, back in the day, you were allowed to go out and play and, you know, experience stuff. So I would go down there, and, you know, climb down the side of the ravine. And then there was, like this babling, Crick. You know, we always said Crick, but. Creek since I’ve moved east, but, um, and I would, I would just sit down there and just, you know, watch the sun sparkle on the water, and just like listening to the sounds of nature, and climbed a lot of trees. And so nature was always, I like to be in the woods, and I really liked trees, so spent a lot of time down there. I don’t think my mom really enjoyed like that, but, um, I did and but it wasn’t, it wasn’t the classical route. I mean, I hear a lot of people saying, Oh, I knew when they came out of the womb that I was going to be an artist. That wasn’t the case. I did appreciate beauty. I appreciate sun. I always love sunsets. Still, my paint a lot of sunsets. I always love the sky and but I, when I I was very lucky to, well, I’ll go back to junior high school, my first real awareness, I used to color a lot, color inside the lines, very perfect and lot of crafts, you know, back in the day, stuff like that. But I in junior high school, I started taking art classes, and I was always interested in the arts. Though, my mother was a dress designer, a performer. She was in the theater, she sang at nightclubs, so it was like always, in that respect, she was very a major influence as far as the arts, and she appreciated the arts. Thank goodness. So because I don’t think I would have went to art school if my mom really didn’t appreciate the arts. So I am very thankful for that. But in like, seventh or eighth grade, I started taking art classes, and I could tell that I was, you know, better than a lot of the kids around me. I really enjoyed it, and that was kind of my first interest in it, in it. But then in high school, we had a vocational high school, so you could either go the college route, or you could go. You could become a cosmetologist or mechanic or a print typesetter or whatever those kinds of things. You could major in commercial art, and you would have like commercial art all day long. But I didn’t want to go into commercial art. But I, you know, I started focusing more on art, but I was focusing on all the arts. And I really didn’t know if I was going to go to art school or go to, like, school for theater or something like that. But, um, I just, I just, I had a really amazing high school art teacher. Just just, I mean, those those teachers are really, really important. So I was really fortunate because I wasn’t going to go the college route, so I filled all my credits for English through the theater. So I never took speech, you know, I never did anything like traditionally, and I never took math after science after ninth grade. I was in all these advanced classes, but I just was like, I don’t want to do any of this stuff. I know I don’t want to do any of this stuff. And by 11th grade, I didn’t I could have graduated. I had all my credits to graduate. So I was like, should I graduate? And I was like, No, I don’t want to do that. Want to have fun. So in my 12th grade year, I decided I was going to go to art school, and I focused on getting a portfolio together, pretty much for my whole 12th grade year. But I had art four hours, visual arts four hours a day, and I had theater an hour a day, and I had like, singing classes, like an hour a day. That was pretty much my whole high school thing. So I had a lot of time to and my teacher was great, all kinds of mixed media. You know, we did everything. We did drawings and, you know, every kind of medium. So he exposed us to a lot, really, really, really fabulous teacher. And that was my path to to it. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t drawing amazing things when I was three or anything like that. So I speak to the people who can come to it a little bit later in life, you know. And that it’s not always, oh, God, I don’t know how you would say it, you know, everybody uses the word passion, you know. And of course, we all have, you know, it takes a lot to be an artist. It’s, it’s not an easy career. And I equate the word discipline and drive, you know, you know, natural talent is great, you know, but you can learn, you can learn to have talent, you know, with perseverance. So I think that that’s really important, and that it’s not always you’re not always born with it,
Laura Arango Baier: 9:48
yes, yeah. And it’s great that you mentioned that, because I think a lot of people put this glass ceiling on themselves very often, about how far they think they can go, versus. How far they can really go if they want to, right? It’s that, like you said, perseverance. So it’s pushing past the I mean, there’s nothing better than at least that I’ve experienced, like, coming from spite where someone says he can’t do that, and then you just go, like, watch,
Stephanie Marzella: 10:20
yeah, I’m gonna do it right. Drives you exactly whatever it takes to create that drive. Hopefully it’s not too negatively based. But you know, whatever makes you do it
Laura Arango Baier: 10:34
is good, yeah, for sure, yeah. And even if someone is talented. I mean, if they’re not even using it, or if they’re not doing anything with it, I mean that the person that’s working their butt off to get somewhere is always going to get farther than someone who’s just sitting around like, Yeah, I’m talented, not painting. I don’t gotta. So you have to
Stephanie Marzella: 10:56
enact, you know, you have to enact it and drive, drive, persevere arts, because, you know, there is days you really have to push yourself, you know, or you know, we all will get into that. But anyways, I wanted to say that I went to the a five year bachelor of fine arts program at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and didn’t go far for college, but it was an amazing school right across the street from the Cleveland Museum of Art, which is an amazing museum still free to this day, and it was and it was a great education, but I don’t think a lot of people know this. I was majoring in glassblowing, so that was my major until, like, my fourth year, and then, and I was in ceramics and stuff, and I was doing a lot of three dimensional stuff, and I was just like, you know, I don’t, I don’t want to, from the, you know, from the idea in my head to the third dimension, I don’t want to go that many steps. And I really didn’t think I would build a hot shop in my like I didn’t see myself going out and monitoring glass at two o’clock in the morning and everything. Although I really loved I loved it, but I switched to textile surface design, textile design and and I majored in textile design and drawing and glass or minored in glass blowing. So I really loved textile design. My mom was a designer. I grew up around sewing and fabric and all that stuff. I love repeat, interlocking repeats, making them really fluid, where people can’t see the lock, you know, all that stuff. So and that was the basis when I graduated from school, I got a job at a wallpaper company, and I started out as a colorist. So when you start out, that’s the lowest level. So you’re a colorist. And we this is prior to computers and all that. And if you ever looked at wallpaper book, so that was popular, as I used to be, but you would like see the same designs and different color combinations, and we were responsible for all those color combinations, and we, we hand painted them all with gouache, you know. So it was really and, you know, all the colors had to sit flat on the wall. Nothing could pop forward or anything. So we, you know, I learned how to work with color, like a lot of color, which continues till this day, even though I do a lot of tonalist work as well, but I use a lot of color.
Laura Arango Baier: 13:31
So, yes, you have an unlimited palette.
Stephanie Marzella: 13:36
I do, I do. I wish. Sometimes I wish I didn’t. Because, you know, I don’t, I don’t travel a ton, but when I do, everybody’s, you know, oh, I’m bringing four colors, you know, I can make all the colors from four or and I’m just like, Oh, my God, oh, speaking of, I’m going to show you unlimited but there’s unlimited palette. Yes, it’s like, there’s probably like 60, I mean, there’s like 60 colors on there. So it’s very hard for me to narrow that down when I travel and I’m very seduced by paint. When I go on the art supply store, I really like, Oh, that’s a new color. Oh, I gotta try that, you know. So I, I wish I had a palette would make things a lot easier.
Laura Arango Baier: 14:23
But then I think the way that you work, from what I’ve seen, is so intuitive that it’s really, you can’t really cage that intuition into just a few colors very easily. But it’s, it is really nice. So to see your tonalist work, which is literally like one color the opposite, yeah, which is exactly total opposite, so you could travel with one.
Stephanie Marzella: 14:50
I really do like, I like, when I one of my, my first plein air events, plan air east, and I did a i. I was a nervous wreck there, but I did a tonal it. I did Tona list pieces, pure sepia toned pieces for like, my competition pieces, which were completely different than everyone else’s, you know. And I know that people were thinking, What is she doing, you know, what is that? What is that brown painting she’s doing? But I loved it. I think they’re amazing. And I had transitioned from working in a lot of different mediums. When I first left the I moved to Chicago with my husband. He was a went to the Cleveland Institute of Art too, and he was a toy designer, and his job paid more than mine. So we moved to Chicago, and then I started freelancing, and was doing wallpaper and fabric design in our apartment. And then I had my son, like, a year later, and I worked in my apartment doing that. And whenever I had free time, I would experiment. I used wash, you know, so I started painting, doing my own artwork and in between freelance jobs. So and I painted everything in that apartment, my teapots, my teacups, my carrots, fruit, everything. And my poor son spent a lot of time in his swing while I was doing my freelance work. But and I and then I started working with like gouache, obviously, because that’s what I did for my job. But then I added past. I was doing mixed medias with pastels, and then I, you know, had acrylics and, like, it just was mixing, like, everything together. And then I phased out of slowly, we moved to Rhode Island, and we lived there for 28 years, and I started slowly doing less freelance work and did predominantly all for years, I did pastels, and I always worked on a dark ground. So I would work on a dark ground, you know, dark to light. I made a conscious decision to switch to oils, because the galleries, well, that was back in the day when they were framing pastels with mats, not the way they frame them now, with no mats, which is fabulous, and you’d ship them, and, you know, the glass and everything, and then the people would get it, and the pastel was on the mat, and then you get it back, you had to reframe it, you know, remat it, and everything. And a lot of galleries didn’t want to show work under glass. So I was like, I’m going to, I got an article in pastel Journal magazine with my, you know, when I had started doing the big skies, low horizons, and then I was so proud of that, and then I promptly switched to oils. And I was like, I didn’t want to fall back on pastels, so I had, like, 1000s of dollars of pastels. I taped them all up in boxes, brought them down into the basement, and I had one, a set of oils, like several years before, at the Copley Society of Art, I was a member there. And it was funny. It was, it was a mixed media piece, like with was my girlfriend’s daughter actually, which I hardly ever do people but, and when they gave me the award, it had like a blurb next to it, like a paragraph. And the award said, We think you should be painting in oils, basically, you know, it said what it liked about the piece and the energy in it and everything. But you should be painting in oils. And I won this really gorgeous set in this gorgeous wooden box of Windsor Newton oil paints with brushes and mediums and everything. Was very seductive, but I had tried it when my kids were little, and then I was using, like, some kind of, I don’t know, terpenoid or something that smelled like oranges. And I was just like, this is going to kill my kids. So like, I don’t, I didn’t like the smell of it, and I was just like, I just don’t think this is healthy. So I just kept with pastels and washed. I was, I used to do big wash still lifes and lots and lots of still lives. So then I went, when I switched to oil the white canvas, having come from a medium where I was working dark to light, the white canvas just was a It was awful. It was like a stumbling block. I couldn’t get the depth. Everything looked cartoony to me, like I just couldn’t get the depth that I wanted. And then I was reading an article. It might have been about Dennis Sheehan or something. I don’t know. I know he how he starts tonally. And I was like, No, that makes complete sense to me. So I did not know how to oil, you know, I really didn’t had I experimented with oils in college, but definitely not the way I do. And I glaze with oils. And I’m very calculating. My process is really slow, but so I started like, I would just paint the whole canvas. Brown, just brown. Like, there’s one behind me that’s in the works, but dark, dark brown the whole canvas, and with really energetic, giant like brushes like this, you know, so like, when I was starting a piece of just, like, warming up, you know, just like, really big strokes, very abstract, cover the whole canvas and then wipe out my image, you know, like wipe out, wiped out the water. Wipe all with towels and rags and cotton balls and Q tips and whatever. And then I have to let that completely dry. And that’s where, then, that’s where all the color comes in. So then that has to completely dry. I work a lot of pieces at one time, and there’s usually like 20 to 40 of them in the studio. And then if the gallery needs something or something, I’ll, I’ll pull something out of the lineup and maybe concentrate on that more to get it, you know, to get it to wherever it needs to be. But then I start building color on there with Windsor and Newton blending and glazing medium. And do want to give a shout out to Gamblin for that their ash color, Ash phalto, because that’s what I do all my tonals. And it’s one color. There’s not more than one color, and it’s it’s a fabulous color. If they stopped making it, I would be very, very upset, and it, it can. It’s just super versatile, very warm brown. So that makes it easier, too. It’s one color.
Laura Arango Baier: 21:34
I totally jotted it down that sounds amazing,
Stephanie Marzella: 21:38
and that’s how I start, you know, it kind of came out organically, like, and I didn’t know how to oil paint, so in a way, this was, like a very kind of cautious way of delving into it, you know, like very thin layers, like very, very thin, transparent layers. And then you and you get colors that you would have never gotten because they’re shining through one another, you know. So it’s exactly, and you get a lot of mood, which brings us to tonalism, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier: 22:17
And I think that’s, yeah. It’s a very interesting thing that you landed on considering, you know, a lot of your paintings are so colorful, and which is technically kind of the opposite of tonalism. But then, of course, just tonalists that have works that are purely tonalist, and it’s such a particular genre. Why? Like, how did you land on tonalism as your your genre?
Stephanie Marzella: 22:47
Well, I, when I made the move to Rhode Island, that was really my first exposure to, like, the ocean and the way Rhode Island situated, we have, like, New Hampshire Vermont, met like and that was my first exposure to mountains, and I did a lot of hiking. I could kayak out of my backyard, and we had a really beautiful cove, and my studio faced the sunset. That was the first time I had a house where we built a studio. And, you know, because I’ve always had a studio in a extra room, a bedroom or something, you know, so I would, I was still painting, still lives and stuff. But I was, like, always looking at this amazing backyard, you know, where you could kayak out of it. So I started, I was always, I was mixing it up. So I started to do some landscapes, but I went to a show at the Boston Museum of Art, and I cannot, I tried to look it up. I tried to look it up to see that what the name of it was, something like Barbizon to Impressionism, or paths to Impressionism, or something. And I went with a friend, and that show just changed my life. It just sort of blew my mind. That was my first awareness of George Innis. I remember, like, the first time I saw a George Innis painting, and I was like, he paints, like I feel. He paints what I feel, the spirituality of nature, which to me, is like my, I guess it’s like my church, you know, I that’s where I feel the best out in nature. So, but this was my first time where I was like, people, the mood, you know, the emotion, like it just like, moved you to tears. And that was my first awareness of the American tonalists. And I was just like, I cannot wait to learn more about, you know, the American tonalist. And it was like, Dwight, try on, Bruce crane, twalkman, Lathrop, I mean, and I started collecting, like, antique books on them. I like read everything I could read about them. And I. Uh, I just George inniss son wrote a book about him. And like, you know, he was wild. He would like, go into people’s houses when they weren’t home, and like, take paintings they bought, and like, change them. Like, take them back to a studio, change them, you know, they’d come home. It’d be like, different. But it was the first time I was like, when you become a landscape painter, you have to find your own style, which is completely different than the style I had when I was painting still lives. You know, you have to, sort of, you have to develop it. You have to come into your own so that, you know, when people walk into a room, they’re like, that’s a Stephanie marzella right there. You know, that’s what I hope anyways. And it was the first time I felt like it sort of gave me license, which is funny, to paint what I feel, not what I see, you know. And a lot of times, like, when I was be at a plein air event and people come behind me, they’d be like, the sky, sky doesn’t have any clouds in it. That tree’s not in the middle of, you know, or like, you know, that trees in the middle, it’s not on the side or whatever. And I’ve never like all as much as I admire artists who, you know, like, then, like, they show their painting in the midst of a landscape and it matches exactly. And I’m just like, the colors match exactly, and you can’t even tell the paintings there. And it’s like, I’m blown away by that. I’m amazed by that. But I I am there to, you know, put my spin on it. I never paint what’s in front of me. I paint what it makes me feel, you know. And I hope that, I think that’s the strength of my work. It moves, I hope it moves people, you know, emotionally, that they’re not just like, oh, that’s a that looks like a photo. You know, a lot of people think that’s a compliment, but I really don’t, but
Laura Arango Baier: 26:43
yeah, it’s 5050, I think, you know, I think some well meaning people mean it as a compliment, but a lot of artists, a good number of artists, are like, no, but no, like, Yeah, I can’t, please don’t reduce me to a tiny thing that’s attached to your phone, yeah, because it takes so much more work and interpretation than you know. I mean cameras, as we know, and this is a tiny little rant, but cameras, they flatten all the values to get rid of all the pretty colors, all the nuance, so I understand why, you know, well meaning people might say it’s like a picture, and then it’s like, I’m gonna pretend that that’s a good thing. Thank you. Oh my gosh, yes. I can only draw stick figures a penny for every time. We’d be so rich, all of us artists, speaking of, yeah, speaking of artists, too, I think that’s one of those words that I like to ask some of my guests about. And I wanted to ask you, what does it mean for you to be an artist?
Stephanie Marzella: 27:53
I think artists are willing to go out on a limb, you know, because, like flying without a net. It takes a lot of courage to be an artist. It takes a lot of courage for a parent to send their kid to art school too, you know? And artists are young at heart like they don’t. You know, I have artist friends who are, you know, almost 80 or in their 80s, and they, you would never know it. There’s no it’s like a ageless. It’s ageless. Everybody is hard working, they’re fun, they’re adventurous, they’re still out there in nature, they’re still camping, they’re traveling. It’s a pretty unique group of people, and I’m honored to be that. That is what I I can do for a career. But, um, I think that a lot of people may have, like, a misnomer, that we’re just having fun, you know, like, you know, everybody’s just like, you get to paint all day, you know, and but there’s like, so much more to it, and you’re not sitting in front of your easel, you know, like going, it’s you, you have. I am exhausted after a day of painting. It’s like a trillion decisions. Every mark you make is a decision. And sometimes we talked about this the other day, like, you make a mark, you do something that’s amazing, like, and you’re like, I can’t even believe I just did that. And in the next minute, you destroy it accidentally. And you’re just like, No one’s ever gonna say that it doesn’t exist anymore, you know, but it’s, I hope I leave a mark, you know? I mean, who knows? You know what’s gonna go down in history anymore, but you know, I think I’ve made my my mark, and I. I’m, you know, I’m proud of that so, but I I’m just lucky to be one an artist, your heart and soul is tied to your work. You know, like not underestimating or because I’ve never really even done that many traditional jobs, but like, sometimes I think, oh, it would be nice to have a job where I’m not emotionally attached to it, you know, my work is emotional, and I put a lot of effort into it. And then, you know, when, when you have it out there on the market too, or, you know, in a, you know, a flurry of sales, and you’re flying high, or, and then all of a sudden, there’s a month you’re just like, what’s happening? Am I going to be able to pay my mortgage? You know, that is not easy. So when people are like, Oh, you’re an artist, you’re so lucky. I mean, they they really have no idea what what they are talking about as far as the scope of what it takes to be an artist. And we do, I think collectively, we do have a joy of life that a lot of people don’t have. And, you know, we will take the time to, like, go chase a hurricane, you know, to take photos and to, you know, sit somewhere, to watch sunset and to walk in the woods and do all that stuff. You know, that’s like an added plus, but it takes tenacity, man, perseverance. Discipline. Discipline is the biggest thing. If you don’t have discipline, you are not going to be able to get over those hurdles when you’re questioning your talent. You know when you haven’t had sales for a while, when social looking at social media, and you know, every you know, everyone posts. You know we’re not going to post, oh, having a bad day today, or, you know, painted horribly today. You know we’re going to paint our triumphs, our accolades, you know. And sometimes that’s hard, you know, if you’re in a slump, and then you see, you know other, your friends, whatever, your colleagues winning awards or doing this or that. And it’s it’s discipline that gets you through that. And the best thing as soon as soon as you get back to these zones, soon as you start painting, you go into that zone, and you know that is the best remedy for any of those, especially the down moments, is to just get back to your easel. That’s that’s the place you need to be, you know. But there’s a lot of other things it takes to be an artist, too. You know. There’s a lot of the business of art, networking, shipping, creating, packing, unpacking, ordering frames, ordering supplies. Yeah, that’s what it means for me be an artist. I love it, and it’s a lot of hard work. It is.
Laura Arango Baier: 32:56
I mean, with great freedom comes great responsibility. And I totally agree with your how you’ve how you’ve seen you know people who you know you you see them and they just, they’re so ageless, but they’re 80, and they’re so bright and so youthful, right? It’s like I was literally just saying, like, yeah, you know, maybe the fountain of youth is just having a creative career, because you have this way of, like, getting out all of these, these things that a lot of people keep inside of them, and then, you know, kind of haunts them. But also, like the typical day job can be so monotonous and sad, and I feel like when you’re an artist, it’s very much not monotonous, like it’s a whole new painting every time. It’s a whole new demon you got to face. It’s a whole new mountain to climb, in your case, whole new tree to climb, if you want. So it’s, it’s very it’s much more what’s the word? There’s, there’s just something new every day, compared to, you know, the typical day job that a lot of people would have, and it never, it never
Stephanie Marzella: 34:03
gets easier, if any, if anything, it gets harder. I’ve talked to a lot of my artist friends. Sometimes they’re like, gosh, you know, I just was looking back at some old work of mine. And I think that sometimes I think my older work was better, you know, and you’re just always trying to top yourself. And every to me, every painting is a is a puzzle. You know, it’s like solving a puzzle. And then, you know, people always ask you, when, how do you know when a painting is done? That question and all the only I’m actually trying to leave a painting sooner than that’s one of my goals, is to leave a painting sooner than I would have in the past. Think it’s a Virgo thing, but just to leave it alone, you know. And like, you know, people always, you know, as artists, we send photos and stuff to our friends, like, this is what I’m working on, you know. And they’re like, it’s. Done, you know? And you’re like, No, it looks better in the photo, you know, it’s, it’s not done, but, um, just to, I want to try to, like, not be so what I consider, like perfect, you know, about stuff, I want to, I want to leave some unfinished quality, like, not unfinished, but I like to leave a layer. I like to leave a layer, since I glaze something from every light layer exposed. Still, I don’t, you know, I want there to be proof of, like, kind of each layer. And not sure, I think I trailed off there.
Laura Arango Baier: 35:39
But, no, I think it’s, it’s an ever continuing dialog that an artist has with their work, right? Like it’s a conversation that spans not just like one painting, but it’s all the paintings forever and ever. And I think that’s really interesting, because that really, you know, makes me think more about, you know, how, as artists, we have these two sort of, like these two things that can happen to us, especially when we’re trained, which is, you and we talked about this last time, you know, the whole feeling of, you know, feeling this obligation to paint a particular thing, or to paint a particular subject, versus what do I actually want to paint? Right? And I think that’s one of the hard parts of especially, you know, probably throughout the entire career of an artist, but especially at the beginning, because it’s so easy to be so pulled in by obligation. But then I’ve noticed, at least with my work, that every painting I’ve done out of obligation, it’s just not, it doesn’t have that quality, you know, it’s missing that something, you know, it
Stephanie Marzella: 36:49
takes courage to paint what you want. Like, I’ve had people say, like, oh, or, you know, she says, I have the low horizon line, the big sky, you know? And that’s my that is my absolute favorite thing to paint, and it’s usually, if I go plein air painting, you know, that I’ll I come up with, like, sort of a, you know, different, kind of a different composition, which I do need to do that. But I, to me, my landscapes are, there’s such a huge abstract area, and every one of them, like, if anything, I’d like my work to be born abstract. So the whole, you know, it’s set in a like, I live in the low country here, but when I lived in Rhode Island, I was, I am in love with marshes, like I am not really. I can’t really paint the ocean very well. I’ve tried, but, like, marshes just really speak to me quiet water. And it has to do with my whole spirituality, reflectiveness, you know. And one of I told you this the other day, but one of my best experiences in my life was I lived on this tidal Cove, and moving to Rhode Island too was my first awareness of tides. You know, tides are huge and how much a tide can change a landscape. So you could paint the exact same view at a different hour every day, and it’s completely different, because the tides go in, they go out, they’re high, they’re low, Moon tides, whatever. And I that was really influential. And like I would see I, you know, that was my favorite time of the day when the water was absolutely still, which tend to happen, you know, at Slack tide, between the tides, but like at sunset, and it would just the water would just be still, you know, and it is. It’s like inner peace. It’s so peaceful. So I could kayak out of the backyard. And this was also besides the American tonalist, that was a changing point in my work. Was I was kayaking. It was like at sunset, and the water was completely reflecting the sky, but it was all peach, like a peach, like a coral, like satin. And was like paddling. It was like paddling through silk sharmoose, which is a fabric that’s like, so quiet and, you know, and that is just, that’s what it that is what I want to paint. That’s my favorite thing to paint, so and I have the whole sky in the water to do whatever I want. And I like to work with texture too. I use golden molding pace, if you like. Zoom in on some of my paintings on Instagram, you’ll see that there’s like, a texture there. And I do that sometime. I love different mediums. I love different it’s part of my problem too. When I go on a painting trip, is because I can’t say, oh, I have these four colors I use, and then this is the surface I always paint on. That’s the huge problem for me. I like to make I make some of my own surfaces. I paint on canvas, I paint on panel. I paint on panels that I make with golden molding paste on them. So it’s like gesso then molding paste, then gesso again, and just I get. I like that. You know, if I had a bigger studio and I had a big work table, like a flat work table, where I could do more kind of more experimenting, that would definitely be something I would love to have. But the like, I’m painting nature, but there’s a lot of abstract qualities in my work. So, like, I really like simple compositions, so that I can just have work with the beauty of paint itself, in the application of the paint and lost edges. And, you know, I like, like, it’s, I want it to be an escape, an escape from reality. That’s what, you know, I want. Like, I wanted to transport you somewhere I don’t really, I’m not, like, a site specific painter, you know, people say, like, where is that? And it’s collect, you know, it’s remembered. It’s pieces of this, pieces of that, like I do sometimes construct a painting on on the computer, where I take part of a marsh, you know, from over here, and a sky from another photograph that I took. I’m a horrible photographer, and just, you know, sort of piece it together for, like, an idea, you know. And then, sort of, I don’t, I know a lot of artists like, you know, seeing like, they work from these big screens, you know, they’re, they have, like, big screens, and they’re painting exactly what they see on the screen. And I cannot do that. I cannot do that. I mean, a lot of it is created in the process of painting the painting. And you never get Ramona young quest, and I talk about this all the time, but you, even though you have a style, and every you know you people know that that’s my work, every time I am starting a painting, it’s like, I’m still questioning which brush to grab, which color to choose, and I’m like, am I going to be able to Do it? Am I going to be able to figure this out? It doesn’t get it doesn’t get easier. It never gets easier. You know, still, like, is this the right brush for this? Like, like, sometimes you’re just but you do know what you’re doing, you know you do, but you feel like you’re reinventing the wheel every time. At least for me, it doesn’t, it doesn’t get any easier.
Laura Arango Baier: 42:22
At BoldBrush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the bold brush, and if you believe that too, sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com that’s BOLDBRUSH show.com the BoldBrush show is sponsored by FASO. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to have a website when you’re an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link, FASO.com/podcast, you can make that come true and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that’s basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won’t get with our competitor. The Art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link, FASO.com/podcast. That’s FASO.com/podcast, you know, yes, I can totally relate to that, especially in the which, which brush should I use? Question, but what’s funny is that, in the end, right? You go through all this agonizing, right? You’re like struggling in front of this, this painting, which is kind of comical, if we think about it, but then in the end, it’ll still look like you’re painting, right?
Stephanie Marzella: 44:27
And that is the magic. That’s a, you know, it’s not magic, it’s discipline. You took years to develop that style, but there’s still, I told you the other day that I have brushes like this brush here. Let’s see. Know how to use this all right, my brushes are destroyed. I don’t I don’t even know what this brush is. I would have to pull all my brushes out and look at the, look at the and try to figure out even what brand it is. But like, I am jealous of artists who are like, Oh, I just got my new brush. Is, you know, and they use these set brushes, and they can do a whole painting with one brush, you know, I have, like, you can see, I’ll turn my computer. I have, like, a lot of brushes over there. I have brushes from college, still. I have brushes that look like a squirrel’s tail tied to a stick, you know, like, I don’t know how I mostly use chip brushes, like the little hardware store brushes. And I just, I just, sort of like I do. I wish I had, sometimes, I wish I had a set palette. I wish I had a set surface, you know. I wish I had a set size. I like to work, you know, just, I am just all over the place, and that’s kind of the excitement of it. But then it’s kind of a, kind of makes it more it kind of makes it more difficult sometimes, too. You know, like, it’s like, what surface should I paint, especially when I go, when, when I go plein air painting, like at the plein air events, I have to credit, we were talking about plein air the other day too, but I have to credit, like, point when I did plan air Easton, it really connected. I mean, I do recommend that I very get extremely stressed out at a point air event. And it took a little bit of the joy out of it for me, because I used to go plein air painting long before it was a thing with my old French easel, you know, and with my girlfriends. And there was just no pressure. We were just out there. We knew we drinking after, and it was just had a great day, you know. And there wasn’t a pressure to have a finished, sellable, award winning painting when you were done, you know. But that experience, and especially plenary Easton was, I highly recommend it, because it connected me to so many artists and and then, you know, social media, obviously, we didn’t have that when we were younger. So you could admire an artist on the west coast, but you know, you just read about them in a magazine. You know, it wasn’t like you had your phone number or anything. So like that is one you know, blessing with social media is to be able to reach out to people and have galleries reach out to you, and you know, to be have direct contact with people by, you know, through messaging and stuff, but the friendships and the valuable friendships and connections made through that event are everlasting, you know, so as much as I did not enjoy the anxiety of it, because I, you know, I admire the artists who are, like, out there, three, I’m good for a painting a day. It takes me forever, like, good five, six hours to do a painting, and then I’m exhausted. But, you know, some people go out morning, noon and night, and they’re, you know, they have a flashlight on their head, and they’re smoking cigarettes and talking to their friends, and they seem like they have limitless energy, and they’re really enjoying it too, you know. And they’re talented, you know, that was definitely not my experience, but that connection made in that world is, it’s fabulous. And those artists are really amazing. So I do recommend that. I do recommend it if, whether you’re doing it on the local level or national level, you know, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier: 48:13
And that actually seamlessly flows into, you know, the side that I like to, you know, ask, which is, you know, the more of the marketing, business side of being an artist. Because, since you’re, you know, since we’re discussing bit more of that networking aspect, you know, in your experience, do you find that networking has it helped your career a lot as an artist?
Stephanie Marzella: 48:39
Yes, of course. I’m trying to think of a specific example, but, um, yes. And I think the you know, with the galleries too, they’re they’re following you on social media. Now, my Instagram is 100% pretty much my artwork. And anybody who follows me on Facebook knows I love my dogs, so they’re heavily featured on my you know, my Facebook is art and my life, basically. But I think people, everybody has different opinions. But I think people like having a sense of who you are, you know, a little bit of a little peek into your life. You know how you live, or what you do, or what your kids look like, or what your studio looks like, you know, it makes it, it makes a connection that I think is is valuable, and it says who you are as a person, you know. So I don’t stick strictly to business with Facebook, but I think I, yeah, I think I make some pretty I don’t make a lot of moves, but I make strategic moves, you know, and like moving to Charleston was a strategic move. I lived in Rhode Island for 28 years, and I miss it greatly, and all my friendships there, but I. The New England art scene at the time. It’s coming back now, or, you know, there’s more, a little more options there, but there were not the amount of galleries that are here in Charleston, South Carolina, and people come here to buy art. And so that was I was like, living in a century home in Rhode Island. My job’s a mobile my husband’s job is mobile. And I was like, I know I can make a lot a better living down in South Carolina, you know, and I could get a new house with three prong plugs, which was very enticing after having a century home. And I know that my income will significantly go up. We moved to South Carolina, and we just did it. You know, took a long time to sell our house, but we picked up and we moved and that was everything I hoped it would be. You know, there is, like, a huge art community here. There’s, there was even more galleries when I moved down here. But, like, there’s, we have a French Quarter here with, like, a lot of galleries, you know, where you can walk, and, you know, every month they have an art walk, and you can just hop from gallery to gallery. And I’m very lucky to have the gallery that represents me now, rein art here in rein art, fine art in Charleston, and one of the finest galleries I’ve ever been represented by, with a really professional team in that gallery. And you know, it takes a long time to work up to that level. Now, I think I want to talk about some young artists like coming in. But back to social media. So like, I have been contacted by galleries through Instagram, and a lot of things came about organically. Like, I’m represented by Ballard’s fine art out in Sheridan Wyoming. And when I was my first awareness of her, you know, all of a sudden, I just started seeing her and her collection of art. And I was like, this woman has really amazing taste, you know, and I think she really represents some really nice, you know, really, really solid artists. So I just wrote her a note, because I she sort of came out of nowhere. And I was just like, I just wanted to say, I think you really post some really gorgeous work. I really respect the artists you collect. And it was, it was honest. It was just totally honest. And then she just wrote me back, you know, a few days later, and she’s like, I really like your work, you know, but you know, I love the emotion in it. I love the softness of it. And, you know, I’d love to have a couple of your pieces here at the gallery. And so that totally was, you know, messaging, just messaging somebody, you know, you never know what’s going to come out of it. And galleries are following you, you know, like on Instagram and stuff, you can see, you know, who’s following you. And that’s how it happens. A lot of times you see someone following you. You see them like, you know, repeatingly, you know, liking your work and stuff. And then you could tell. You could tell. And then, you know, then it’s like, I could tell they like my work, you know, either they reach out to me or I’m gonna, you know, I could reach out to them because you know that they’re looking, you know, every time you post the story or whatever, you know. So it’s information, it’s information. And I told you, I told you the story from back, back in the day, but when, before all of this stuff, they basically before the internet, was like, I was reading, I used to get pastel Journal Magazine, because I was a pastel artist, and I was just like, Man, I want to be in This magazine, you know. So I, and that was back in the day when we had slides, and we had a mask them off with silver tape. And, you know, if you wanted to be in something, you had to send a sheet of slides and, you know, type your resume and all that stuff. But I called and the Maggie price, the editor, or whatever, of the magazine, you know, I asked to speak to her, and I and she, you know, she got on the phone, which is amazing to me, and I just said, I said a little white lie. Just, I just said, I, you know, I’m curious how you can get, how you get featured in your magazine, because I would really like to be featured in your magazine. And I said I had a dream last night. I opened the magazine, and there was a story about my work that was not true. I was dreaming of being in the magazine and hoping I would be in an event. I didn’t actually have a dream, just, you know, a little spin on the words. And she said, Send me. You know, your work. She was a delight, and she passed away sadly, but she was a fabulous woman, and she, you know, like in that, you know, you had to mail everything out, and everything you know, wasn’t like anything. Nothing was immediate. It. And then I came home one day and, like, there was messages on the answering machine, you know, it was like her, and she’s like Stephanie, this is Maggie price. I’m gonna make your dreams come true. And I was featured in the magazine, and then I promptly take up all my pastels and switch to oils. But I just, you know, it was a beautiful article, you know. But it’s like, you know, a little creativity there. But it takes guts, you know. It takes guts to call, to make a blind call, takes guts every time you send your, you know, especially back in the day, every time you send those slides out and, you know, hope for the best and stuff like that, you know. And like, when I recently went on a trip with the wild women and Bob Baier, who’s a who’s a writer, was a writer for plein air magazine, you know, I was like, he’s probably looking for material, you know, fresh material to write about and stuff. And then I, you know, I contacted him, and I said, you know, I’m going to go on this trip with these fabulous women painters, and it might be something you’re interested in writing about, you know. And then he did. He wrote about it, you know. So it’s, and that’s all through social media. That’s all through just, you don’t even have to get the courage to call. You can just send a message, you know. I mean, it’s really, I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?
Laura Arango Baier: 56:26
Yeah, you don’t say no, and that’s it, right? Nothing to lose. Definitely. Yeah. And then you started mentioning too about, you know, younger artists and, like, you know, getting kind of, like, leveling up slowly. Do you mind expounding on that a little? Yeah, so
Stephanie Marzella: 56:45
I feel for younger artists today, and I’m very honest about my journey, like I gave you a little bit of things. So I was a textile designer. We moved I started freelancing, and had my kids, and then my free you know, in between jobs, I could experiment and start doing my own artwork. And that’s when I started to do my own artwork. I also got involved in a lot of a local we were in Chicago for a couple years. So, like, Chicago’s huge, and there’s a lot of there’s a lot of art stuff around Chicago, and Chicago a lot of art groups. And I got, didn’t know anybody you know, starting from scratch. So I joined, like, different art Evanston Art Center, and I don’t even know, like Schaumburg Art Center, all this stuff, and started meeting people that way, and like, getting a little more into art and exhibiting and entering competitions. In addition to doing my freelance work. Then my husband was a toy designer, and so he we moved to Rhode Island because he got a job at Hasbro So, and this is circling back to younger artists today, or single artists, or whatever, back in the you know, in the day, we didn’t have to have a cell phone plan, we didn’t have to have the internet. We weren’t paying off college debt from college tuitions that cost an exorbitant amount. You know, we could work a summer job and put a dent in our tuition. You know, nowadays you you know that is, you know, some, a lot of kids are leaving college with a huge financial debt to start their life out with, which I think is daunting, you know, and so. But we when I moved to Rhode Island, I was still freelancing and everything, but I was starting to do more and more artwork and exhibiting in galleries, local galleries, not really like but New England’s kind of small, a lot of so I was in galleries in Maine and Massachusetts and all around New England, and I’m going to lose my train of thought. Bring me back to what I was saying. Oh, so then I started, like, just doing a little bit more of that. But I was in a situation where I was married, I was taking care of kids. I had a studio in my home, and I had a partner who had a weekly paycheck and health insurance. Okay, so I know a lot of artists, when they’re interviewed, they, you know, they, they, I’m speaking for myself. I know they’re like, I worked really hard, hard. I worked at night, I had 10 jobs or whatever. But that wasn’t my case, and I think that a lot of a lot of women artists, a lot of my colleagues, you know, we were able to juggle being a wife, being a mother and like maybe freelancing, but also having time where, you know, we didn’t have to go out every single day to so that our family had health insurance or whatever, so we had that ability to juggle a lot of things and focus on art. Now I myself am not the kind of person who can. I need to paint natural daylight, so I can’t. I could do the business of art at night, but I am really, really disciplined that I’m in my studio. I like to work a. Day shift. I like to have my evenings to myself, so I don’t work around the clock, so I feel a little spoiled. I do think, if people speak realistically, there’s a lot of artists who had a partner of some kind, you know, a wife who was had a full time job, or husband who had a full time job that made it easier for the fine artists to become a fine artist or transition. You know, now, you know it’s now. I am no longer married, but I am with my longtime partner now, and he is a long haul trucker, so he’s gone all times. I could focus like 100% on my work, and it’s but, I think, but you know what I mean, I had that cushion. I think some people might have. I’m just trying to be real. Some people have family money. Some people, oh, and the only ways, so going back to that. So after I got divorced, when I the reason I was able to because my friend, a meaning. Friends are like, you’re not gonna be able to make it as an artist, you know? You better get realistic. You’re gonna need to go get a real job, you know? And I was just like, they don’t know me. They don’t know how determined I am. And I took class. I went to bartending school. It’s like worst case scenario, March end at night, you know, because it can’t paint at night and but I the reason I personally was able to continue was because our house appreciated in values so much. My husband and I bought a house. We had it for six years. We ended up getting divorced. That house appreciated a beautiful amount, and it was the profit on that house that gave me the cushion to make it from 2006 a good eight years where I had that to fall back on if I didn’t make enough money to pay the mortgage or something, you know. And it was still really scary. I taught, like, lessons in my house and, you know, mixed it up, but and then when I moved down here, it wasn’t until I moved down here and started getting it was started to be represented by Ryan art that, you know, it was a long haul. I’m 64 now. You know, it’s not like it happens overnight. And I just think if I was a young artist today, I think they have such a bigger challenge. So, like, either if I wasn’t in a relationship where somebody was bringing in stable income or something like that, I’d probably have, I would make a strategic move and I but I also would probably move somewhere affordable, like, maybe it’s not clear, close to a gallery scene or something, you know, but somewhere, and I am very willing to live very frugally, you know, maybe not in the best surroundings. And I would probably have roommates. You know, my daughter, she’s she lives in a loft in New York City, and she has like, five roommates, and they’re all artists of different types, but that’s how they do it, you know. And social media is a huge help. I mean, these younger kids have a they know all the tricks with social media and stuff, you know, and where that’s hard for me, you know, but I think it’s a much harder road for now. All we needed was a roof over our head and ramen noodles, pretty much, and you could live really affordably.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:03:45
So, yep, yeah, exactly. There’s so much more added on top of, like the starter pack, right for for an artist, especially now that you know, since you mentioned also social media, so much of it is content creation and recording this and photographing that, and that’s
Stephanie Marzella: 1:04:06
so time consuming. That’s so time consuming, like, I feel like I’m old fashioned, you know? And like, social media is a little bit of a chore for me, you know? It’s not something I gravitate I like when, before they change the algorithm? You know, I post a painting and get like, 5000 likes on it, you know, and now it’s like reels and like, the way it was before better, you know? But it’s just like, simply gotta stay out there, you know, you gotta keep your website going. You gotta, like, it’s a lot of work. But I just, I do feel for younger people, I think, I think it’s a little bit harder road.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:04:43
Yeah, and it’s definitely it also feels unpredictable, to say the least. Now that, you know, we have AI and we have all of these things happening all at once, that it’s like, oh my gosh, how can I even what’s even going to happen?
Stephanie Marzella: 1:04:59
It’s. It’s moving so fast, if it’s moving fast for you,
Unknown: 1:05:04
oh, goodness, yeah, imagine how fast it’s moving for
Stephanie Marzella: 1:05:07
us, you know. And it’s, yeah, you know, it’s a journey,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:05:13
wild, yes,
Stephanie Marzella: 1:05:15
it’s funny too, because I remember, like, you know, being I was a member of the Providence art club in Rhode Island, you know, just looking at the older women artists, like, you know, that you admired and and just thinking, wow, there’s like, they’re really up there in their careers, and I really admire them. I want to go talk to her, but like, I’m nervous too. And then all of a sudden, you’re that older woman artist, you know, you were saying, like, the joy of like, it just it takes, you know, it’s a long time, but it’s like, you know, to earn the sort of the respect you deserve in this industry. You know that you in this industry, and you know, and then before you know it, you’re the, you’re the 80 year old artist still doing it out there that people you know, time is like flying by, but you still feel like you’re young, you know, yeah, young in spirit. And that’s what I love about being an artist, you know, that never goes away.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:06:12
Hopefully, hopefully, yes. I was gonna say the same thing, yeah. And then I wanted to ask you also, do you have any final advice for someone out there who wants to become a full time artist,
Stephanie Marzella: 1:06:26
besides overcoming the financial struggles of it, I would say I’ve said it before in this interview, is, is, it’s discipline. It’s 100% discipline. I that’s the biggest thing I can attribute to making it in this career and making it through. I’m really emotional person. I can get depressed. I can get down. All my friends, know, you know, when I’m talking to them on the phone, I’m like, you know? But it’s perseverance, it’s, it is it really comes down to discipline. I think that’s the some people say, passion, whatever. I think it’s discipline now, it’s like, you gotta, you gotta get in that studio. You know, can’t be here and there, you know, granted, if you’re juggling a job that you know, that makes it a lot harder, but it’s just and you have to have a style now. So that’s one thing. Younger people ask me about approaching galleries. How did you do it? How did you approach galleries, or whatever? And the one thing is, you have to have a body of work. I mean, that’s, I think, and it has to be, it has to look like you did it all. You have to, you know, you have to have a style. You know, you don’t want to, unless your style is like, really, and you do. You can do whatever, people, dogs, landscape and it all, you know. You know, some artists can do everything. I wish I could, but I can’t, and my heart is in landscape. But the you have to have a solid body of work where it’s signature work, you know, like that. That’s who you are now, granted, our work is going to change gradually over a course of a career. But you can’t bring in, you know, approach a gallery with random different paintings, or, you know, different mediums. You have to look like you’re solid in what you’re doing, and they have to know you’re going to be producing that kind of work, and you’re going to be bringing it in regularly, you know, you know they can’t be when you when you get to this level, like, you know, my gallery, they call me. I probably missed a call of theirs a handful of times in the 10 years they’ve been, I don’t know how long it’s been, eight or nine years this, this gallery. I mean, they’re like, I don’t care what I’m doing. When they call, they’re I’m answering the phone, you know, and whatever they need. I’m very fortunate that my gallery is here in town, and they are responsible for the majority of my sales, and I could just paint the work and drive it downtown. I don’t have to pack it or ship it. I’m spoiled, you know. But it’s, again, lost my train of thought. But that’s, it’s, you know, tenacity, I don’t know, but and living with other people, sharing costs, sharing costs, you know, but the when you were approaching galleries like you have to Well, when I moved here, I was represented by a lovely gallery too, and a little bit smaller and but I would, I had no friends here at all. I didn’t know any, you know, I knew of the artist through social media, but I didn’t know any so I went. I would go every month, Charleston has a Art Walk, and I would start out at the gallery that represented me, dare Gallery, and that I would go right down every month, down to the best gallery. So it’s kind of like a line of them. And I made a point to make that people. Knew who I was, you know, I would be like, I’m new in town, blah, blah, blah, and I was there every month. And the part of the reason I think Reiner, I was always, I always ended the Art Walk at their gallery, because our gallery was the most fun. Had great food, and they, you know, represented some great people. And you have to really put, you know, you have to put yourself out there. You have to put yourself out there in the eye, you know, in that in the gallery. You just never know. So I wasn’t even really sure. I know I wanted to approach them eventually. I’m not even sure how it kind of organically came about. But someone had seen one of their buyers who only bought work from their gallery, saw my work somewhere else, and was very moved by it. And then that woman who I’ve never had the privilege of meeting, told Reinert gallery, you really need to check out this woman’s work. Nobody does skies like she does. And that’s how that came about, word of mouth, you know, you’re like you never know. And they took it to heart. You know, they checked out my work and but they knew me from coming in the gallery all the time, you know, and I had some friends represented there. So, you know, it’s good to get yourself out there. It’s not easy to move when you’re in your 50s. You know, I left friendships that you know, 30 year friendships in Rhode Island and art connections. All of our friends were artists, and to go start over somewhere new, to take a risk like that. But it often pays off. But you have to get yourself out there and like let people know who you are and that you moved there, and that you exist and that, you know, because I think a lot of artists are, you know, we’re, it’s weird. We’re extroverts and we’re introverts, you know, like, I am really, like a homebody, you know, I like to be, I like to be in my house, and I really admire the so many of my colleagues like travel, like, on a monthly basis. Like, I honestly, I’m very fortunate that I can make my living painting in my studio, you know. Like, I like to go on trips and stuff. I hate to leave. My dogs I hate and they’re costly to leave. But, um, like, the amount of different things artists are doing to make a living, you know, teaching, teaching workshops, traveling, then we’re traveling for inspiration and ideas. And it’s such a huge it’s like social media, traveling, teaching workshops, demonstrations, entering competitions. I’m not, I’m really not a competition enterer, but all the different things, it’s like, it’s a lot of hats,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:12:48
you know, yes, exactly. It’s so much to keep track of, but, you know, I love that. In the end, it’s what you said, you know, I’m grateful that I can do this, because there is, in my opinion, there’s a payoff, which is, you feel fulfilled, right? You feel like you wake up in the morning and it’s like, Huh? I’m at peace, you know? Like, yeah, maybe some days you can have, like, some some mood shifts, but in the end, you know, you go back to your easel and you’re painting, and you’re sending your work, and someone’s buying it and admiring it in their home. You know, it’s like, that’s kind of crazy. When you think about it, I
Stephanie Marzella: 1:13:29
never consider a piece finished. We’re tapping on it before. When is it done? To me, it’s done when I start, like, it’s when the puzzle is finished. You know, like I’m looking around a canvas, and I’m like, nothing’s sticking out weird to me anymore, you know, like I’m looking, looking, looking, come back, you know, give it fresh eyes, looking, looking, looking, put it aside for a day, and then just like, nothing’s because usually there’s something, it’s like, I don’t like that, like, what’s happened there that’s sticking out too much. And then when it finally has that, I call it the hum, when it’s just nothing is jumping out at me, saying, Okay, you gotta fix me, you know. And then that’s when it’s done for me. But to me, when a piece is truly finished, is this cheapens it somehow, like when someone buys it, but it’s when someone, I mean, think of the rare connection that is. So I’m expressing myself on Canvas. So, you know, I’ve taken years to to come up with this style or whatever, and it’s hanging on a wall in a gallery. And I do a lot of little pieces too. I always will do little pieces. They’re labor intensive. You do not get not cost effect is effective, but I always want, I love small art. I can mostly collect small art, and I love that. I always want to have something lower end cost wise for new collectors. You know, whatever I like, I like all I love small art, but it’s when someone com. Comes into a gallery they don’t even know you exist. They don’t even know your work exists. Some people are coming in to see your work specifically, okay, but that they see your painting. And I know that my work moves people because my gallery calls me and tells me somebody was crying in front of one of your paintings today, and they had told you the story where they called me one day and said this man who was not an art lover, didn’t frequent galleries, you know, was there with friends in Charleston visiting, and he started crying in front of one of my paintings. And like, his wife was just like, what’s going on, you know? Like, she was like, I think she was embarrassed or something. And he was just like, I don’t know what’s going on. Like, he’s like, I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t even know, like, what’s happening right now, there’s just something about this painting that’s, I don’t know it’s, it’s, and he couldn’t really verbalize it, you know. And that, you know, it connected to his heart, and it moved him and moved him to tears. You know, my paintings can move me to tears, but it’s because they’re frustrating me sometimes.
Unknown: 1:16:05
Anyways, the that is an amazing
Stephanie Marzella: 1:16:10
you know, it comes from my heart. I feel like painting. My painting is spiritual. It’s my spirituality. And, you know, you sort of, you do you sort of give birth to it. It never becomes normal. It’s not like a paint by number, you know, ABC. I do it this. I do it this way, and it’s done. It’s always this process. But to me, a painting is finished when it connects with somebody enough where they’re like, I have to own that. I have to live with that. I have to bring that into my home that is like, and they’re paying a chunk of money too, you know, it’s like a, it’s an amazing compliment that your work can move somebody that, that they’ll buy it, you know, because they have to, they have to Have it. That that is rare. I think, probably too rare, you know, but look how amazing that is. It is, you know, you were sitting in front of a white canvas, and all of a sudden this, you create this thing that’s attached to your heart and soul, and then it connects to somebody else’s heart and soul, and they buy it. That’s when it’s finished. That’s when the process is complete. That’s what I think,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:17:28
yeah, I totally agree. It’s, I think that’s one of the beauties of being an artist, is, you know, that connection that you just mentioned. And often, sometimes it can happen with multiple people too, or, like multiple people might like, you know, one painting or react to it. And of course, only one, one of them can purchase it, unless you sell prints. But I think, I think that’s the nice part. The really beautiful part of being an artist is connecting with people, you know, through emotion, through color, through experience. Because in the end, you know, we’re all, we’re all trying to figure this stuff out, too,
Unknown: 1:18:05
you know, right? Yeah, yeah.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:18:09
But then, if someone did want to go see your work, are you, do you have any upcoming shows exhibitions, or do you have any work in your gallery?
Stephanie Marzella: 1:18:19
Year round at Reinhard fine art. They mean they don’t have specific shows. They just exhibit their artists work. And at Ballards in Wyoming, Ballards fine art. And right now I’m in in a guest as a guest artist at a loom gallery. My website, I’m in the South. I do the southeastern wildlife Expo. And a lot of people come to Charleston for that in February, I just had a show at Reinhardt, a two person show at Ryan art in October. And what is it? September, wild women are doing a show at the Thunderbird foundation, so I’m excited about that. And we’ll, we’ll plan our paint out there, and we’ll all get together, you know, and it’s, we’re friends and colleagues, and it’s, it’s a really, that’s a really great group, newer group, great group, powerful women with a lot of spirit and a lot of tenacity, I think, you know,
Laura Arango Baier: 1:19:25
yes, yes. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing quite a few of you, and you’re all very wonderful, unique, spunky,
Unknown: 1:19:34
spunky women. I love it. It’s very inspiring.
Stephanie Marzella: 1:19:37
It’s a group. It’s like we’re wild at art, yeah, wild in spirit.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:19:46
Yeah. And then, do you mind telling us what your website and social media are?
Stephanie Marzella: 1:19:50
My website is www, Stephanie marzella.com easy. My name and my Instagram is Stephanie marzella. Am I forgetting Facebook? I’m forgetting anything. I don’t have a YouTube channel or anything like that. I’m impressed by you do all that stuff, but I’m easy to contact. Just google my name and, you know, I have like articles on my website Connect, you know, connected to my career and upcoming events, and as soon as I finish a painting, it gets put on my website.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:20:29
So, very disciplined, like you said, Well, I will be including all of your links in the show notes so our listeners can go check your stuff out and hopefully weep from joy, because it is very beautiful work to look at. Thank you. It’s so ethereal and magical. I totally recommend it.
Stephanie Marzella: 1:20:53
Thank you. I hope that I like that. I do think it’s magical.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:20:59
It is. I love it, yeah? So thank you so much for being a guest on the show today.
Stephanie Marzella: 1:21:05
Thank you for having me, and it was really nice to meet you too. Yeah, yeah, you too. So I will be listening for your next podcast after this.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:21:15
Heck yeah. I hope so. All
Stephanie Marzella: 1:21:17
right, well, have a good night. Now. You’re in the you’re in the night time already, right? So have a good, relaxing evening. Thank you.
Laura Arango Baier: 1:21:25
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