Meet Greg Edmondson

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Greg Edmondson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Greg, so great to have you with us today. There are so many topics we want to ask you about, but perhaps the one we can start with is burnout. How have you overcome or avoided burnout?
In the 2020s, I think burnout has become a collective human experience… but the “art world” is a pressure cooker, and that burnout can feel amplified and super-heated. Most artists have, at least for a time, had to maintain a “day job” to afford continued studies or practice. But many artists today find themselves also forced to become their own agent, manager, publicist, event planner, sales rep, grant writer and presentation platform… That relentless hustle to acquire new and preserve existing opportunities can understandably burn anyone out. It has left me at times feeling as if making art, the actual practice of working in studio, is the one thing I have no time for. I joked recently with friends that I needed to get a grant, to hire a grant writer, so I could continue applying for grants. I’ve been a working artist for 40 years now. Most days, to still be making art at 67 feels like a privilege, but when burnout struck, to be still making art felt like a really bad habit I was just never able to kick. Getting past burnout for me was complicated. When you are “driven”, it isn’t easy to be gentle with yourself. Remembering to relax and enjoy little things… a change of scenery… Honestly working in the studio, but without a target or exhibition goal was super helpful. I made up studio exercises that kept me working, but not toward any specific outcome. Artist Residencies have been amazing ways to meet and often collaborate with other artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. They can offer an ability to see your own work differently.
I guess just getting out of my own head, and getting out of my own way are what ultimately got me past it. I wish I had realized those two things sooner – but I’m still trying to be a little gentle with myself.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am a visual artist who has been making things and playing with materials for 40 years. I grew up in Oak Ridge Tennessee and earned my BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I earned an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis and then spent five years living in Germany on Fulbright and DAAD fellowships. I’ve been a sculptor, a painter and sometimes photographer. I’ve also been a college professor, art handler, truck driver and carpenter. I’ve built sets for film and television and made imagery and objects for advertising. Being an artist for a long time usually ensures that you’ve worn far more than one hat. Currently I’m focused on a series of paintings and reconstructing my studio after the isolation and uncertainty of the pandemic and the whirlwind of activity that followed.
I have upcoming projects at Three Rivers College in Missouri, KCAC in Kansas City, and the Studio Break Gallery in Chicago.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Discipline, Knowledge and Honesty… It takes discipline to keep making art. “Inspiration” is wonderful, but I’ve found that it comes more often from working, experimenting, playing with materials and ideas, than it ever just strikes you out of nowhere.
Knowledge of what other artists are doing and what others have done before is incredibly important. It provides a context or reference for what you are trying to do now and keeps you from “re-inventing the wheel”. It’s humbling to realize that you are less unique, than part of a long tradition with a rich history… but it’s also encouraging.
By honesty, I mean making work about what you are honestly interested in or fascinated by. Chasing trends is a fool’s errand. What honestly interests you may change or shift, but it will never disappear.
I have to close by listing one more quality that sits atop the three I’ve mentioned, and they all point directly to it. Curiosity!
Stay curious and you’ll always have more to learn and more to do.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I’ve very much enjoyed the opportunities I’ve had to collaborate with others, both from inside and outside my own discipline. In 2017 I worked with the poet John Dorsey to produce the cover, and contribute 15 images for his book “Shoot the Messenger”. In 2019 I worked with 12 poets from the US and Europe to publish “After the Flood”, a collection of watercolors made by me over the course of one year, and poems written or selected in response to the paintings. 2019 is also the year I began collaboration with the physicist and poet Agnes Vojta. This collaboration culminated with the exhibition DARK MATTER at The Smalter Gallery in Kansas City in 2022. Four paintings from this project are in the current issue of the literary Magazine, The New Territory, and one became the cover artwork for Jonathan Kline’s 2022 novel, “The Wisdom of Ashes/Standing at the Gate”. I have co-curated projects with other visual artists, most notably “Fact or Fiction” with Brandon Anschultz and Michael Behle in 2016, and “The Thing is a Code, The Code a Refrain” with Michael Woody in 2017. I would love the opportunity to work with other artists toward projects in the future. Please reach out with any questions or interest to my website, or [email protected].

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Image Credits
Greg Edmondson

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