We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Janet Fagan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Janet , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
As a career Artist, I am often asked what has given me the resilience to stick with a professional path that is often so wrought with ups, downs, and uncertainties. There are several parts to this answer. First of all, the stories I grew up with all centered around the rewards of not giving up. My parents came through many hardships that informed the stories they would share and although the circumstances of their narratives were often tragic or harrowing, my parents modeled resiliency and optimism in moving through the hard times. They celebrated the ever present possibility of success despite hardship. I internalized this culture as a young person and it taught me to look at each setback for the silver lining within it. I trained myself over a lifetime of looking for the good in dark times to be an optimist and that is a leading quality I still cultivate. Being optimistic is not something that always comes easy, but it is the scaffold for my resiliency. I maintain a positive outlook by actively reframing negative situations to empower my ability to see beyond them. I try to never cast myself as a victim but see the large picture of myself in a series of choices of how to respond at any given time to give myself the best feeling and outcome. I also always remember my Dad’s advice when I would despair over a fork in the road or the temptation to shift paths into a career that was not heart-centered by instead driven by my fear of not having enough. His advice was two fold – he would say “just get in front of your easel” and “just keep moving”. I have found in my life as an Artist these two pieces of advice can slay any dragon.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
As a professional artist I am also a small business and divide my time between creating in the studio and doing the day to day things that help my studio to stay productive. My work is inspired by the central idea that wild lands are where I find my truest sense of “home” and the oceans, trees, mountains and animals within these lands are valuable for their own sake, as are the experiences we have and the memories we make while in these spaces. My studio is in Mazama, Washington which is in the heart of the Methow Valley where I am fortunate to be able to move through wild spaces out my door. This engagement with nature is an important part of my studio practice and drives my work. The small towns of the Methow Valley are also a very important part of my heart and I strive to join in community to help nurture the creative and natural world here by volunteering for arts and environmental organizations and providing workshops and educational experiences that share my love for this world with others.
The most exciting thing that has happened for my studio practice this year is that because of a grant I was awarded last fall I have been able to expand my website and make my art more accessible for people over a wider range of incomes and life-styles. Just as I feel it is important that wild lands be accessible to all, I want my work to also be inclusive. To this end, through the funding I received I have been able to have my work professionally photographed and now offer high quality reproductions on canvas and paper through my website. It is exciting for me to see how the audience for my work has already broadened, even though I am only a few months in to this expansion in my production and marketing.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
It is such a gift to be able to look back at one’s life and recognize the value in what you have been given. If I had to choose three qualities or skills that have been the most impactful in my journey I could easily select gratitude, optimism and learning to draw. Just as gratitude allows one to pause and recognize that we are never entitled to anything we receive and we always have more than we think we do, optimism gives me the chance to rejoice in what is good and see the good even when it is hiding. Finally, learning to draw is the scaffold for all art as well as life. It makes everything easier and more honest. Practicing drawing (from life especially) is a great way to cultivate both gratitude and optimism because you can not look for long at anything without seeing the light in it and falling at least a little bit in love with it.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like?
I love that you asked who my ideal client would be because I cherish getting to know my collectors. What I love about people in general are the stories they come with. When someone falls in love with a piece of my work, or I do a commission for someone, they often come to me with a story. I feel such honored that they trust me with their story and allow me to add to it through my work. My perfect collector is the person I so often see – trusting, communicative and compassionate. They share willingly and come to me because they feel something in my work that resonates with them. They feel deeply and often become emotional when viewing art. They believe in the power and connection within art and are not afraid to support that love by investing in the artists that make the work. I feel so grateful every time a connection is made – whether through a gallery sale, a commission or simply a warm conversation about what is seen and felt. I became an artist at 18 to communicate on a deeper level than I was able to attain with verbal language. Every time I get to listen to a story or feel that I have been heard by a client, that early and on-going desire for a call and response is fulfilled.
Contact Info:
- Website: JanetFagan.com
- Instagram: @Janet_Fagan_Artist
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JanetFaganArtist/
