We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kate Dardine a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kate, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
Haha, I don’t really think anyone actually “overcomes” imposter syndrome. I think you just learn to recognize when the feelings of not really being who you are “pretending” to be come up. And when they do, you have to self talk yourself and remind yourself of what you have accomplished. And that whether art making comes easily to you or if you struggle (and on different pieces, I vacillate between the two) your vision and ability to manifest that vision in a way that resonates with others is what makes you an artist.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I create visual “dream stories” – my paintings are part allegory, part abstract, part representational – all emanating from the realm of the subconscious. The term “dream stories” comes from my childhood, when my sisters and I used to lay in bed on Saturday mornings, or summer mornings, and we’d create elaborate oral stories about adventures that our imaginary selves would take; mostly involving riding horses out west (I grew up in Connecticut). Some of these dream stories got turned into illustrated “books” – drawings done on notepads our Dad brought home from work.
I mostly paint with acrylics on either canvas or cradled birchwood panels – and I prefer the hard surface as it allows me to really scratch into the surface to created textures and takes a lots of back and forth, applying paint and scrubbing back. I particularly like acrylics for their immediacy and quick drying; when I am “in the zone” painting, layers can appear and disappear quickly. I also use some collage elements, charcoal, stabilo pencils and pastel pencils – whatever my hand goes for!
Part of the reason I love this immediacy is that I tend to paint in spurts. My studio is in my house, and I am often juggling art with my other “job”, which is managing my husband’s band. I also go several times a year to visit and help my 96 year old mom, and also have children and grand-children who all live nearby – so family takes up a bit of my band-width too. With four galleries across the country, I am constantly striving for balance between work, play and other obligations.
Lately I’ve been concentrating on creating pieces that are based on constellations, and the epic stories that were written to teach moral lessons or just provide entertainment. Camping under dark skies, you can really see how ancient humans were able to “see” animal and human form by “connecting the dots”. And recently I had an “aha” moment about my own art making while camping by the Animas River in New Mexico: as I gazed across the river at some rocky cliffs, the forms of animals and in particular an owl became very clear to me. My aha was that this is how I paint. I start with a very chaotic underpainting, and then just keep going until I “see” a form that my brain recognizes – and then I continue to find other elements – slowly building a story. As I do this, I feel a connection to the ancient ones who gazed at the same stars and the same rocks and made stories of their own.
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?
I think learning to listen to my own voice has been the most important part of my journey – both in my art and in my life. I don’t do things like other people do, and it took me quite a while to understand that each of us has our own unique perspective, and that to make art that is true and authentic to others, it has to ring true and authentic to you. Since the main question here was how did I overcome imposter syndrome, I think that is the answer to that – because if you are looking at other artists’ work, or seeing how good they are at marketing, or teaching, or whatever, and you are comparing yourself to them, you will most likely come up short. I have struggled with this for years, and in the beginning I tried to copy other successful artists’ style or felt inferior somehow because I wasn’t doing all the things I saw other successful artists do. And I certainly still struggle with public speaking. But I have come to understand that it is my vision and my style that my collectors are drawn to. And the more I reject the comparison game, the more I feel comfortable in my own journey, and the more comfortable I am in my own journey, the more successful I am.
Because the element of surprise and the delight of discovery is so important in my work, I have had to learn not to get too attached to any one element if it doesn’t work. My tendency is to fall in love with one part of a painting – but sometimes I have to let that go, destroy what is there in order for the painting to truly become what it needs to be. This is not easy to do, in fact I am working on a piece right now where I have became too attached to a part and now have lost the freshness in the whole piece because I’ve overworked other areas in order to “save” my precious part. So when I return to the piece, I’ll need to be ruthless and start over. It pains me to do it, but I know that in the end, I’ll know it was worth it!
Before I became a full time artist, I worked for nearly 30 years at Fine Print Imaging, a printing company that made reproductions for artists and photographers. I worked in all aspects of the business, from production to shipping to customer service and marketing, It was through this job that I learned valuable skills that have helped me in my art business: how to write a newsletter, how to maintain a website, how to package and ship artwork, how to photograph art. Plus, years and years of being surrounded by art and professional artists really put the bug in me that this was something I could do.
I think the best advice I can give artists beginning their journey is to start where you are at. My job at the printing company taught me valuable skills that I use every day. So look at your day job with fresh eyes and appreciate what you are learning that will help you on your journey. When I worked full time, I painted at night instead of watching TV. Join an art association, enter shows, take classes…but always listen to your inner voice and know that your most authentic – and therefore successful – work will come from inside you, what feels and looks right to you.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I love books, so picking one is difficult. But I have to say that A Painter’s Quest by Peter Rogers is the one that had – and continues to have – the most impact on my art.
The title – A Painter’s Quest; Art as a Way of Revelation is first and foremost what I strive for in my work.
In it, Peter says, “The quest I am speaking of is a quest for knowledge…together with science, religion, and philosophy, art is one of the four ways of the spiritual life of humanity. The knowledge to be acquired is spiritual knowledge. In other words, properly understood, art is a means to enlightenment.”
He also says, “Paintings should speak for themselves, and it would be wrong to suppose that they are meant to say precisely the same thing to everyone – they never do.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katedardine.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/totemkate
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/katedardineart
