Name: Angelica Clyman
Website: http://www.angelicaclyman.com/
· Do you make a career out of or hope to make a career out of art, or is it a sideline for you?
My art is a top priority and passion for me. Right now, teaching art is my bread and butter, but I find that painting and teaching both fuel each other.
· What is it about your work that makes it speak to people or to the community at large?
I can only make guesses at what other people see in my work. Every set of eyes bring something different, and take away a separate impression. I’ve been told that some people are drawn to the silence in my pictures. The figures I paint are alone in a quiet world, and that leads some to contemplate on the nature of memory and internal experience – since there is so much noise in our daily lives!
· How do you let people know about your work?
My website is an important tool. When people hear you’re an artist, they always ask: “what kind of work to you do?” It’s a difficult question to answer without images! Having a website also opens your work up to a vast audience. I was so surprised when I found a Chinese site had linked my page on a message board and was discussing my ceramic work, simply because they found me when surfing the web!
· What do you feel inspires you to make art in the particular medium you have chosen?
Most of the time I’m painting in oils, or working in clay. Both media are very sensual, and that attracts me to the process. If I didn’t enjoy the smell of the paint or the texture of the clay, I don’t think I’d be able to keep my focus on the piece I’m working!
· Why Miami?
I was born and raised in South Florida, so it’s just home. I used to not think much about my surroundings in relation to my work, but now that I’ve been looking around and asking myself how my enviornment affects me, I think my work has been growing. Although you’ll rarely see a palm tree in my paintings, South Florida is a huge part of my art. I received a call from a man a few months ago who saw my work in a show, and he told me how it made him feel so nostalgic for an older Miami. My inspiration is not always what I think comes across in my work, and I was pleasantly surprised that someone else felt it too.
· Do you have a favorite artist from the past or present?
It’s really hard to choose. Just like my favorite song or movie, it’s constantly changing. Right now I’m completely obsessed with Edward Hopper. I’ve been looking at his work for so long, but I just feel like I’m starting to really SEE it. There is so much romance in just the way he paints light hitting the most ordinary wall.
· If someone wanted to get into being an artist, what would be your first suggestion to them?
Art is just like everything else – it can be learned, and you can improve. Everyone has the potential to be creative, but so many people have suffocated that spark within themselves because they think you have to be born with some special genius to be called an “artist”. As a painter, I think a good first step is to draw every day.
