Layers Upon Layers: Mixed Media Art

Artist Profile: Lisa Vollrath

by Cyndi on May 31st, 2007

She Watches

Artist: Lisa Vollrath
Business name: Ten Two Studios
Location: Euless, Texas

Websites:
LisaVollrath.com
Go Make Something
Just Print Something
Ten Two Studios

Dentist Box

Lisa, your business model is so different from that of most artists. How do you describe your work?
Right now, my work takes a lot of different forms. My personal artwork is usually mixed-media collage and assemblage using found or recycled objects. I also do a lot of digital artwork using my own photography. When I write articles for Go Make Something, I’m focused on all sorts of paper arts techniques, and encouraging people to just dive in and make stuff. When I write on LisaVollrath.com, I’m thinking more about creativity and the process behind making art. When I work on products for Ten Two Studios, I’m sort of putting all that together.

I often have a hard time describing what I do to people who ask what I do for a living. I’m an artist, but I don’t make a living from the sale of my artwork. I make my living from teaching other people how to make art, and from products that help them make that art. The sale of my finished pieces is often an afterthought, and is more about clearing some room in my studio than anything else. I’ve tried being someone who makes a living from selling her actual artwork, and I really didn’t like it much.

What is your creative process like?
I do a lot of thinking and planning outside my studio. I’ll make lists and spreadsheets of ideas that start out pretty random, and gradually become more focused and connected. When I finally get to the work table, I’m usually working on projects to fill specific needs, and almost always know what I’m going to make before I get there. It’s rare that I start a project just to play and see what will happen. I just don’t have that kind of time.

Gluebook

A lot of my creative process also involves delivery. Is this idea something I should explore in my personal art? Should I write about it, and if I do, is it going to be posted on one of my free content sites, or used in a publication offered for sale? Should I start a group for people who want to explore it with me? One of my favorite examples of this process is my work with gluebooks. I started seeing them pop up on European web sites in the summer of 2004. I was working as a product designer at the time, and they fascinated me because they required absolutely no products. I wrote about them in September of 2004, and at the same time, opened a Yahoo group that offered a place to play with this type of collage in a totally low stress way. It was something I just threw out there because it was interesting, and I wanted to explore it. Who knew that so many others would be drawn to the idea?

In terms of the actual making of things, well, I’ve been pretty open about the state of my work room. Periodically, I’ll grab my camera and shoot the disaster that is my work table. It’s ridiculously cluttered, with two square feet of emptiness where I work and shoot photos.

What kind of experiences have helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
I feel like I’ve been on a weird, rambling road to where I am now. I started out as a costume designer, and did my graduate degree in design for the stage. Along the way from there to here, I’ve designed two different lines of artist-quality collectible teddy bears, baby and toddler clothes for the JC Penney catalog, flowers for weddings and home decor, scrapbook papers and stickers. I’ve taught in college and at trade shows. I’ve written for half a dozen web sites before I finally started focusing on my own. I’ve sold craft products at the retail level, and marketed them at the corporate level. All of that has influenced the artist I am now.

e journal page

Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
My computer. Two nights ago, there was a power failure at about 7PM, and it stayed down until about 9AM the next morning. I was lost. Everything I thought of doing needed a piece of computer equipment. I knew I used it a lot, but I didn’t realize before now that if someone took my computer away, I’d have to start all over again from square one. I’d have to learn how to be an artist all over again.

What inspires you to create?
Honestly, I don’t wait for inspiration. Making things, and then writing about making them is what I do. That’s my version of going to the office every day. The fact that the office is ten feet from my bed, and I can go there in my jammies is pretty great, but it’s still my job. If I don’t create, I go out of business. The mortgage must be paid, the dog must have dog chow, so these five projects must be finished by the end of the week. Those things are my motivation to feel inspired.

Patron Saint of Rust

What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I’m really deadline driven, so the calendar motivates me. If I’m having a hard time finishing a how-to CD, I announce it to my mailing list, and take pre-orders for it to ship on a specific date. Having 100 orders that must be shipped two weeks from Friday is a powerful motivator to get on with it! A lot of my work is set up that way. I send out a weekly newsletter every Sunday, so I need things to talk about every week to generate the traffic that results in clicks on ads and sales on my business site. I have a monthly paid subscription zine, so I need a group of projects for that. I do the occasional print zine that needs artwork. It’s weird, but those deadlines really do energize me. Ask me to send you something whenever I get around to it, and I’ll probably never get it to you. Ask me for something by the end of the week, and I have no trouble coming up with an idea and making
something by then.

Even with all the deadlines, I have a lot of empty space built into my schedule. If something is due on Friday, and I feel like going shopping Wednesday afternoon, nine times out of ten, I can just drop what I’m doing and go. I cut myself a lot of slack in terms of work time. If I don’t want to work, I don’t. As long as I let myself have that time, I have no trouble meeting the deadlines.

What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
When I read what people write in their blogs, or to message boards, I see a lot of excuses for not creating. Fear is a big one. Fear of not being good enough. Fear that I’m not doing it right. Fear that someone will poke at my finished piece with a stick and laugh at it. That’s such a waste of time. Who cares if it’s bad, or if you do it wrong, or if someone laughs? If you’re having a good time, and you’re making things, you’re learning and growing. Maybe what you learn today is that you shouldn’t have done something, or that adding this to that makes your work table catch fire. That’s part of the process. You have to make a lot of bad art, and a lot of stupid mistakes before you become a confident artist. Unfortunately, they have to be your mistakes and bad art—you can’t just sit back and read about mine, and gain the confidence that way.

The Calm Before the Storm

What takes up the majority of your time besides your art?
My house. I bought an old house in need of renovation seven years ago. I gutted the kitchen as I was moving in, and redesigned the layout of the front section of the house. I’ve replaced all the flooring, and every door in the house. All the walls and ceilings needed repair and retexturing. I’m sort of winding down on the interior work now, and am starting on the exterior. This year, I’m learning about landscaping.

What comforts you?
My dog Weevil, totally. He shows up in all my artwork, because he’s always available to model. He makes me laugh at least once a day. He reminds me at regular intervals to get up from the computer or away from the work table.

Weevil in Bluebonnets

About five years ago, Weev and I were photographed for a book about women and their dogs, and the photographer asked me for a quote about him: my dog Weevil is twenty pounds of unconditional love in an attractive, furry package.

Weevil Stamps

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POSTED IN: Artist Profiles, Assemblage, Book Arts, Business tips, Collage, Creativity, Digital Art, Mixed Media, Paper, Photography