The Quick Q & A editorial in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine is a much loved regular feature, in which we ask 5 artists the same 4 questions. In the 10th Anniversary June 2023 Issue 41, these were the Quick Q & A questions:
- How do you maintain your individuality as an artist and avoid being influenced by others in your field?
- Tell us about your earliest memories of creating art and when you first realised that you wanted to be an artist?
- How do you balance your personal life with your art career while ensuring a healthy work/life balance?
- How do experimentation and risk-taking play a role in your creative process?
We feel that the artists’ responses provide such a valuable insight for our community of artists that we wanted to share one Quick Q & A response from each issue with you, going forward. The June 2023 Issue 41 print issue is sold out, but you can download the digital magazine via our webstore to read more. To ensure you never miss an issue again, you can also subscribe to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, and have each issue sent straight to your door each quarter.
Excerpt from Issue 41 // June 2023 Quick Q & A editorial: Lou Benesch, Loputyn, Petite Doll [2023 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, INPRNT Photography Award, 1st Prize Winner], Karen Turner [2023 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, RAYMAR Traditional Art Award Finalist], and Win Wallace [2022 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, Honourable Mention], all respond to the below Quick Q & A:
Quick Q & A: How do you balance your personal life with your art career while ensuring a healthy work/life balance?
“Establishing a healthy work/life balance is something I still struggle with a lot. Being in my studio, painting, is where I feel the most comfortable, when I am the most in tune with my feelings, and I have a tendency to put the world on pause and stay in this hermit state a bit too much! The act of painting makes me want to paint more, so it’s like a never- ending cycle of inspiration. This can be great, but I also have to remind myself to create space outside of this bubble. I have to promise myself to try, as much as possible, to check in with my energy levels, creatively and physically, and take the time to recharge outside of my practice!”
Loputyn
“I’m still trying to learn how to maintain a healthy work/life balance! I think the most useful thing in a healthy life is to create a routine. But at the same time, the problem for me personally is that following a routine is a direct way to kill my creativity. Right now, my way to stay balanced is to alternate periods of strict routine with periods of lightness. That allows me to decompress and rebalance. For example, when I’m working on a book, I need to stay focused for months organising the same amount of work per day. When I finish, I draw something totally different, just for fun and without deadlines, or I enjoy long walks. I absorb energy from the outside, to put into my works.”
“Balancing a personal life with an art career can be challenging, especially when the drive to create is strong. Sometimes I’m so absorbed in my projects that it’s difficult to step back and take time for myself. However, lately, I’m realising the importance of maintaining a healthy work/life balance. I make a conscious effort to step back and reset, even if it means taking some time off from creating. In today’s world, it’s often viewed as necessary to be constantly productive, but I’m learning to prioritise my mental and physical well-being to ensure that I can continue to create and grow as an artist. It’s an ongoing process, something that requires constant reflection and adjustment.”
“With difficulty! At the moment, I work seven days a week as I have a (home-based) office job as well as working full time as an artist, so there’s very little time for anything else. Thankfully, my husband does all of the housework so I don’t have to worry about any of that, but I’m definitely looking forward to the day when I can have my weekends back for weekending! I feel really fortunate to be able to combine the two jobs, as it allows me to invest all of the income from my art back into furthering my art career. But as that continues to flourish, I’m starting to realise that it won’t be long before something will have to change.”
Win Wallace
“I’m getting ready for a solo show in October at La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, so right now it’s all work. In general, though, I don’t have what one would describe as a work/ life balance. I think it’s true in a lot of ways for most artists. If you create visual art, you’re always “looking”. If it’s music, you’re always listening. There is no telling when something will appear and give rise to an “idea”, and it’s important to always be open and ready to catch it before it slips away. I tend to think “Art” is more of a way of living than most typical vocations. There’s often a lengthy amount of time involved in wrestling an “idea” into existence.”
