— The featured artist of the 87th issue of Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine is AWAKE artist Barbara Mierau-Klein (originally of Germany, now living in the United States). It’s wonderful to be able to interview Barbara here on Quill and Camera . . .
Q: “What got you started in digital photo artistry?”
I came to digital photo art in a very roundabout way.
Growing up in Germany I was exposed to art from an early age and came to appreciate it. I remember for a while I was taken by French Impressionists and I always loved the vibrant colors of Venetian Glass. But I certainly never ever considered a career in the arts.
This is because I had a firm goal in my mind – I was going to help fight poverty in developing countries. I made that my pursuit and ended up working for pretty much my whole career on projects and programs mostly in Latin America. So I studied Economics and Finance – lots of maths and analytics – but definitely no art.
The only indication of any possible artistic tendencies lurking in the back of my mind was the fact that I always loved photography. I got my first camera when I was about 10 or 12. It was one of those $2 promotional things that took terrible pictures, but I really enjoyed it and carried it around with me all the time.
Of course, in those days, film was expensive, and I was busy with my career and raising a family. So I never learned any technical aspects of photography. It was more about developing an intuitive feeling for color and light.
That all changed when I retired. I had a chance to retire early, and I grabbed the opportunity to finally learn the technical ins and outs of photography and post-processing. I started taking lots of courses and the whole thing kind of snowballed. The more courses I took the more joy I took from my camera. Then I discovered travel photography and ever since have enjoyed traveling to quite remote (and stunningly beautiful) areas all over the world.
How did I get from traditional photography to digital photo artistry? Well with photography I pretty quickly reached the stage where I had thousands of images in my library, I had set up my own website, I had published several photography books, won a bunch of awards – sort of what many photographers do. But it was not clear where else I could go with this. And I had all these photos sitting around.
That’s when in 2013 (I can’t believe it’s been this long!), I chanced upon the advertisement for the Photoshop Artistry course . . . which asked quite pertinently, “Now that you have accumulated all these photos – what are you going to do with them?”
It was perfect timing. I signed up, got completely hooked, advanced through all the levels, and never looked back.
Q: “What does living the photo artistic life mean to you?”
Having signed up for the Photoshop Artistry course and advanced through AWAKE and on then to the KAIZEN Group has completely changed my life. It truly did awaken the artist in me — an artist I did not even suspect existed.
Before I embarked on this journey, I would have laughed off the possibility that I would ever refer to myself as an “artist” — me, a rational, analytically trained economist? Ha! But that is exactly where I have arrived.
Art now permeates my life and has altered completely how I spend my time. Living an artistic life means that most days I now spend hours engrossed in creating new digital art pieces. It has become an essential part of my life and I derive great joy and satisfaction from it.
Another aspect of living an artistic life that I love is that to continue growing creatively as a photo artist, I am always learning new techniques and approaches. The possibilities are boundless, and continually learning helps me expand my creative horizons and experiment with the endless possibilities for artistic expression inherent in digital art. It keeps things fresh and makes every day an adventure.
Q: “How do you approach your work? Any particular process you tend to follow?”
It has been fascinating to me to discover how a piece of art comes into being. I generally approach my images one of two ways. Either I start out with a broad concept for an image, or I start with an element, photo, or even a background from my stash that happens to catch my attention that day.
In the process of working on the image, it morphs and develops a life of its own. So I just follow along as things evolve and go with whatever looks good what feels good, whatever strikes me — and I may end up with something very different from what I set out to do. My analytically trained mind struggled with this initially, but now I relish the process.
I have also found that some of the influences from my exposure to art as a young adult — my enjoyment of French Impressionists and the vibrant colors of Venetian Glass — are finding their way back into my art.
As part of the finishing process of my images I often apply filters that create a somewhat painterly, Impressionistic style. And I am instinctively drawn to vibrant colors — indeed, if the image does not start out that way, I almost always find various means of adding more vibrancy during the final stages.
Q: “What inspires your work?”
Beyond those early influences I already described . . . I get many ideas from just listening to songs, looking at art books, visiting art galleries, and from experiences on my photography trips.
But first and foremost, so much of my inspiration comes from the great pieces of art created by the talented artists from the AWAKE and KAIZEN groups. I love being part of this circle of fellow artists. And they continually provide me with immense stimulation and an encouraging environment to branch out and try new things creatively.
Q: “Any advice or tips for aspiring digital artists?”
In a way I am glad I came to become a digital artist somewhat later in life with a full career already behind me. Not only did the technology for digital art not exist when I started out and I could not have done what I so enjoy now, but I have had time to build the self-confidence to be rarely plagued by self-doubt or be affected by what anyone else thinks about my art.
I have learned to trust my gut and to know that what matters is that in my own eyes I have created something good and meaningful that is up to my own standards.
Of course it is still nice to get positive feedback and I always feel honored and grateful when others express an appreciation of my art. But it’s not something I reply upon.
Starting out in an artistic career as a young adult — when the opinions of others count for so much — must be so much harder.
Up to some point it is possible to criticize a photo or work of art on technical grounds, such as exposure, composition, lighting, etc. But beyond that it becomes entirely a matter of personal preferences. I have seen many cases where the same photograph or composition was dismissed by one reviewer yet elicited glowing praise by the next.
So to any new and budding artist my advice would be to accept any technical critiques of your art to improve what you are doing — up to a point — but never doubt yourself if in your gut you feel your art is good and, more importantly, if the process of creating it pleased you.