Encaustic, Sabbaticals and Creativity

On a warm sunny Saturday afternoon, Deborah Kruger and I sat down to chat over sesame noodles with tofu and broccoli. We met in her studio in Florence, Mass. Four floors up, the breeze whipping through the open windows, piles of fabric and books surrounded us.

 

 The tag sale, aimed at downsizing her studio, was winding down. In the few years Deborah Kruger's fiber sculptures have been in exhibitions all over the U.S.; she has two new galleries in the Berkshires carrying her work; she keeps in touch with interested parties via an email newsletter; she is busy, busy, busy. Her art career just ready to go vroom...oh, and she is going on sabbatical.

Deborah it is so good to see you. It has been well over a year and a half.
I know, I hate to think how long it has been. It is good to see you, too.

Well, we are together now and we will make the most of it. Thanks so much for talking with Valley Fiber Life. As I turned this interview over in my mind, I couldn’t help but jump from one topic to another…your artwork of course, but there are the Empowering Women in the Arts workshops, your business, your children your commitment to getting your work out into the world, and something provocative you said over lunch the last time we were together.

Deborah Kruger in the studioLet’s start with your workshops. There is an Artists and Money workshop scheduled for November in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Money is such a broad topic, where are you going with this? 

I see myself as evidence that if I can do it as a single mother, business owner and artist, then anyone can. Most people have a conflicted relationship with money regardless of their situation. A lot of us are unconsciously repeating patterns we grew up with.

My workshop provides an opportunity to look at the relationship we have with money, what it is born from, and look at how that relationship is helping or hindering our lives. Many artists struggle around money and feel defeated by it. This workshop will offer tools to anyone who seriously desires more success.

So why did you choose to take a sabbatical now when your work is so active and popular?
Typically, academics are the only people who go on sabbatical. They go off, do research, complete projects, travel. I know that having a long uninterrupted time to work will profoundly change my art. Anyway, couldn’t we all use a break about once a decade or so?

When I realized there was no good reason why I couldn't take a six month sabbatical, I decided to make it happen. I looked at how I could afford to do that. Owning my business for 29 years, I have had my share of working in every department. Gradually, I have started to take off the hats by hiring others to handle more jobs. Last year, I removed the last hat.

I have a very capable staff handling my business. I still work, but for the most part I am not needed on a day-to-day basis. My children are grown and out of the house. So I rented out my house and I am in the process of downsizing my studio and in September I am off to Mexico to focus on my artwork and art career.

You are brave to go out of the country for your experiment!
Actually, it is practical. The moment I cross the border, the value of my dollar increases by 40%. It's kind of crazy but by living the life of my dreams, I finally have a shot at saving money for the first time! It’s very liberating.Deborah's Destination: San Miguel Allende

I will be in the mountains of central Mexico for about five months and then I’ll travel to northern Georgia where I have been accepted to an artist colony for six weeks. Their deal is ‘come and work and we will house you, feed you and give you a quiet studio to work in.’ I can handle that!

Could we talk about something you said a year or so ago...we were having lunch and we were talking about what was next for both of us and you said..."I am going to be engaged to myself." That was such a profound statement for me to hear. It is one thing to say it, but another to live it. So I wanted to ask how it is being engaged to yourself? You had just made the decision that your art was coming first now because the children were moving on. 
 Detail of Raptor, fiber and encausticLet’s push the metaphor a little bit...when I said that at lunch with you, I was getting engaged. Now I am getting married.

What has the courtship been like? Deborah pauses...thoughtfully forming her words.
Well… like any courtship, you feel giddy but are always asking, 'Are you sure? Are you sure this is what you want?' Obstacles arose as if I was being tested to see if I was really sure, really committed. Some of these distractions were quite lovely and tempting.

But you could always see the path? The path was ultimately more enticing? How many things can we say that about? Laughs.
I come to this with a full heart. But, when you make any big decision, there is always a sense of loss. You have to un-choose something else. Even as I down size my studio, I am un-choosing certain materials and media.

At 56 years old, I fully intend to be an active artist for the next forty years. I accept that there are some media (quilting, printmaking) that are no longer going to be part of my palette, projects that I will never make and I need to let them go.

That is so liberating in and of itself! Along the way, it seemed that the more techniques we could master, the more media we could juggle, the more of an artist we were…where the heck does that idea come from?
That comes from a big creative appetite.

Hence, my hips and too many different art supplies. Laughs. Raptor 2; Fiber, encaustic, oilstick, paint; 72 X 16"
Maybe at a certain stage of artistic development you are acquiring a bigger tool box. For me it is going from macro to micro. I have to make choices now; this is not about narrowing...but focusing...going really deep into what I am most preoccupied with and not getting distracted by other potential creativity.

This is commitment within a commitment. In order to find excellence I have to be committed to the path I now find myself on.

Seeking excellence is a theme I read throughout your website. You talk about 'creating a superb body of work before you can even think about exhibiting.' At what point did you know this body of work (the Plumage series) was superb?
I have a pretty rigorous set of criteria to evaluate mine and other people's work, a set of tools that I gained while studying textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).

These tools have morphed into my philosophy: a great piece of artwork transcends its materials, it’s obvious content, and even transcends its maker. It synthesizes all of this and transforms into something truly unique. This body of work has been about ten years in the making.

How did it evolve and where do you see it going?
In the thick of child rearing, I had little time for studio work. It was very distressing to have four hours blocked out for work and to spend it perseverating on what I wanted to create. I remembered something from FIT that had a huge influence on me.

Our professor would give a design assignment with very crisp parameters.....'Go make something with an Egyptian influence....make it in a certain scale....it has to be in three color ways.....etc.’ With parameters in hand, the class would go off to fulfill the assignment. The following week, 20 students would put up work that met all the parameters; however, none of the work looked similar. The diversity of the solutions never failed to amaze me.

So I thought, I would try giving myself an assignment. Back then, I decided all my work would be triangular, because I liked 'em. I would use paint, fabric, oil sticks and a color scheme. I chose a size to work within. And, if I wanted to add an additional visual element, I could only do one or two, not five.

The last part of the assignment was in some ways the hardest...I couldn't think about what the work meant and why I was doing it. No journaling...no, what does it mean?...no, why am I doing it? Four hours, just do it. I have been working this assignment now for ten years.

I love it. Purely about the work. The cacophony of all those inner voices stifled.
I felt this incredible freedom. Structure gives you freedom. The opposite is anarchy and anarchy does not engender creativity—structure does.  Fiber and encaustic elements on the design board.

 
Which is anathema to what I was taught in art school. But what you are experiencing goes back to the early art schools which drilled certain ways of doing things. You had to meet a structure before you deviate from it. Perfect. So I learned that within these seemingly strict criteria, there was endless creativity.

So allow me for a second...does it ever feel confining?
Never—the opposite. A body of work has its own structure and inner intelligence. One piece begets the next. You can take as many pieces as you like to say what you have to say. You have three ideas; you have to do three more pieces to get those three ideas out. The body of work allows you the freedom to keep going. At this point I no longer restrict myself to the triangle and the work has branched out into more flowing forms like wings and cascades that harmonize better with the feather-like components that I make with fiber and encaustic.

I grapple with this all the time. I'll be down in the studio huffing and puffing-reminding myself that I don't have to do everything on one piece. There are other pieces waiting to be made.

I don't clog up the creative process. I let each piece sing any new ideas that bubble up go into the next piece. One thing I did learn...write down every idea that comes to you because you can't remember them all and you don't want lose them. I star them in my sketchbook to remind myself 'This is something I need to come back to.'Metal feathers. Made at Snow Farm welding class. Approximately 10" x 13"

One idea is making the pieces larger. I would like to extend my reach into corporate and public environments and this desire has necessitated research into more durable materials. I am beginning to work in metal and recently took a welding class at Snow Farm in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

My challenge with this larger work is to keep a fiber sensibility despite using more industrial materials. This process is in its infancy and I will be taking elements with me to Mexico to continue developing this new direction.

Deborah and I walk around the studio as she shows me different pieces in the fiber to metal process. And what do I find…

Metal with a fiber sensibility; transcending the materials.
I am really looking forward to this sabbatical year. Going back to our relationship metaphor: you know how great it is when you love someone and you think of the best gift for them...weeks and months of anticipation because you know this gift is just perfect. That is what I want to do with my art. Let my art find its right audience in the world, like the perfect gift.

Which brings us back to one of the first things we started talking about...it is all about the work. After the children are done being first, then the work can be first. I don’t want the attention in my life to be about me, I want it to be about my work. I want fewer distractions from human relationships and more of an intimate relationship with my work. I feel so nourished by this deep connection with my art and materials.

 
I think this is a perfect thought to end with. Thanks so much, Deborah.

Deborah's Artist & Money workshop is scheduled for November 19, 20, and 21 at Lake Sunapee, NH. Go to www.deborahkruger.com for further information. Deborah's work is currently represented by The Wit gallery, and Lenox Judaica.

 Please visit Deborah's site for more exhibition information.   

 

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