Today we’d like to introduce you to Patricia Aaron.
Patricia, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I began my own studio practice after completing graduate school. I built my studio, purchased tools, and began teaching college-level sculpture and painting classes with University of Colorado Denver, University of Denver, Regis University and Arapahoe Community College.
My own business began to take off after spending considerable time working on developing my signature style painting technique. I have an entrepreneur mindset and love coming up with small business ideas.
I have been invited to show in local, national, international, and university galleries, and museums.
My work is in private, corporate and museum collections.
At this time, I have a full-time studio practice. I show my work locally with Space Gallery and SPACE ANNEX in Denver, CO.
In addition in my studio, I offer mentoring sessions, one on one painting critiques, and hire studio student interns. I continue to work with students that are pursuing the arts in college and want to develop professionally.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The journey over the past 30 plus years has had some bumps in the road. This never stopped me for long as I am extremely self-motivated and love what I do. Painting is my passion and art is totally integrated into my life and everything I do revolves around it in some respect.
As a young artist and stay at home mother of three, I had to juggle raising my children and figuring out how to handle conflicting priorities. This took a lot of patience and work. I had the full support of my husband. I also developed close friendships with many women encountering similar circumstances.
My family always came first. To this day, I have my daughters’ little rescue dog in my studio once a week for doggy daycare and have the whole family together for homemade Sunday dinner each week.
I figured in order to be successful in the arts I needed to work while the girls were napping or in the evenings after their bedtime.
Sometimes I hired a sitter in the evening to attend art-related events to keep in contact with other artists.
My advice would be to develop a network of people who are like-minded. Get together often and informally. Surround yourself with positive people. Exercise every day. Eat well and get your sleep. It all sounds cliche but it worked and continues to work for me.
What should we know about your work? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
My studio practice has developed into three areas. I am a painter, sculptor and printmaker. My work continues to be inspired by connections I make with people and memory of place. I am a storyteller and love to share my travel stories with people.
I am fortunate to be invited to artist residencies in the US and abroad. To date been to over a dozen residencies. I work in various locations for a month or more and meet and connect with local people. I immerse myself into a culture and language and make it home away from home.
I create original work in my studio or flat. Each residency is different and requires some creative engineering with how to work, and where to find materials.
This work is smaller in scale but provides inspiration for me to continue on larger work when I return to Denver. Each of my artworks has a story which inspired it.
Looking back on your childhood, what experiences do you feel played an important role in shaping the person you grew up to be?
My childhood was spent growing up in northeastern Ohio. I was fortunate as a kid to have a 300-acre forest behind my home with a creek, wildflowers, wild animals.
Nature was my first art teacher. In a sense, I became a keen observer at a very young age taking in my surroundings in a visual way and able to translate them into paintings and sculptures.
This early education was essential to how I continue to gather and process information as an adult artist. I love languages, maps, old cars, and things and places with a sense of history.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.patriciaaaron.com
- Phone: 303-549-0709
- Email: pat.aaron52@gmail.com
- Instagram: americanogrande214
- Facebook: I have two facebooks accounts: Pat Aaron and Patriciaaaron@patriciaaaronartstudio
- Twitter: patriciaAaron@pattycakes214
Image Credit:
Photo credits: Headshot: Dana Mcgrath Photography and
Paintings: Wes Maygar
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