Zele Community Table: For Sake Of Art

April 16th, 2008 at 04:23pm Zele Community Table 117

Zele Community Table

March 25, 2008

 

Lisa Shackelford

Artist

 

Michael Conniff

 

Michael Conniff: How did you come to be in Aspen?

Lisa Shackelford: I’m from San Antonio. My cousin lives outside Basalt and I’d been visiting for five years, thinking a change would be good.

MC: What did you do in San Antonio?

LS: My background is in sales and marketing. I was a photographer and artist on the side. My paintings were selling in San Antonio and it seemed like a good time to make a change—I needed to make it now. Otherwise I’d wake up ten years later and you’re still there. I came in August 2006, stayed with my cousin, and it was a learning experience to see if it were possible to market my paintings here. A fact-finding mission. I was ready to go home and I was offered a job at the Huntsman Gallery in Aspen. I started looking for an apartment in Aspen because I wanted the total Aspen experience. It all started unfolding. My Chihuahua Bella and I were here. We went back to pack up and sell my house.

MC: What did you like about Aspen?

LS: The weather. We lived in Denver when I was little and moved to San Antonio when I was 7. It was so hot there in Texas. Lots of humidity. A completely different experience. Here you have the views which I adore. The energy here is different. The two are polar opposites. There’s a lot more going here, as you might imagine. And the activities are different. The music in the summer, the ideas, speakers you can hear here. It’s absolutely beautiful. And the art scene has changed.

MC: Did you know Linda Pace in San Antonio? She was an art patron who had a house here.

LS: I worked for Linda Pace. She passed away last summer. I loved Linda. I worked for her in 1988 as her personal assistant. Her mother had a home here, Linda had a home here. I managed her residences here. In fact what Linda did for the arts in San Antonio—she put San Antonio on the map.

MC: How did you get started?

LS: The artist Alberto Mijangos from Mexico. I started painting with him three or four years ago. That brought me out to painting seriously. I had no idea what was there. It was very freeing. Prior to that I was more inhibited, not as free, and Alberto had the knack for bringing out what was inside of me. He didn’t instruct or teach but he had a gentle spirit. Alberto passed away last summer, too. I was fortunate to have the experience, to have painted with him. He made me say: “I am an artist.” He said to me: “Now you realize you’re an artist.” It made it official. It’s what I always wanted. “Here’s the moment and you’ve arrived.” He made me say the words. “So say it.” “Say what?” “Tell me you’re an artist.” He brought that out in me and many others. He did beautiful work out of that studio.

MC: You were a photographer before you were an artist.

LS: I’d always done photography on the side. I was living in Austin and we were supposed to have a freeze. South Texas shuts down. It’s so humid, it doesn’t snow but it’s ice and sleet. Dangerous and very exciting. I knew I was going to have to stay home and I had this urge to color with crayons. This urge for crayons. I had forgotten about this. There was a Michael’s by my apartment, and I bought a big box of crayons. I always liked looking at paint and paint samples. So I was looking around and thought I’ll buy some paints too. My sister has that first painting and it’s awful. Ten years ago. It was a dream. I had studied photography and art history.

MC: What was the first painting like?

LS: Goofy. I bought a book on how to paint with acrylics. I could actually mix it and thin it. Interestingly enough, after that, I was painting hearts but they were very abstract. I did one for everyone in my family. That’s what came out. I see it as a metaphor to follow my heart. I had to paint a lot of hearts to follow my heart.

MC: Are you still painting hearts?

LS: I have moved on. I graduated from hearts not too long prior to painting with Alberto. I was still trying and the hearts didn’t work. It was time to move on. So I chose only primaries. In fact, only red, blue, yellow, with white and black. Extremely abstract. Mixing on the canvas rather than on the palette. I just went with it. I think they were a lot of fun, and the work starting refining. I think I needed the abstraction. Nothing representational. I’ve thought about it but I love abstraction and I love what people see.

MC: I can see that in your paintings here at Zele.

LS: For example: the green one on the left. That one I love it because men and women alike, like it, and no one’s said what’s that supposed to be. My cousin Dan, an outdoorsman, said:  “That reminds me of where I used to go fishing in Mississippi. It reminds people of the ocean, of water.” I’m seeing color and light. And the interplay of color and light. And the juxtaposition.

MC: But the paintings here make you think of skiing, the slopes.

LS: That’s what I see in skiing. As close to representational art that I’ve ever done. I’m so inspired by the beauty of Aspen. I’m always looking up. So when I was invited to do this show at Zele during the spring ski season I thought: “It will be about spring skiing.” Yes. Yes. I really love doing commission work. I’m always more inspired. Or doing a painting for someone’s house, I get real excited. I’m always more motivated. I love painting on my own. That’s very peaceful. There’s an excitement.

MC: If you were trying to explain your painting to a blind person, what would you say?

LS: I would first have then feel, touch the painting, to feel the texture. The texture is so important to me. Jackson Pollack inspires me—not only his art but his story.

MC: Have you actually seen his work in a museum? It’s so different from the posters. It’s all about texture.

LS:  I’ve seen actual ones. In fact I always “wanted” to be an artist. It’s important when you say what you want. In San Antonio, I was saying I wanted to be an artist but I didn’t think I could. In Houston, the day after a wedding I went to a museum in Houston, went by myself, and it was early so nobody was there. I had to go through quickly and I walked into one of the galleries and literally stopped in my tracks because there were several Jackson Pollocks. I heard the words: “You can.”

MC: Are you religious?

LS: I would call myself spiritual.

MC: Had you started painting at this point?

LS: I wasn’t painting with Alberto yet. It just confirmed—it was another nudge. It was coming all my life but it was a matter of listening. Then fast forward, my friend Bob Maxham, an excellent photographer in San Antonio, said please come paint with us and Alberto. “He’s so wise and he’s so kind.” I kept saying: “I can’t.”

MC: Why couldn’t you?

LS: I think I was just afraid. I thought I couldn’t. I decided to go for my photography full-time. I had several photography jobs. I knew they were going to happen and they were big things. I lost the jobs. Why would they all disappear? My sister called and I said: “I don’t understand what’s going on here.” She said: “Why aren’t you painting?” I said: “What? What do you mean.”  “I mean what I just said: Why aren’t you painting? Everyone loves your paintings?” “They do? Who?” She said: “Do that this week. Go paint with Alberto.” I said: “Okay.” She said: “Make the call.” Bring [your dog] Pilon over to me while you go swimming. I said: “You know Pilon will have to go around the condominiums and patrol the neighborhood before he goes up.” He’s sniffing every leaf and I’m thinking about the conversation and I’m standing there, Michael, at a doorway. Out of that doorway walks Alberto. He lived there. And he was with his little dog. I’d had lunch with the group so I knew him. I caught my breath and said: “I know you don’t remember me.” He said: “I do. You’re Bob’s friend.” I said: “I was going to come and start painting with you.” He said: “Come Tuesday.”

MC: So you went.

LS: Yes. I’ve found in my life of late when I actually let go of trying to make things happen, they do. That was a letting go. The “me” of the past. I’m a different person now. Now I’m being “me.” Before I wasn’t.

MC: How so?

LS: That person was definitely holding on to a perception of what I thought I should be. Holding on to what to what I should do.

MC: Which was?

LS: Have a regular job. Do everything else first. Do what I was inspired to do an hour here, a little time there.

MC: Now you have a different challenge.

LS: To market oneself is difficult but it’s what makes me happy. I have a sales and marketing background. If you can do this for other people, you can do it for yourself. I got with a gallery in San Antonio. Then I decided this isn’t working. I just got a feeling “no.” I thought I’m an artist and I have no paintings hanging in my house. I tend to be a minimalist. I have this house with lots of light. So I thought I’m going to get the paintings and I’m going to bring them here. My sister Ann-Lynn, I had her over on a Saturday and we hung paintings. They all went with the house. Something I didn’t even anticipate. I had a Mother’s Day party for my mother and my women friends. I thought of what the house would be like for the party. Two sold and several sold that way.

MC: How did you get from there to here?

LS: The second most important thing Alberto said to me: “Your paintings will sell anywhere.” I had been talking about Colorado. He sensed I was a little antsy. He said those words so simply. Your paintings will sell anywhere and then walk away. That absorbed some time to understand. Fortunately, here my apartment works as my studio, my gallery, and my apartment. I participate in the Aspen Sojourner ArtWalk. Interesting the people who come. I really enjoy it. And I was invited to put four pieces at The Aspen Club & Spa. Another one of those stories—it would nice to have artwork there. I have several commission pieces in San Antonio.

MC: Are you still at the gallery?

LS: No. It closed. I have a day job at Judith Ripka Jewelry. It’s nice to have work at the Aspen Club. My sister said: “Why don’t you have paintings here? I think that this would be a great place for your work.” Then I went to a dinner party, and I met Casey McConnell, the new marketing director at the club. It was another moment. So Casey came over and picked out four.

MC: Would you be painting the same paintings were you still in San Antonio?

LS: I don’t think so. It’s a difficult question. I think as an artist, your work progresses, it changes, perhaps it’s the same for you as a writer.

MC: Yes. But you live in a visual world.

LS: I do and I love it. I’ve done white paintings before. But here the light with the blue—in Aspen all you have to do is look up and you see the white and the contrast with the blue skies. That’s where the blue came from. I love the blue with the white.

MC: What’s next? Where do you go from here?

LS: I don’t know. My surroundings bring it out. I have a lot in my mind.

MC: Like what?

LS: A black and white series. It’s always a group. I think it would be a combination of texture, like what’s here. I have two paintings, the first is all black, the other is white. There’s a lot of texture. The design of one reflects the other. All different sizes, too. Bigger sizes. All I need is the wall. The right space, the right commercial building.

MC: Are you here for the duration?

LS: I don’t think I’m here forever. But that could change.

Entry Filed under: Art, Aspen, Colorado, Women, The West, United Post