Featured Artist Liese Martin

Artist State­ment:

My aim is to use sim­ple lines and shapes lines and shapes to cre­ate art­work that is both bold and serene. I feel that a piece  has turned out well when it has a flow sim­i­lar to that of music or dance. I hope my work brings some of that rhythm to the spaces it adorns.

Bio:

Liese Chavez is a self-taught artist liv­ing and work­ing in Man­i­tou Springs. She has cre­ated art as a hobby since child­hood, but becom­ing a pro­fes­sional artist was like falling down the rab­bit hole. After a knee injury put her out of her job in retail man­age­ment, she screwed up her courage and tried to put her cre­ativ­ity to work. Moun­tain Liv­ing Stu­dio in Man­i­tou Springs was the first gallery to accept her work and just hap­pened to need an expe­ri­enced sales per­son at the same time. Before long she was man­ag­ing the gallery and it remains her most suc­cess­ful brick and mor­tar venue. Her paint­ings and illus­tra­tions are now in homes and busi­nesses all over the world.

In Decem­ber of 2008 Liese opened her first shop on Etsy and has found it to be not only a great place to sell art­work but a ter­rific way to col­lab­o­rate with other artists. Her illus­tra­tions are being used on eco-friendly jew­elry at www.polarity.etsy.com and in daily plan­ners, cal­en­dars and diaries at www.anArtfulAgenda.etsy.com. Com­ing soon, a brand new store to pro­vide an online home for her poppy paint­ings and other sim­i­lar works at www.thewindingpath.etsy.com.

First, tell me about your work.

My Etsy store is the face that most peo­ple in cyber­space know, so I should prob­a­bly start there. I do illus­tra­tions on old book pages and sketch paper and sell those orig­i­nals and a few prints at www.deadpanalley.etsy.com. I also work in many other medi­ums and sell that art­work at a brick and mor­tar gallery in Man­i­tou Springs, Colorado.

How did you get started?

Um…started? Well, in terms of my Etsy store, that hap­pened as a result of my hus­band los­ing hours at work in the reces­sion. I became VERY moti­vated to find some­thing to sup­ple­ment our income. I had heard from a few of my cus­tomers at the gallery I run that they shopped on Etsy, so I checked into it and gave it a shot. I mostly just fol­lowed the bounc­ing ball. There is a great FAQ on the site telling you how to go about mak­ing a great start.

As far as a start at mak­ing art a part of my liv­ing, that came about when I was sorely used by the retail com­pany I had worked for as a result of a major knee injury. I was thrown away like trash despite my hard work and suc­cess­ful store, so I decided my efforts would be bet­ter put to use mak­ing money for myself instead of rely­ing on a cor­po­rate mon­ster to treat me right when it came time to retire.

Who has influenced/inspired your artwork?

Oh, my. I take influ­ence from every­thing. Movies, music, audio the­ater, nature, other artist’s work, any­thing I see that I think is clever, really. My hus­band is rather clever, so I often pump him for ideas on direc­tion for a par­tic­u­lar piece.

How has your art evolved over time?

A lot of changes have to do with fig­ur­ing out what the cus­tomer wants. After all, my art­work doesn’t do any­one much good all piled up in my house. I try dif­fer­ent vari­a­tions on a theme until I have a win­ner, and then go with it. The other part of that evo­lu­tion is need­ing to learn new things to stay happy and inspired while still pro­duc­ing things I know will sell. They hope­fully wind up com­bin­ing to make things that are fun for both myself and the clients.

Where to find Liese

Moun­tain Liv­ing Stu­dio, Man­i­tou Springs, CO
Kabibi Mei, Col­orado Springs, CO
On Etsy : www.deadpanalley.etsy.com

• She was invited to paint a vio­lin for the Den­ver Youth Orches­tra this year. The press on the event will be at www.paintedviolin.com . I am unfor­tu­nately not allowed to release pho­tos of the vio­lin before they do!
• The set dressers for the movie “The Room­mate” chose one of my dead­pan birdies to be some­where in their movie com­ing out in 2010. Whether it makes it past the edit­ing room floor, who can say?
• Her  birdies are now avail­able as cool lock­ets by POLARITY!
• Her illus­tra­tions are fea­tured in these awe­some plan­ners, cal­en­dars and diaries