Visual Language Magazine Contemporary Fine Art Vol 2 No 9 September 2013

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Why Scratchboard I’m a detail-oriented artist. I’ve tried to loosen up and I find myself going
back to the picture again and again to add this little detail, this little fluff of hair, this little highlight.
Scratchboard is one of those mediums where you have to fill your board with lines, there are no
short cuts. I started like most artists just drawing with pencil and I found I could never keep the
tip sharp enough for the detail I wanted. I graduated to mechanical pens and found myself going
smaller and smaller until I was struggling with a 00000 pen tip (I was never very good at cleaning
it. Scratchboard gave me the surface and tools to finally get that detail I was striving for. I’ve dabbled
in other mediums as well but I particularly love pastels. They speak to my messy side and I
think working with all the different colors and blending and highlighting, it taught me enough about
color to try coloring scratchboard. I have little patience for anything in my life but when I sit in front
of my easel to work I could be there for 12 or 14 hours straight. It’s very cathartic for me.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received I’d like to say it was the art teacher who had the
whole class bring their most prized work of art to class to share only to tell us all to rip it up. The
message was supposed to be - you could always do it again and do it better. Well that’s a great
thought and it would be nice if it’s the truth but I’m certainly never going to try and find out!! NO,
I’d have to say the best advice I got was from an artist residing in Washington DC, can I say her
name Jodi Walsh if I can. She said, very simply “get over it”. What if people steal my work
and use it as a screen saver or print it out and hang it in their cubicle at work and she said - so
what Get over it. The likelihood that someone will take a tiny file and pirate it somehow and
make millions off your work is pretty small, and if they do then you have something you can actually
sue them for! In the age of the Internet theft is inevitable, look at it as free advertising because
if they think it’s cool enough to swipe it they’ll also show it to their friends. In the end this isn’t what
we should be worrying about as aspiring artists, if you’re too afraid to put yourself out there then
you won’t BE out there and no one will see you at all.
What is the one thing you will never paint Dolls and clowns
What’s the most meaningful recognition you’ve received for your artwork The second
picture I ever sold is still the most meaningful to me. I’ve received dozens of awards and ribbons
- 2 best in show even! But this young girl in her twenties, who worked in an office somewhere -
didn’t make a lot of money, made payments to buy my picture and she told me that when she saw
it displayed at the show it made her cry. All she could do was stare at it and feel complete emotion
and connection to what I created and it touched her so deeply she stood there in the crowd and
cried. Now this just happens to be MY favorite piece as well, of which I have a very close and
emotional connection to, and I thought as I walked it to her door to deliver it that I was going to cut
and run away at any moment screaming mine! You can’t have it! But I’m glad I didn’t. I handed
it over and felt content that it was going to hang in a modest home for someone who was buying it
not because it was a good investment or because they are an avid art collector but because, well,
she just loved it. I think as artists we all want to evoke some kind of reaction in our viewers that is
deep and visceral and it’s a great validation of your work when you see it happen.
HeatherLara.com
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