Contacting Practitioners: Susan Farrington

I had previously contacted the artist Susan Farrington with a few questions about her work and she has very kindly replied to them. Here are her answers:


Q- Your work features aged/textured mixed media. Where do you acquire the resources you use in your work? Are they existing materials that you find or do you make some of these yourself?

I have been a collector for as long as I can remember. Postcards, glass pitchers, shoe pin cushions, wooden boxes, I could go on and on....
I have always loved the patina of old paper. I search out vintage lithographs, trade cards, and books at antique shops and fairs, and on etsy and ebay. I have a rather larger collection and part of the fun of creating new illustrations is going through my trays of ephemera and choosing what will work. I also use acrylics, pastels, ink, and coloured pencil to make elements of my work when needed.

Here is are photos of some of my paper and odds and ends ...

Q- Many of your pieces can involve detailed designs and compositions or can be quite simple. Do you plan out each aspect of your pieces before starting them or decide on what to include and where it's placed while your making them? If so how do you know when each piece of work is finished?

 

  If I am doing a commissioned piece I will sketch out a rough concept of the illustration. The rough sketch becomes a guideline for placement and shape. That said, I like to change things up a bit as I'm working. I like having a rough to work from but don't want to make the illustration static by adhering exactly to my sketch. In other words, I want to be able to play and have fun with the collage as it evolves. With personal work I usually start with a rough idea, this is sometimes sketched out and sometime just comes from my imagination. With both commissioned and personal work I play around with the scale and placement of each part of the composition before gluing down the pieces. As far as knowing when a piece is finished that comes with practice. I usually just have a sense that the piece is complete, it's important to stop before a piece is overworked.

Above is one of my roughs for the MTA NY Arts in Transit And Urban Design poster.

 

Here is the finish; you can see how some of the creatures have changed and some are the same as in my rough.

Q- Many pieces of your work that I've seen have featured strange and unusual animals and figures. Do these all come from your imagination? What or who inspires you to make the work you do?

Yes, these creatures all come from my imagination. I will use reference material for a specific animal if needed but in general I prefer the freedom of creating my own anatomy. 

As far as inspiration goes, I love to create and so I try to spend a bit of time every day doing just that. Some days are more productive than others but I am a believer that the work itself is the reward. There is a quote from the artist Chuck Close which goes: 

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case."

I know this to be true.

Also, I keep a journal. I often refer to this when starting a new project.

Below are some examples of my journal pages....

 

Q- Working in handmade mixed media collage, do you think that new digital technologies will push out the makers of the more craft, handmade work in the future or will there always be a place for this style?

I think there will always be a place for work that is 'handmade'. I do use the computer (at first I was very resistant to learning how to use it, I preferred to stay in Luddite mode... but no more!). I find that the computer is an amazing tool for resizing, changing colours, and repositioning imagery. But the handmade quality of mixed media work is something that is very appealing, to me and others. I think people respond to the tactile feeling and also to the less-than-perfectly-polished quality of my work.

Below is a personal piece I did while indulging my fascination with old anatomical textbooks. It was just picked up by Urban Outfitters for their artists wall art collection. You really get a sense of the handmade with this piece.
 

Q- How did you go about getting your first jobs after graduation? What general advice could you give to a newly graduated illustrator?

Oh my, this was in the early Jurassic period... My first job was with 'The Boston Globe'; I dropped off my portfolio at their offices and got a call (and an assignment!) the next day. It was thrilling! Now it's important to have a website where art directors can easily see the style of your work. I have recently learned the website creation program 'Muse'. It is in the 'Adobe' family and is very intuitive and simple to use. Prior to this a friend created my website, but I found that I wanted to be able to have more control over adding and changing imagery so 'Muse' is perfect for me.

As far as advice goes I would list the following:

• Create work that you love and try to keep a consistent style.

• Spend time on your web presence, make your site beautiful and interesting.

• Take advantage of social media; twitter, pinterest, flicker, facebook, tumblr, etsy... every time your work is seen it increases your chance of getting assignments.

• Be professional. 

• Don't worry about making work that will sell, enjoy the process. So many of my personal pieces have been picked up by paying clients or referenced by clients who have ask me to reinterpret my idea for their project.

• Have fun!