My Online Interview with VoyageMIA Magazine

Just received notice my online interview is live! Please check this out!

http:/voyagemia.com/interview/meet-cheryl-eggleston-cheryl-eggleston-art-plantation-florida/

Tell us how you got started and how you got to where you are are today.

As early as 3 years old, I wanted to be an artist. I would sit with an old Sears&Robuck catalog on my lap and turn to the pages where they had printed an artist’s palette to indicate color choices for clothing. I remember taking my little index finger and softly ‘petting’ the picture of that artist’s palette. Oh! How I wanted that…’thing’! I didn’t even know the word ‘palette’; I just knew I wanted that 'thing' and that someday, it would be mine!

Twenty-five years later, I graduated with honors from the Art Institute of Atlanta. My course of study was Visual Communications/Graphic Design and my first job was a staff artist at an advertising agency in Atlanta, GA. Something about creating the required piece within the strict confines of time, size and meeting all necessary specifications, sparked a challenge in me. To do so, and still produce a creative, bold and appealing design/illustration or ad campaign fired and fueled my imagination. This draftsmanship type of training is evident in my painting style today.

I stayed in advertising only a short two years. Then I began to show and sell my award winning pen & ink and pencil renderings of dense foliage and garden scenes. But the untimely death of my husband meant I had to make some changes. So, I set my art aside for many years while I pursued a more steady income stream.

After retiring a little more than two years ago, I began to paint in earnest. Surrealism fascinated me in art school and I was drawn to art that portrayed the mystery of the mind. While I know nothing of psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis or any other area of scientific study of the mind, I do know my mind is filled with images - bright and bizarre images. Each one of us, as human beings, owns the ‘real estate’ of our minds. I quite enjoy my ‘wonderland real estate’ and the thoughts and visions in my head. Because so much of the material comes from the subconscious, I refer to myself as an abstract/surrealist with a geometric twist. I challenge myself to reproduce these images from my mind onto a canvas.

Often I’m asked to explain what a painting is about. But, I like it best when a viewer creates their own meaning of the painting. Their interpretation is completely unique to them and therefore, they ‘own’ the story the painting tells. Imagine you see an abstract/surrealistic painting. Without any clue as to the meaning, your mind sets the stage for a drama. Maybe it’s about life, or death, or maybe it’s about time travel, or maybe it’s about life on a farm. Maybe it is a dreamscape scene where something has just happened or is just about to happen. And now imagine that tomorrow you might look at the very same painting and make up a new and different story to go along with it, complete with twists and turns. Think of it as ‘Art Improv’ for the mind.

My work has been exhibited at the local, state, national and international level. I was delightfully honored to become a juried member of FLAG, Florida Artist Group, a statewide professional artist organization. Local art guilds have awarded my works with cash prizes and ribbons, including a Best in Show. I recently won an award at a national invitational show and I have exhibited in an international invitational show hosted by the Alexandria Museum of Art LA. My work has also been published in Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review in both 2017 and 2018.

Yes, my childhood dream of being an artist has finally come true!

Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?

My road to becoming a professional artist has been a long and bumpy one. I got a late start, being one of the oldest students in my art school. After graduating, I was not really happy in the advertising field. I quit and began to show and sell my pen & ink and pencil renderings. I thought I had found my niche. I was brokenhearted at my husband’s death, and I turned away from art. A few years later, I made a halfhearted attempt to show some paintings I had done on a dark subject -loss, loneliness and grief. Two small galleries took three or four paintings each, but they didn’t sell and I pulled back. I put the easel and paints away.

The passing of time has brightened my life. When I began to paint again, I found a whole new world. Technology replaced many things I had learned to do by hand in art school. Computers, social media, the internet - these did not exist when I got my education. I have had a real challenge to educate myself in these areas. But as I adapt, I find it wonderful to use these new tools.

Tell us about your business. What do you do, what do you specialize in, etc. What are you most proud of as a company? What sets you apart?

Any new business takes some time to get going. I’ve heard over and over again from marketing gurus that ‘people don’t buy the art, they buy the artist’. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, at least it’s not true for me. At the moment, I am only selling original works. I’ve sold paintings to people who didn't know me or know anything about me. They bought the paintings because they liked them. Paintings were sold to strangers at local art shows when I was not present and paintings have sold from a contacts made through my website. Next year I hope to broaden my market by selling reproductions at more affordable prices.

What I specialize in, and what sets me apart, is my painting style. Many other artists have commented that they recognize my work before they see my signature. And while I sometimes work in acrylic, I primarily work in alkyd, a fast drying oil paint. I love this little used product. This paint gives me plenty of open time to blend areas and it dries quickly enough that I can work on an adjacent area the next day. It dries to a satin finish and I love the luminous colors. My paintings are bright, but I keep a fairly strict color palette – must be that technical training!

The thing I’m most excited about in regard to my art business is a giveback program I’ve started called “Kids Need Crayons”. Each year I am donating a portion of my sales to children in crisis. I choose to make my donations in the form of art supplies, specifically, plain paper or coloring books and large assortments of crayons or colored pencils for the older children. I feel children in crisis can benefit by expressing their feelings through art. No pressure, no instruction, just give them the materials and let them do whatever moves them. There should be no need for them to explain their work. Younger children or those who are not comfortable with self expression can benefit through the use of coloring books or mandalas. This type of experience helps them develop fine motor skills and patience. Last year I donated 40 packets of assorted art supplies to Children’s Home Society of Broward County. The packets were created with attention given to the needs of different age groups. The children may use the packets at the shelter and take them home with them when they leave. I was so pleased when Our City Magazine did a short piece on my ‘Kids Need Crayons’ giveback program and I let my collectors know that they are indirectly helping these children through their purchase of my paintings.

I keep a pretty busy schedule painting, volunteering at local art guilds, and carting paintings around to various art shows. I am also recording secretary for the Ft. Lauderdale branch of the National League of American Pen Women. This is a national organization of professional women artists, musicians and writers. We also have local branches in Coral Gables and Boca Raton.

It’s been an amazing two years and I can’t believe the progress I’ve made is such a short time. As for the future, I plan to listen to the little voice in my head that keeps telling me to ‘just keep doing what you’re doing’. That little voice and those bizarre images in my mind... Oh, My! I hoping that’s a winning combination.

What were you like growing up? Personality wise, interests?

I was completely introverted! I am the middle child, ‘The Quiet One’ my parents called me. It was a normal childhood: dolls, playing house and dress-up. The two things I secretly coveted then were the artist palette and a microscope. I must have been destined to be either a mad scientist or a mad artist! I chose the later - pretty cool, huh?