Artists From The Mill At Shady Lea

#MeettheartistMonday

Meet Abigail Wambolt!

Abigail Wambolt is one of the artists in the upcoming exhibition, Something Between Us. The exhibition runs from June 15 through July 20 with the opening reception on Saturday June 22, 2019 from 6-8pm at Hera Gallery, 10 High Street, Wakefield, RI. For more information about the exhibition visit www.heragallery.org and if have not seen the excellent article about the show in Artscope magazine you can here: https://artscopemagazine.com/2019/05/still-empowering-heras-distinctive-summer-members-show/.

To see more of Abigails work, visit Hera or her website https://abigailwamboldt.com/home.html

Tell us your artist story, some biographical info, when did you decide to be an artist? Why do you make art? Where did you study? Etc.

I don’t come from an art family but I was very lucky to have great art teachers growing up, and even though my parents were skeptical they were always supportive. I had a very circuitous education. I went to Montserrat College of Art for a year, and then to Alfred University for a year. I felt like I had no direction, so I dropped out and worked various jobs. I lived in New Orleans for a while and took a couple classes at Tulane. I was there right after Hurricane Katrina and something about the mess and the strength of that city enchanted me. At some point I went to hairdressing school because I was tired of working gigs that weren't going anywhere. I think I made more money in my time as a hairdresser then I do as an art professor. When I look at my resume it feels like such a joke. We only include the glamorous things. No one includes farm laborer, figure model or kitchen staff when they are applying for positions in the art world. Yet so many artists pay their bills doing something other than making art. I think all of that life experience contributes just as much to the work as formal education.

When I was first at Montserrat I had a professor named Timothy Harney. He is one of a kind and his dedication to his students is unmatched. I decided I had to study with him more and returned to Montserrat to do so. I went on to complete a Masters in Painting at the University of New Hampshire. In graduate school I had the opportunity to teach Drawing I, and it felt natural to me. By the time I finished my MFA I knew I wanted to keep teaching. Currently I am an Adjunct Professor of Studio Art at several different colleges.

For me being an artist wasn’t really a choice. Even when I forayed into other professions I always made things. I make art because it is the only thing I can always do even when I want to jump off a bridge, it's extremely cathartic and very liberating. Everyday life requires us to follow so many rules and to function within socially acceptable behavior. In art you can say or do almost anything. If you do it well, and you believe in what your doing, you can usually get away with it. Art sometimes feels like an addiction to me, and I will use any part of myself or my life to get the sensation I want. When I manage to execute the form and content of a piece in a way that seems right it’s the best feeling in the world.

What do you want people to walk away with after experiencing your work?

I want people to walk away from my work and feel something. I don’t care if they weep, or laugh, or scream, or feel uncomfortable, I just want emotion evoked in the viewer. I want the viewer to go home and make love to their wife or quit their 9-5 or scream at the top of their lungs. We belittle reaction so much in our culture, and I think it has value. Feeling and reaction

remind us we are alive. The purpose of art to me is to help us see into a part of ourselves that is sleeping. I hope to help people find that beast inside that has been dormant and wake it up.

What influences your work? Why?

So much influences my work, books, music, art, the political or social climate, stories people share with me, or the state of constant endurance that is human existence. Sometimes I read a story in the newspaper and think “That is just so messed up, I want to say something about that”. Other times I draw on deep personal pain and the work feels born out of emotion.

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Hole. I adore Courtney Love’s rage. I am also reading a book called Trauma and Recovery by Judith Lewis Herman, and before that I was reading a banned BDSM novel, The Story of O. What I am reading will often become a part of the narrative of a work. Sometimes I will be influenced by the beat or lyrics of a song. Music will create images and nonlinear stories in my mind and they often come out in the painting.

Once I get these images onto the canvas I have to figure out how to organize the pile of thoughts to make sense for the viewer.

Why are you a member of Hera?

Women centered spaces don’t really exist anymore. Women’s bookstores and bars have vanished. While Hera Gallery is no longer just a women's space it was founded by women and is still primarily draws female members.

The art world is really misogynistic and run by straight, white men. I have no interest in being part of an institution that will probably fetishize my work, and isn’t going to understand or value my viewpoint. I seek out spaces and organizations that are going to reflect, or at least engage, my visual interests. I like seeing the strong and capable female leaders of Hera, and I enjoy being surrounded by other creative women. It is important that we preserve matriarchal spaces like Hera, so that women have the opportunity to engage in dialogue without male influence.