Meet Julia Patterson: Artist

What’s one thing about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of? Art is a saturated and fickle market. I remember in my first year in college being informed at the beginning of numerous art classes that in 10 years only a fraction of us would still be creating work. It’s a hard field to make a living in; the tastes of critics and art consumers are ever changing and easily swayed. It’s easy to look at successful artists and the work they are creating and start to question your own aesthetic, your point of view. I think that is really the secret of the industry—that art is hard to create, there is a lot of doubt and uncertainty in putting your work into the world. You spend so much time creating it that invariably it becomes very important and personal, so the courage to push past the statistics and try and make a successful business out of it is a huge and ever present challenge.

Risk taking: how do you think about risk, what role has taking risks played in your life/career? There is this fantastic comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes, (a true favorite of mine as a philosopher,) picturing Calvin holding a ballon standing atop a ladder and remarking that “nothing’s happening”, next to him Hobbes says “try jumping”. To me, that sums up risk; standing still is safer, but you have to take risks to see progress. Sometimes they go wrong, but you are never going to get anywhere teetering at the top of a ladder. To me, risk is the most essential piece to a life and career with which you are happy. I think you can survive without them, but you will be plagued by what-ifs. That isn’t to say I am a pro-risk taker by any stretch. I have been scared and I have hesitated, but I also have my fair share of what-ifs that keep me up at night. As I get older, I try harder and harder to convince myself to jump when nothing is happening.

Other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision that contributed to your success? I think my choice everyday to ignore the nagging, self-doubt ridden voice inside my mind and create work that I love is the most important decision I make to be successful. At the end of the day, if Pikwik Press sinks or swims, I will only be able to enjoy the triumph or move on from the failure knowing that the art I created for it is something I truly, whole-heartedly love. There are always a lot of voices, well-meaning voices, suggesting what you should create. There is a lot of benefit that can come from that collaboration, but at a point, when I finish painting, if something isn’t right for me or Pikwik, I have to be able to let it go.

What is the most important factor behind your success/the success of your brand? Honestly, it was all the experiences and education that preceded Pikwik Press. I am so lucky to have a family that really supports me and my art. I was able to enjoy camps focused on art as a child and continue art classes my entire academic career and they were always encouraging of my work. The benefit of studying under so many talented artists helped push my work in many ways. Often, I’d have a very different aesthetic from my professors, but the challenges they put forth in course assignments, pushing me to approach work and subjects in different ways made me a far better artist. In college, we used to have ‘critique’ days where everyone in the class would share their pieces for the current assignment and discuss the work. They were never comfortable days; your work is so personal, so tied to your idea of yourself, that to have people critique it and pick it apart is painful, but its also an invaluable exercise in making it stronger. I despised critique days in college, but now as an adult I find myself seeking out an audience who will provide honest, if critical, feedback. Working and learning from all the artists I have had in my life has been essential to finding success with Pikwik Press.

What’s the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make? To know when to walk away from something, a job or person, is always difficult, but my decision to leave Colorado Ballet was the most challenging of my life. I worked with the company for four years as the Academy Business Manager and boasted a number of talented and inspiring colleagues. I was so fortunate to have a job in the arts that I adored, but more than that, I was extremely blessed to have a boss that became a dear mentor and friend. I was privileged to work under Valerie Madonia while with the ballet. She is an incredible artist herself, a former dancer with American Ballet Theater and The Joffrey Ballet, she is now a teacher and an inspiration. I had that nagging feeling in my bones for almost a year that we had done what we were hired to do, made the Academy strong and successful again, and the job had given me everything it could. It was the choice to leave working with Val that was ultimately so painful because I knew that she was a once-in-a-blue-moon colleague and I would be unlikely to ever have the privilege again to work with someone I admired so much. We pursue different types of arts, but I cannot begin to enumerate the things I learned from her. I still question the choice to leave sometimes and hope someday to collaborate with her again.

Work life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance? I think like many people, as I put in more years into my career the focus on work life balance has shifted more heavily on the life side. I love putting hard work into my business and seeing it flourish, but no matter what, I always want to have time for family, friends, and myself. I certainly put in some late nights when needed, but for me that’s never going to be the norm again. As an artist, putting too much emphasis on work and not enough on life ultimately just detracts from my art, so really it’s in my business’s best interest to pursue a more balanced life. It’s all too common a story, but after being diagnosed with cancer in 2017, I am acutely aware of the limited time we have and I want to make sure I don’t regret the way I spend it. In the United States, I worry we have developed a wholly unhealthy slavish devotion to work where contributing countless hours and having unparalleled devotion to one’s job are praised more than setting boundaries and living with balance. However, I know I am not alone in wishing for a shift to healthier work life balance soon.

Do you have a favorite quote or affirmation? What does it mean to you/what do you like about it? There is a fantastic quote from Maya Angelou, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style”. It’s a daily inspiration and permission to pursue what makes me feel passionate and engaged, and who wouldn’t want the incredible Miss Angelou to bless their life choices?

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career? I have always loved art; it has always been a respite from the ‘real’ world for me. I pursued speech and debate in high school but always took art classes as my other electives. I entered my bachelor’s knowing I wanted to pursue Philosophy for my major, but I also knew I wanted to minor in painting as an escape from everything else. Art has always been there on the side keeping me sane, enabling me to keep going through the rest of life. So to pursue a career in art was really to change that sanctuary of art into the focus of my life rather than just an escape.

What do you want your legacy to be? What do you want people to remember about you? Above all else, I hope it’s my art they remember and treasure. There is no feeling so sweet as someone else loving the work I put out into the world because after all, I think the work artists create are little pieces of us. For others to admire and treasure those pieces is the ultimate expression of love, and there could be no better legacy than that.