“You don’t decide to be an artist, art gets inside of you..” -Carmen Herrera, 1915-

Carmen Herrera (born May 31, 1915) is a Cuban painter, born in Havana, who has lived in New York since the mid-1950s and has recently seen her work recognized in international circles. After six decades of private painting, she sold her first artwork in 2004 when she was 89 years old. A retrospective exhibition opened in July 2009 at the nonprofit IKON Gallery in Birmingham, England, and is traveling to the Pfalzgalerie Museum in Kaiserslautern, Germany from January 23rd to May 2nd 2010. London’s Tate Modern and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. have recently acquired her works.  -Wikipedia

Excerpts from a recent interview at The Guardian:

“When did you decide you were an artist?

You don’t decide to be an artist, art gets inside of you. Before you know it you’re painting, before you know it you’re an artist. You’re so surprised. It’s like falling in love.

Are you still learning now?

Yes, I am. I’m more dedicated to my art now and I’m more watchful. Anything – a piece of paper that’s folded in a funny way – I think, “ah, I can use that”. I feel much more aware now.”

Read the full interview at The Guardian.

Joanne Mattera Art Blog: Guaranteed Biased, Myopic, Incomplete and Journalistically Suspect

Have you ever wondered if being an artist is a legitimate career? Here’s a new link to bookmark, Joanne Mattera’s Art Blog: straight talk from an artist about the business side of art, among other things. A sample post….

“In a recent interview in The Guardian, the 95-year-old Cuban-born, New York City-based abstractionist Carmen Herrera–”discovered” at the age of 89–was asked what advice she would give her 20-year old self.

This is her answer:  ‘Don’t hurry up, just take your 20s as long as you can. But the 20s is not an easy time. A lot of things are coming to you that you’re not ready to absorb. You have to get old and wrinkled and grey-haired before you know what they’re talking about.’

I don’t know about the “old and wrinkled and grey-haired,” but since I teach a course to art school seniors about to embark on their art careers, I often give to them the advice I wish someone had given me. Here’s what I would tell my 20-year-old self: ……….”

Continued on http://joannemattera.blogspot.com/