Meet Liz Park | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Liz Park and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Liz, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?

To select this particular question out of the drop down selections:

I battle with whether to ‘keep going’ or ‘give up’ every day.  Some days I just want to throw my hands in the air and walk away from my easel, but to be honest, ‘give up’ is not really an option for me at this point.  I’ve put too much into my career, and honestly making art has always been the thing that brings me the most joy. I knew that this was going to be my career eventually. When I was young, I didn’t really dream of a wedding, or having children – those were things that I never really saw myself doing.  Thankfully I was stubborn and kept at my path from an early age – my mom got me into doing extra art classes outside of school, and then throughout high school I had a really amazing art program with teachers that basically let me live in the art room all day by senior year.

I went to Colorado State University for my first two years of undergrad – I was still undecided if I wanted to pursue an artistic career, or a career in horses…. ultimately a call from my best friend who was going to school at the Savannah College of Art & Design helped me decide that a major shift was in my future. I applied for SCAD, and I was lucky to get accepted with full transfer credits in 2004.

Graduating from SCAD further galvanized my decision that my path would be in art — it felt like there was really no turning back now!

After SCAD I worked at a dude ranch in Jackson Hole, WY. I figured whatever I needed to do to start making money right after I graduated. I was fortunate enough to land in one of the best art scenes in the nation, and didn’t even realize it. I even stumbled upon a ranch that would encourage and celebrate my art — seriously a lucky set of circumstances!

In the Tetons I worked many random jobs while always doing art ‘on the side’ – and nothing ever felt right. In 2015, my father got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and in early 2016 he passed away. He was the type of guy who kept ‘save, save, save’ for retirement’ – he was actually retired for only about 12 months before he died at 64 years old. It was then I realized, I can’t wait for the right time to have a full time art career, I’m doing this now. I quit my full time job to find something part-time where I could work on art exclusively 2 days a week.  That shift helped me to create a body of work and got the ball rolling to now, where I am fortunate to be doing art full time.  Nothing is guaranteed, the life you save for years down the line may never happen — just go after it now & don’t give up!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I’ve thankfully come to the realization that making art is a basic need of mine – I think about it all the time!

Professionally I am excited about everything.  I am having the most fun painting over the last year or so — I wish I could have felt like this and produced this amount of work before. I am so fortunate that I am in the position I don’t have to do a 9-5 currently, because I actually have time to play around with new ideas, experiment and try to make good images.

My main artistic goal now is: let’s create a compelling image no matter what. Does it have acrylic/watercolor/graphite/ink/etc? Perfect! Is it just a pencil drawing? Perfect! Use whatever tools you have to make it work. Don’t be beholden to a certain style or a certain technique – do whatever works to make the overall image strong.

My best days are the days where I can get up, and work on a couple of pieces until it’s 4 or 5 pm and it feels like I’m in a time warp. I don’t have to talk to anyone… just painting all day. My dog is now just old enough too that he doesn’t mind sleeping all day while I sit in one spot and push paint around, so that helps too.

Most important advice I’d say is to just keep at it. Find a way. If you really want to be an artist, you need to draw every day. Find shows to apply for, find coffeehouses to hang your work at, accept rejection, just keep doing it. If you actually love it, it’ll hopefully feel easy.  Undoubtedly it will be frustrating at times, but you will feel so much better than if you didn’t try at all.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
The Pacific Northwest, what a gem! In my particular area you can go walking on the beaches, eat some oysters, stare at some mountains – and I’d absolutely take them to Edison to see Smith & Vallee Gallery.  Downtown Snohomish has some amazing shops as well!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

I think it’s so, so important to lift others up and create a support network that’s energetic and inclusive.  I’m so fortunate to have received a huge amount of artistic support from the Gros Ventre River Ranch in Jackson, WY. They hired me out of art school as a wrangler…and they gave me so much support in the 3 + years I worked for them, more than I could imagine. They loved art! If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have stuck around in the Tetons and gotten to meet some amazing artists like Jason Borbay, Aimee Babneau, Steven Glass, Katy Ann Fox, Anika Youcha — there is such a strong community of artists helping each other there!

I’m also fortunate to have met Kat Houseman, a fellow artist out here in the PNW that is doing some phenomenal work!  It’s nice to have someone to get together with and go look at galleries, suggest shows to apply for, and talk about all the ins and outs of being a professional artist.

Website: www.lizparkart.com

Instagram: lizparkstudio