Art x Artists Interview

Interview for Art By Artists

Art x Artists Interview | Angela Riggs

I'm Angela Riggs, the artist behind Dandy Gal out here in Portland, Oregon in the United States. Today is Friday, December 13, and this is my interview for Art by Artists.

What’s your background? 

A little bit of my background, I grew up on the east coast of Florida, in the U.S., and had a pretty standard childhood, I think. The thing that I think stands out to me is that I was always a really avid reader. I started at an early age and was just always immersing myself in books. My parents had a huge library of books because they also loved reading, so I was definitely influenced and encouraged by them quite a bit.

How does this impact how you see the world and create art?

I think the feeling of being a part of someone's art through the written word, books and poetry and essays, all have the ability to draw you in and expose you to perspectives that make you feel and think and understand people in the world in ways that maybe you wouldn't otherwise. So I think that helped me build a really strong sense of compassion and empathy as I grew up and as I continue to move in the world. As for creating art, I look for that same immersive experience that reading gives me, except now, I'm pulling myself into my own universe with paint or clay or whatever medium I'm working with.

Did your upbringing prompt a specific reference point within your work? Is your work informed by certain concepts or themes from your childhood, background, socio-economic status, and where you lived or were raised?

Thinking about my background and whether it has a strong impact on my art, I've always been someone who feels very deeply, and art is a way of expressing and sharing that. And so I think that's rooted a bit in that compassion and sense of empathy. But mostly I think my art tends to be more informed by the present moment, how I'm feeling, what I'm experiencing. It's often influenced by nature. The oceans and mountains and forests out here in Oregon are a constant source of inspiration, and I often find myself bringing those colors and textures into my work.

Who are your biggest influences?

When I think of the people who influenced me, Megan Kerzmarzick was an abstract artist here in Portland, and I first came across her work back in 2019, I think. I was just blown away by a painting of hers that I saw and eventually bought. It was just so bold and gorgeous, and I was drawn to it so strongly. But in addition to being beautiful in its own right, her art made me feel like painting, creating art was something that could be accessible to me, and that was something that I'd never thought about before.

I'm also really inspired by Jess Hope Curran and Aremy Stewart, who are abstract artists here in Portland. I feel like I've learned a lot from how they move within the community, but especially in how they approach their art and how they share it. And then Rachel Warkentin, who creates the loveliest ceramic jewelry as Barrow PDX. She was the person who got me hooked on pottery and ceramic art, and she has always been so open about sharing her knowledge and her excitement about working with clay, and just influenced me quite a bit in continuing to explore clay as a medium.

What are you focusing on right now?

What am I focusing on right now? So I just participated in a few holiday markets here in Portland, and so my immediate focus is the aftermath of those. But once I'm sort of cleaned up and sorted from that, I have a river rock series in my head inspired by a hike at a local trail. It's the old Salmon River Trail, for any Portlanders who might be listening to this.

I really want to do a combination of ceramics and painting. So some ceramic rock sculptures with textured glazes on top and some cosmic dust or mirror black glaze underneath, some functional ceramics with textures that call back to the tree bark and mushrooms, and then some watercolors that are inspired by the textures and colors that I saw that day, the leaves and rocks and mushrooms. The leaves especially just had such a watercolory look with the mix of colors and the way the colors interacted with each other on the leaves. So I just have this whole series in my head that I would love to just sit down and do nothing but create for a month.

What is the biggest challenge of being an artist?

The biggest challenge of being an artist - I think right now one of my big challenges is the balance of creating the art, which I'll always do, and which I do first for myself, so the balance of that and then trying to sell my art. It feels like trying to put a price on a piece of my heart, trying to market a part of myself. How do I do that genuinely in a way that can be successful without being too commercial and losing the heart of it? So I think that's the biggest challenge for me right now and something that I am trying to figure out what fits for me.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

If I were to give advice to my younger self, it would be keep creating, keep experimenting, keep exploring, whether it's writing or ceramics or painting. Make the art you want to make. Explore different ways to create and put your art and yourself into the world. Make the art that makes you happy.

Have you ever tried any unconventional mediums or techniques?

Thinking about unconventional mediums and techniques, I'm really drawn to unusual textures, but I don't think anything I've done is unconventional. I love using Ritual Glaze on my ceramics. They're a local glaze maker, and they have a fantastic line of textured glazes that give you really funky physical or visual textures depending on how you layer them. And I also love using watercolors on YUPO paper, which is a synthetic tree-free paper, so water and paint don't soak into it like they would with traditional watercolor paper. They dry in place, so you get really neat textures and layers as the paint in the water dry over time. And lately, I've been experimenting with a few specific colors that really give me the look of minerals and shells that I really love. So again, bringing in that Oregon nature into my art.

Do you listen to music or have any other type of background noise while you work, or do you prefer complete silence?

I really liked the next question, which is do I listen to music or have background noise while I work, or do I prefer complete silence? Total silence for me. My day job is in software engineering. I'm a manager, so I am planning and talking and thinking all day. There's a lot of collaboration and just a lot of mental noise, and making art is my time and space to just let all of that fall away and be present in the moment of creating, to have the quiet focus on the paint or the clay in front of me and let everything else sort of retreat back.

What’s the best reaction someone has had to your artwork?

Thinking of the best reaction that someone has had to my artwork. There might be some recency bias at play for this one, but at a market I did recently at Leach Botanical Garden, there was a young kid, I would have to say maybe five or six, and they came over to my table and just immediately honed in on one of the clay orbs that I had made. They picked it up and just cupped it in their hands so gently and did not want to put it down. The way they looked up at their mom with just these big pleading eyes to buy this piece was just melting my heart. And the mom sort of knelt down and had a serious little talk with them about this is not a toy, it would be the start of their art collection, and they would have to take care of it. And the kid is just nodding vigorously, and like, "yes, I will take care of it. This will go on the crystal table," just holding it the whole time in both their hands.

And when the mom said that "This would be the start of your art collection." And I think my heart burst when she said that, and the kid was just so happy. A piece of my art is the beginning of this kid's joy in art, and just, I don't know what could top that. And that's really what I want people to take away from my art - is joy. It makes me happy to make my art, and I hope that it makes other people happy to see it and experience it for themselves.

Thank you so much for everyone who's listening. Stan, thank you for inviting me to share myself and my art with you. This has been such a fun time. I don't have any upcoming events, although I've got some calls for art in, so hopefully that'll change soon. I have just opened my online shop so people can take a look at that if they would like. I'm on Instagram at dandygal.art, and my website URL is also dandygal.art. Again, thank you so much, and I look forward to listening to other interviews as well.