Ranger Reemelin

Professor Arini

English 102

March 23, 2019

Interview Transcript

There is a reason as to why I am doing an interview with Elaine Dillingham. The first thing to

note is that she is very easy to talk to and schedule a time with. She has done art for many years

and is also my Drawing Two teacher. She has a website that I can readily see and she is a

professional artists/ part-time teacher at Coconino Community College. She has a teaching

degree and has a major in art and minor in English so she can help me reword my questions to be

understood by my audience. The main reason why I am interviewing her is to also help me

decide on what career path I aim to go on, which was to start with an associates in art, Doing this

let me have a greater understanding on what I would have to look forward to in case I would like

to either major in art or just use an associates for hobby material that can build up a resume. As

she is easy to schedule with on short notice, has background in art, and I want to know more on

what to expect in that field, she was an easy target to interview.

Ranger: Hello, can you introduce yourself?

Elaine: Sure, my name is Elaine Dillingham.

Ranger: Alright, and my name is Ranger Reemelin. So, this is my art teacher for drawing two.

Um, do you remember your first art project? If so, what was it?

Elaine: Oh boy! That’s a good question. So, going way back then?
Ranger: Yes.

Elaine: I mean truly my first art project?

Ranger: Which one was professional?

Elaine: So not when I was a kid? Okay. Oh, huh. Let me think about that. Um, I started painting

professionally with acrylics in 1993 and the paintings I did at that time were… uh… aiming to

be professional to put it that way. I got serious at that point so…

Ranger: How did you start making art?

Elaine: Well, uh, I’ve always done it. When I was a kid I was always drawing. Um, I loved to

draw horses and anything really. And even as a young child I would spend hours on these

intricate drawings. Of course, they were child’s drawings so I cant really answer that except to

say that its always sort of been that way.

Ranger: That’s awesome. So, what family did you come from? Did they help you or-

Elaine: That’s a good question. I’m the oldest of three children and I wasn’t really encouraged in

art or discouraged either. They saw that I liked to do it so, um, I most of my well my junior high

and high school years uh were in a small town in north Carolina and uh the public schools didn’t

even have art and so I only took my first serious art class in college though I was kind of behind.

You know my mother tried to encourage me as much as she could, but they weren’t artists. We

didn’t live near major art museums or anything like that so it was… I just kind of did it because I

loved to do it.

Ranger: What inspired you to be an artist besides early age?

Elaine: Again, that is hard to answer because its always been something I wanted to do. You

know? When I started college, I thought I would major in either art or English. You know I liked

them both. I learned pretty quickly that I preferred to be in the art studio instead of the library.

So, I ended up majoring in art and minored in English

Ranger: What type of competitions did you do? Like what did you put your art into?

Elaine: Uh, well, I’ve been in several galleries over the years. With mixed results I mean, and

from time to time I do enter jury shows. Though I haven’t been doing that in recent years. Ive

been focusing more on local things. Well… like Palette to Palette here at CCC. I’ll have some art

in that, I’ll participate in the faculty work show and either groups that exhibit and now with the

digital age everything is online. So, I have a lot of art online.

Ranger: I’ve seen some of those. They are really amazing.

Elaine: Sometimes more people see it online than in a gallery.

Ranger: What is something you failed at?

Elaine: Something I failed at?

Ranger: Like you had to totally scrap the project?

Elaine: I have some paintings that are 2/3rds or 3/4th finished that I just don’t know what to do

with. I worked on them too long and there not getting better, and so I just put those away and

there are some that will probably never be finished. Sometimes Ill come back to those and sand

off the paint if its on panel or paint over it. Start over. I have some that will never see the light of

day because they just look crappy.

Ranger: Alright. When did you first make a master piece?

Elaine: I don’t know if I’ve ever made a master piece.

Ranger: What would you consider your master piece?

Elaine: For someone to say they made a master piece is pretty arrogant. You know? It’s honestly

for other people to decide. That’s for art historians in a hundred or five hundred years to decide

what’s a master piece. It’s not for me to decide. But there are some things… I am getting better.

You know and I know it’s all about practice. The more you do the better you get. I can draw

people much better than I used to be able and that is from doing life drawings. I don’t think I

have one master piece. There are some that I like better than others.

Ranger: So what’s the favorite one you’ve done so far?

Elaine: Oh, man. This is really tough. I don’t think I can pick one favorite.

Elaine: There is a little one I just finished. Alan asked if I could donate it to the Palette to Palette

auction. I kind of hemmed and hawed at him because I sort of liked it. To either keep it or sell it,

I don’t know. But I said I would. That one was titled Moon Shadows on Snow and its just a little

one. It’s a color pencil drawing on blue paper.

Ranger: Wow.

Elaine: So…

Ranger: What do you wish you had known when you started out?

Elaine: How hard it is. I mean there is a lot of jokes about the starving artist thing, but to be an

artist is because you love it. You work all the time, you have to constantly grow, you have to be

flexible, you have to take criticism, you have to be able to take rejection, and you have to find a

way to support yourself, because the reality is that very few people are able to support
themselves, much less a family, solely doing art. There are exceptions of course, and there are

some people that can do commercial art or graphic design and that kind of thing that are able to

have a regular paycheck. Art is a very precarious career. People really need to be told that. I try

to tell students “Do you want to major in art? That’s great! Have a back up plan. Have something

else you can do to support yourself.”

Ranger: Like for myself I plan on just getting an Associates and after that just going for anything

else just so I can get my foot in the door. Did you plan on being as successful as you are now in

the art world?

Elaine: Well what is success?

Ranger: What is your definition of success?

Elaine: Well, that is a philosophical question really. Some people define success as financial

success. If your able to sell your paintings consistently for really big prices then you are

successful. Other people define success as constant. Some people make paintings that are boring

and redundant and some people like that. Something people will want to buy. So, I tend to define

success more as innovation in art. Some others would define success as being happy with what

you are doing instead of agonizing over it. So, am I successful? I don’t know. Sometimes I can

be happy with what I am doing and sometimes I agonize over it. So again, I don’t think I can

answer that.

Ranger: So, did you have to sacrifice anything for your art career?

Elaine: Yeah. You know there are friends I don’t have, movies I’ve never seen, there is travel I

have not done, because I don’t have time. I’m working on my artwork. It’s a solitary pursuit.
Your alone when you are painting. There are many worthwhile organizations that I am not a

member of because instead I choose to be alone and work on my art.

Ranger: What is your favorite type of medium in art? When did you know what it was? Did you

learn what it was in college, high school, or when you were really young?

Elaine: I didn’t find out when I was really young because I didn’t have a chance to try all the

stuff like in Drawing Two. I didn’t get to try that stuff until later in life. I would say write now

that my two favorites, well I don’t even know if I can limit it to two. For painting I like acrylic

and watercolor and for water I really like water soluble graphite. So, I would say those are my

favorites.

Ranger: That makes sense. I’ve seen your website.

Elaine: You can kind of tell right?

Ranger: Do you have something you can’t live without in your studio if you had everything?

Other than acrylics and watercolor?

Elaine: Well I really like music. I really like listening to music when I am working.

Ranger: Like the jazz from last night?

Elaine: Yeah. The music is important and I like a cup of coffee I can sip on.

Ranger: Is there an element of art you enjoy working with the most? Why?

Elaine: What do you mean by element of art?

Ranger: Do you like doing abstractions, still-life’s, different thing like that.
Elaine: What I like doing most is doing things that are creative and maybe a little weird. Quite

frankly I get bored with realism. Even though that is what most people like. Most of the

paintings that sell are realistic landscapes or still-lives. I can do that and appreciate one that is

well done, but I enjoy the imagination of art. SO I enjoy distorting things or putting odd things

together in a painting. I like abstraction a lot. That’s all I have to say about that.

Ranger: Do you have a reason to make art except that it is fun-?

Elaine: To try and make some money out of it! Hahaha! You know it is a business. Art is a

business if you take it seriously and so I am motivated to make it have some income.

Ranger: What made you decide to be an art teacher?

Elaine: When I was in college, I don’t know, when I was around junior or something I thought

“Oh dear, what am I going to do when I graduate?” I like people…usually, and so I thought I

could get the teaching credentials if need be. Try it at least. My first teaching job was eight grade

art and it was a disaster. I was so young and naïve… Well do you remember eighth grade?

Ranger: Yes I do. It goes crazy.

Elaine: Well, these kids were so mean that if they could detect the slightest weakness or

hesitation as a teacher they just attack. Like a pack! They just go after you. They do things like

plug the sink in the back of the room and then turn on the faucets and I would dealing with some

crisis up front and I would turn around and see the sink overflowing in the back. No one knew

anything about it. I mean it was awful and I was not hired back at that school. All the art teachers

are part-time so it let me have more time to work on my art.