Today we’d like to introduce you to Whitman Lindstrom.
Whitman, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Being raised in Southern California I had it pretty easy. For everything that it is I think Los Angeles was a great place to grow up with a good exposure to art, music, diverse culture and easy access to some of the best mountains and beaches in the country. All of those elements strongly influence the art that I am creating today.
My desire to travel the world came well before my desire to create art. Being an artist wasn’t really on my mind in the beginning, and it wasn’t until I was near the end of my college days that I started to experiment with illustration and painting. After college I started to teach myself Photoshop and other digital art tools that lead me to being a Digital Matte Painter in the Visual Effects Industry. I quickly found a comfortable place in that industry and was able to forge a healthy balance of travel and work. After a few years I decided to reconnect and focus on my fine art and more specifically oil painting.
Since then, my passion for painting has been growing really fast and now my focus is on finding galleries that I admire that are willing to collaborate or show my art.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I like to think of my art as a sort of cultural surrealism. The focus of my art is usually around a central figure that I find intriguing for one reason or another. I tend to place my figures in a subtly surreal environment often experimenting with negative space and depth of field. The depth of field effects are relatively new to my artwork and it is definitely a result of working in the film industry for so many years. I really enjoy attempting to create depth of field in painting because it is challenging and sort of unique in fine art.
I work almost exclusively with oils and canvas. I enjoy the slow process of oil painting as it allows me to evolve the piece more thoughtfully. I always try to have a message in my art about society and culture, if I can express that message in an ironic manner then even better. Usually, the message is not always clear to the viewer and I prefer to let the viewer interpret the message in their own way as it pertains to their unique life experiences.
Inspiration for my art literally has not limits: classical art, music, nature, friends, family, travel, and of late a strong political influence… no reason in particular, haha.
The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Haha, how much time do we have? I do have a lot to say about this, but everyone’s struggles are unique so there is no one solution to this problem. The concept of a starving artist is very real, but you just have to be creative with how you approach making a living with your art. First, find out what you love to create and are good at, then spend every spare second working on it. You can hold down a full time job and still create art in the evenings or weekends until over time you can supplement you income with art sales. It takes a lot of time and commitment and not giving up. So cliché I know. Also, I haven’t completely solved this problem yet either, so maybe I am not the best person to ask.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Social media is still the best and most consistent way to experience my art. Instagram and Facebook under the name WhitmanART. I also have a website www.WhitmanArt.com and a YouTube channel with the same name, surprise. On my YouTube channel I post artistic process videos with time lapse imagery of myself painting.
I also show my work around Southern California, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Nothing on the books at the moment as I am working on a few commissions and a new series of paintings that I would like to show at the end of the year. So if there are any cool LA galleries out there looking for artists to show let’s talk!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.WhitmanArt.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitmanart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitman.artist/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/user/whitman87
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