Faith Gabel Interview

Faith Gabel is a Brooklyn (Park Slope) based artist who has been producing poetry and artwork for years. Her work has been shown at Lady Audrey's Gallery, Silvermine Galleries, and Soho 323. She is a member of the Brooklyn Working Artist's Coalition (BWAC), and has had her work displayed in their 2005 Fall Show.

Faith also has hair the color of fire, and a down to earth style that let's you know she isn't hiding a thing. Especially her views on the art world of formaldehyde cows, and elephant dung covered paintings of the Virgin Mary. On a recent city afternoon, she sat down to talk about her career, what drives her as an artist, and her opinions on the mainstream art scene. To see some of her work you can go to Faith.Gabel.BrooklynArtist.com.

You've stated before that art is what validates you. It's what gives your life purpose. Do you think that kind of dedication is needed in order to create good art?

I don't think passion is necessary to crate art per se. I think you need to have that passion to sell your art. I think it's more important... I have a lot of friends who are artists but can't put their stuff out there. You've gotta be passionate about your stuff. Passionate enough to want to send it out, and get the rejections. I think that rejection is a part of being an artist. I don't think everybody likes my stuff. I don't think everybody should like my stuff. But it's whether I think it's valuable or not and whether I can deal with somebody saying to me that they don't like it.

Like I have had people who said, some people who own galleries, that [they] just didn't like my stuff. That's his prerogative. I've had a lot of people say they really love my stuff. You know, I'm not affected the way some of my friends are by the rejection, and that's because I've been doing this for a very long time. First putting my stuff out with poetry, and I sort of had a thin skin. But through that thin skin, a thicker skin. So I don't feel that you're rejecting me by rejecting my work anymore.

It's interesting that you brought up the poetry, because earlier I was looking through your work and I hit the poem Karma. In it a writer is being told about her past lives with the fortune teller finishing with the remark, "after all that experience don't you think you could have found a more lucrative career."

(chuckles).

What do you think drives a person to create artwork despite the financial side of it?

I grew up in a very dysfunctional household, and from a very young age writing was the only way I could get my feelings out and the only way that... I read this somewhere, this is not my own statement, but writing was, "taking the lid off the pot with the steam and allowing that steam to come out." That's what it did for me for a very long time. I was putting my feelings on paper instead of blowing up inside, and it meant a lot for me to be able to do that. Somewhere along the line, in my teenage years, I realized that not everybody could do that. Could write that way and put their feelings down on paper that way.

My mother was a writer. She got a scholarship when she was young to Cornell but it was the depression so she couldn't go. She had to put food on the table for her parents. And for me that was always very important. I knew that was a gift, and that I was, I am, very grateful that I'm able to use my creativity to state who I am. I've had jobs where I've been able to use my creativity so people can see them, my abilities, and asked me to do things using them. So I've been very lucky. I'm not a waitress. I'm using my artwork, I'm using my writing and that's such a gift to... Did that answer you question? (Laughs) I don't even know. (Laugh)

That was great. Actually, I was wonder along the same lines you motioned earlier. Being that you use it as a way to get things out emotionally that you might not be able to otherwise, dose that mean there's a message to your artwork or poetry we should be looking out for?

I've done a lot of different kinds of artwork in my life. I started off with clay and sculpture; I danced at the Henry street settlement for a couple of years; I made mosaic walls. I've done a lot of different types of art; I only started digital photography and painting within the last five years. I never picked up a brush before, and one of the things I learned was that you really have to push any kind of fear you have about it and pursue it. And that's the way I felt. Like I had to do something creative. It was a necessity of my life along with whatever else I was doing. Putting food on the table. Taking care of kids. You know, working, whatever. It was necessary for me to do it. I think visual art worked out much better for me than the writing because it's an instantaneous thing. People see it, they like it, and I would tell everybody that I'm grateful, and I'm one of these people who constantly says do it. Go find what turns you on - whatever kind of art that is - [and] pursue it. Because, it's not about the money, it's about being able to express yourself and getting that out, and people will like it. I mean people will. If you're doing what you like, people will like it.

But is there a particular theme you want to bring out with your poetry or artwork?

Well, especially with writing. What I really feel, more than anything else, is that writing is about me conveying a thought to somebody else. It's not about showing you how many dictionary words I can use, or how smart, or clever I am. That's not what writing is. I have a thought and I want you to understand what I'm thinking. It may not be right, you many not agree with it, but it's gotta be clear and concise. And I really think this stream of consciousness [style of poetry writing] is crap. You know, I really do. I want you to understand how I'm feeling. And that's one of the things about my writing people say they get. "I see, I understand what you're trying to say." With the artwork it's fun for me. I don't think there's a message, very rarely. I just did a painting. The title of it is "American Idol" and it's got "thou shalt not" across its pictures of stars and stuff. Very rarely do I do stuff like that. With most of my artwork, I just stand in front of a blank canvas and just paint. I have no idea what I'm gonna paint, it just comes out, you know.

From what I've seen of your artwork, particular the pieces in the Micro Museum, you seem to have to have the re-occurring theme of city landscapes in your art. Buildings, bridges and the like. Why is that a central theme in your artwork?

That's one of the things I like most about New York, the buildings, and the structures and the look of it. From ceiling to sky. Also, I'd hate to let my secret out, but it's not a hard thing to paint. Buildings are just up and down and putting lights in. I'm a color person. I really have a flare for color, much more than realistic drawing, and buildings are not a hard thing to do so that's why I first did them. Also, I walk a lot. I used to walk to work all the time to downtown Brooklyn, and I'd pass the Target building. Going up everyday and I would watch the structure. I just thought it was a great thing so I took a picture of it. And one of the pictures that I painted was of that [photo] I took. It's on the website, if you take a look at it.   I just re-invented it as a painting. I just think buildings are great. I love them, you know. I can't paint a person. I don't have that ability to paint a figure or portraits. But buildings for me are real easy (laughs).

How do you connect your poetry to your visual art? Was one an outgrowth of the other? You know, you did writing and you decided "you know, I feel like I want to get into visual arts." Or in your mind are to two separate? Poetry is over here and visual art is over there.

I've put part of my poems on paintings. I have a couple of painting with type written works that I've attached to them. But I got to the point with my poetry that I felt that... I had done enough poetry writing for whatever reasons. I was doing a lot of writing at work and I sort or moved out of that. I had done it for about twenty-five years. I was working in public information and my boss asked me to put together some form of that information, almost like an organizational chart format, which I later found out was the beginning of the web. From that he asked me to take some pictures. He gave me a digital camera and they wanted it for the conference room. And they basically told me, here's the camera learn how to use it. When I started taking pictures I was also on a contract and it made it very cumbersome for me to go back and forth with the vendor, trying to tell him what to do. It was a document that I had setup in such a way and it would be much easier if I could do the graphics, so I asked my boss for Photoshop to do this document. And that's when I moved the digital pictures into Photoshop and taught myself the program and started fooling around with the pictures I had taken. I really liked doing that. I'm not crazy about cameras so much, but it was the program, with the colors and the filters and that's what made me wanna paint. So I sorta moved into the visuals by accident. I had put the poetry down and said I'm not doing this any more. I sent out a lot of poems to magazines, but that say they want you to be a member... after a while it became too expensive for me to put poetry out. And I felt, "Where is this going"? I had been doing it for a long time. So I guess the creativity was there but it just wasn't being used so I sort of channeled it into the photography.

So in your experience that lack of response that some writers get deadens the passion?

I definitely think that. And I definitely think unfortunately with poetry that the field is filled with only a couple of types of people who like only what they produce themselves. So like there's like this whole New York contingent from the 50's. White men who put out these stream of consciousness poems that to me mean nothing, and don't touch me any where and I don't know what they're saying and that group is a large group in the poetry field. A lot of the books on poetry are produced by these types of people. Or hip hop, which I don't identify with either. It's not who I am and I don't have those issues. I sort of fall some where in the cracks in poetry and I think it does kill your art - as far as writing goes. I don't think that the field is as closed in visual art. I think it's much more open. I think that's maybe cause young people are involved in it. I also think it's because it's a lot easier to get your stuff out there with the web - visual stuff - much easier than poetry.

Being that the field seems so narrow what keeps you going even though you know it's so hard for you to get that dream position within the field? What motivates you?

I was trying to think about that especially, with visual arts. What motivates me is that I feel like I was born to paint when I picked up the brush. It was as if it was so natural in my hand and I enjoy the act of painting. I don't enjoy the act of photographing. I like working in Photoshop but I don't so much enjoy... I don't wanna learn about cameras. It's not my thing. And it 's funny when I was young I took this Minnesota multi-phasic aptitude test and it said I should be a photographer which was so weird I looked at it and went "I don't like photography." I'm a real color person I like these bright primary things and it's just fun for me and also because I've gotten such wonderful comments about it. People really think I'm talented, which blows me away. I mean it really blows me away, at my age. I'm not 20 years old in SVA or in Parsons, you know, so to me to pick up a brush five years ago and get all of this great feedback on it is amazing to me, and I'm grateful. I really am very grateful about it. That's why I continue.

Well, combined, you've been doing poetry and visual art for quite awhile. What has kept you in the game? What do you think you could pass to others?

I think it's much easier today with the web to send your stuff out. I think you need to understand digital photography and getting your stuff on a site so you could send people there to see it. I thing you've gotta persevere. Like, it's something that you can't drop. I go on line everyday and that's were I find a lot of people looking for visual artists, looking for work and I send people my website and I say, "if you like my stuff contact me. Somewhat, it takes money. I've had slides made and it's not cheap. But you can do it yourself with a digital camera, and walk into a Kodak store and have them put it on a CD and upload it. I think that you gotta persevere. I think you gotta want to get your stuff out there, and you've gotta not care about being rejected. And you can't care about the money cause it's not about money. You know, there are people who the art world values, and I don't know why. I mean a formaldehyde cow to me is a disgusting display. I don't get it, I don't understand it. Yet the man is getting paid gobs of money for it. There stuff that I think... I don't think that most talented people are the richest because of their art. I certainly think that there are a lot more talented people out there than me who are unknown and I think the difference is that I have the desire to try and get it out there. That's the difference between me and someone else. I just try, you know, and it's taken me lot of years to get to that point.

I worked through a lot of issues. I worked through my childhood. You know everyone has some kind of issue to work through. Some kind of dysfunction you know I think that's part of being creative. I think that helps in certain ways. But I also don't think that it, should stop you. I think that people today who are younger than me have a much better chance than I did when I was younger. I think there's a lot more... somebody said this and I really believe it, "The web has made things more democratic." That's because there are so many places you can send your stuff out. It used to be like these elite groups of people and it's not anymore. The web has made everybody equal.