Today we’d like to introduce you to Halee Roth.
Hi Halee, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My journey doesn’t have a beginning that I can remember. Most artists don’t know when they started to be an artist. It’s just something you have always done. Like breathing. Crayons move on to pencils and paints and then you find yourself, decades later, still doodling, only now, somehow it’s “for real”. I grew up in Utah. My parents knew little about art, but wanted to be supportive. They sent me to watercolor lessons and drove my art to competitions. The life experiences they gave me, however, would do the most to shaped the artist I would become. They taught me about all the good around me. They nurtured my love of nature and taught me to see the divine in all people. They gave me a lust for life and for travel and for experiences. They taught me to reach outside my small town upbringing and reach into a bigger world to find all that is good and beautiful. In my travels I found my love of color. In my travels I found a love for teaching. I graduated from Utah State University with a degree in drawing and painting and art education. I found that I loved teaching art to high school students. I could have been satisfied to teach and never pursue my own art. I loved it that much. Seasons change. I married and moved across the country and found my skill with power tools. It might seem like a big shift to become a full time home remodel expert from a painter, but let me explain. You see most of my talent lies in my gift for mastering many media and skills with comprehending design and dimensions. I have been a sculptor, a potter, a cake decorator, a seamstress, among other things… So chop saw, tile saw, and brad gun became my new media. With a knack for building I thought maybe I’d just keep doing this. I painted a bit here and there, but never with the urgency that was about to come. The painting call hit me hard when I became pregnant with my first daughter. I think it was the fact that I could no longer paint that made me want it that much more. With every baby that I had, the call or itch (it was really more like a demon breathing down my neck) grew stronger. Three babies and six years later I was chomping at the bit, still remodeling, but painting like a mad woman whenever I got the chance. Now there is a big difference between painting and painting professionally. I wasn’t able to make that leap until my youngest was in first grade. A poet and mother once told me you have to be a Cerberus of your time. To be an artist and mother of three littles is all about time management. And, to be a professional artist you have to find your voice. Luckily, all the years I wasn’t painting, I was thinking about what I would paint I was developing my style in my mind. There were two voices however. One that said go where the easy money is, go abstract. And the other said, being a figure painter will never pay off because your not good enough to make it happen. I listened to the first voice for awhile. But, any artist will tell you, there is no easy money. Selling abstract was only going to pay off big if I sacrificed time with my family. Sometimes you have to walk a path just to know it’s not the one you should be on. And, I just couldn’t get figures out of my mind. Since I was young and my mom said “Why don’t you paint more beautiful women, why does it have to be so dark?” and my dad said “Why do you like to paint breasts so much?” I just could get the human form out of my art. And, as it turns out I’m a hell of a figure painter. So, here I am, painting people, walking the art family tightrope, and hustling my art to try and make a profit. Thankfully, my parents also gave me a strong work ethic along with all that love of nature and I can do the art grind like I could pull them weeds. Being an artist is HARD.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
When you see an artist on Instagram magically create something wonderful, there is so much that you don’t see. Artists have to be incredibly hard workers. And they have to have really tough skin. But, I’m jumping ahead. There are many things that have challenged me as an artist. There are some obvious things that all artists deal with, finding time, affording supplies, selling yourself, networking, endless hours applying to shows, driving artwork, building, sanding, framing… The first challenge I’d like to expound upon is an ongoing battle. I learned early on that I would have to become very comfortable with being misunderstood. I paint the human form. It is a very loaded subject, especially where I have lived. I have received some very interesting comments. I have even been viewed as a perverse and received sexual harassment from what I choose to paint. I stand by my choice of subject partly because of these reactions. I can see that there is so much disgrace and undervaluing of this divine form. More on that later… The second struggle worth mentioning didn’t even become apparent to me until I well after my college years. I discovered that, to my dismay, I hadn’t actually received an art education even though I graduated with a degree in art. There is a strong sentiment in art schools across the country to teach artists about art concept and not art technique. So, at 40 years old, I feel like I am putting myself through school again. I am learning things at this age that most other figure painters learned in their early twenties. It is a self guided and self motivated curriculum. It is also very humbling to admit all the things I really don’t know that seem to be fundamental in my field. The last thing I wanted to share more about is rejection. I have a pretty strong personality and I think I have high self esteem, but this art game is no joke. It gets to all of us. When you have to put your heart and soul on a canvas and think it just might be ready, you offer it up to the powers that be for criticism and overall rejection, it can be crushing. Artists spend many hours and a lot of money to gamble on the chance at making a connection or a sale. I have spent countless hours sitting at shows not selling, not getting a response. I have sent countless emails with no response. I have been openly rejected and criticized and not always kindly. I have got in my car or back on the plane and cried. I have stood in face to face with people who could hold my future in their hands and been turned away. I have been in small shows in the hopes for something bigger. I have put my own body in my art and had it placed in the corner and rejected from shows. It really never stops either. As long as my art is out there, someone will not like it. It can be very discouraging to say the least. You have to believe in yourself to be an artist and to pick yourself up, believe you can make it if you apply again, believe you can paint something better, believe they will email you back this time, because after all, it is a right of passage. You just have to go through this to prove to yourself and tp the world that your art is worth it.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Painting the human form can be very intimidating. It is very hard. Maybe it’s because everyone knows exactly what a body looks like. We all have one. I would paint something easier, but the truth is, I just love to paint the human body. It has endless design possibilities, holds the most power for impact, and is incredibly complex. I just never get bored. I can’t say that I am the most proud of my human forms yet. It is one thing I am still studying, but I have enough understanding that I can use it in pieces that I am proud of. Good art is more than just being good at the human form. There is a voice and a story in art that draws people in. I am good at composition, or the arrangement of shapes, lines, colors, etc. This is what gives me a unique voice. I have worked to get the most out of my color. Color is a very powerful emotional tool and I intend to use it in a powerful way. I seek to make my colors luminous so even the figure’s flesh glows with internal light. I pose my own models and take photographs to paint from. I control the scene with dramatic lighting and familiar poses. The part that makes my pieces more current is the abstraction of their surroundings. There is something that feels organic and natural, but you can’t quite put your finger on what the forms actually represent. Shapes you’ve seen everywhere, but can’t quite say where. There is something familiar in what I paint.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
As the world is feeling more chaotic and mean, I feel strongly that the good in us all needs to be celebrated. There is a source of light in all people. I want people to feel the hope and beauty in humanity when they see my figures. I was always taught to see the good in all people. I believe all people are beautiful. There is so much majesty that has been robbed from the human form. By sexualizing the body, it is undervalued. By shaming the body, it is not celebrated. It is a magnificent creation that should be viewed with awe. I choose colors that are full of light in their purest form because that’s the kind of color the body deserves. I hope to create figures that are compelling enough to help people see the beauty inside all of us.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.haleerothart.com
- Instagram: @haleerothart
