The Rewards of Perseverance

"Woodland Temple" by Serena Kovalosky (mclaughlinphoto.com)

I have just achieved a major goal in my life as a professional artist. My work is now in a museum exhibition of living contemporary artists at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, New York.

I’m sharing this with all of you because there’s a good story behind it.

My first visit to the Hyde Collection was on a class trip in high school. I’d been drawing since the age of five and considered it a natural extension of my life, but growing up in rural New York in the days before internet, I never had any exposure to works by professional artists. I remember standing in the middle of the gallery, staring open-mouthed at all the paintings by the great masters that surrounded me and saying, “This feels like home”.

Despite that watershed moment, I pushed my creative instincts aside in favor of making a living at a “real” job. Years later, I found myself sitting at a desk in a corporate office, telephones ringing and emails piling up, wondering what was the heck was wrong.

Then I started thinking about that day at the Hyde. And I started creating again.

It wasn’t long before I knew what I had to do. I left my job and moved into an artist’s loft in Montreal, trading pin-striped suits for paint-splattered jeans. Many of my friends envied the courage it took to leave a profitable career and follow a creative dream. Most of them, however, thought I was nuts. But I knew that for me, this was the way to sanity.

I was immediately drawn to working with gourds, but I constantly had to shake off the little voice of doubt that said, “You quit your day job to work with GOURDS?” And although the small ornaments and pottery I created sold quite well, my artist friends began dropping subtle hints. “If you want to be a professional artist,” they said, “You should consider working with more ‘noble’ materials.” Perhaps they were right. Who would ever take a gourd artist seriously?

So I set aside the gourds in favor of clay, plaster, stone and bronze. I studied the sculptural form, opting for more “intellectual” themes, and created some pretty good work. But I didn’t have the same passion for the materials or the subjects. Exasperated, I sat down in the middle of my studio one day and had a good talk with myself.  ”OK, Serena, here’s the deal,” I said. “Gourds are your medium, they are what you resonate to and you can’t create great work without that resonance. So forget about what everyone thinks. If you’re a gourd artist, then be the best gourd artist you can be. But do it your way.”

Newly inspired, I moved back to upstate New York, found a gourd supplier and went to work, creating mostly pottery which sold easily. But then a subtle thought began creeping its way into my consciousness: “You should be making sculptures. And exhibiting in galleries and museums.” I resisted the impulse, knowing that gourd pottery is easier to market and making a living as an artist was challenging enough.

Then an artist friend, Leslie Parke, offered me her studio one winter while she was at an artists’ residency in France. I jumped at the opportunity to gain fresh perspective on my work. Setting up my gourds and supplies in a new environment, I decided to explore what I would create if I didn’t have to consider whether or not the work would sell. Surrounded by the intensity of Leslie’s paintings, I released all my doubts and inhibitions and created a series of sculptures.

One of the pieces that emerged from Leslie’s studio that winter was Woodland Temple, the gourd artwork that is now at the Hyde.

Sitting in my Montreal studio over fifteen years ago, creating that first little gourd ornament while everyone thought I had lost my mind, I would never have guessed I would eventually create a gourd sculpture that would be selected for a museum exhibition. I am thankful that I’m stubborn enough to do what I feel in my heart, despite the well-intended opinions of others and that no matter how challenging things get, as long as I’m working my passion, I will always survive.

Photo credit: Jim McLaughlin: www.mclaughlinphoto.com

NOTES:

The Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region is one of the oldest and  most prestigious regional juried art shows in the United States. The 2010 exhibition runs from October 2, 2010 to January 2, 2011 at the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY.

Read the next post to see this fascinating exhibition, juried by Charles Desmarais, Deputy Director for Art at the Brooklyn Museum, NY.

The Hyde Collection
www.hydecollection.org

Every good artist needs a great photographer. Thanks to the professional talent of Jim McLaughlin who beautifully captured the essence of Woodland Temple, my work caught the attention of the juror at the Hyde Collection.

Jim McLaughlin Photography
www.mclaughlinphoto.com

Many thanks to Leslie Parke, a good friend and an exceptional artist with an absolutely fabulous studio on the top floor of a renovated factory in Cambridge, NY.
Leslie Parke Studio
www.leslieparke.com

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