Pam Farrell: Artist Interview

All Things Flow (yellow)

2010

oil on canvas

36 x 36

Lynette (LH): Pam, can you share with my readers a little about yourself?

Pam: I’m curious, restless, compassionate, and a little crazy.

LH: Where did you grow up and what (if any) were there any early influences on your work?

Pam: I grew up in Central Jersey…non-descript little town, one square mile; more bars than churches, we used to say. It wasn’t a bad place to grow up, but there wasn’t much happening.

LH: Where do you live now? 

Pam: Hunterdon County NJ…I’m equidistant between NYC and Philadelphia.

Suspension 3855 and 3848

Pigment prints on Arches paper

approximately 30 x 40"

installation shot at LGTripp Gallery, Philadelphia

RSVP summer group show up through August 20, 2010

LH: Did you receive any formal art training? 

Pam: Though I started out at a community college, I earned my BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. My concentration was in printmaking and sculpture with a minor in cultural anthropology.

LH: At what point in your life did you become interested in making art? 

Pam: Best I can remember, third grade, Mrs. Olivia’s class. I drew an apple tree with red apples all over it. In my memory of the picture, the tree probably looked more like a mature maple, but it made me happy to be able to put many, many red apples in the picture.

LH: Was there a certain point when you decided you were primarily an artist?

Pam:  I made a serious commitment to making, showing, and selling my work about ten years ago.

LH: Can you describe a bit about your work in general. 

False Walls

2009

Encaustic, 36 x 36"

Pam: If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s my way of attempting to make sense of my little world and larger, more impossible concepts like time, memory, identity, loss.

LH: What is your media? 

Pam: Painting and digital photo-based work. Recently I’ve shifted from wax to oil, and I’m also immersed in using photography to make pigment prints. Sometimes there’s a little mixed media stuff, and I’m about to resurrect some older sculpture (found object/mixed media) for inclusion in a show for next year.

LH: What is your current work about? 

Pam: For some time I’ve been preoccupied with time passing.  Even back in my undergraduate days, I was aware of a certain existential anxiety about the sense of time passing…. I am also interested in what’s hidden, obscured, veiled, and in a liminal place.

This is the exterior of Pam's workspace, 

photo and more info by Lisa Pressman and on her blog, (she did a studio visit with Pam)

LH: What is your workspace like?

Pam: A few years ago I was working in a 7 x 9 ft space on the second floor of my Cape Cod style house. The room has a pitched roof/ceiling that meets the walls at about four feet. We used to call it the “nun’s room”. Now I work in a 16 x 20 ft. outbuilding about 50 ft. from my house. It is comfortably cluttered, but I could easily use another 320 sq. feet. It’s well lit, and semi-organized, and has all the amenities except running water.

LH: Describe how you work in your studio. How do you get "in a groove" and what inspires you? Pam: Primarily, I work through the day, and into the early evening. Music is what helps me focus, although I do listen to various talk programs on NPR while I work. Anything that keeps me from thinking, that keeps me out of my head. I tend to think too much. For me, finding flow usually happens when I stop thinking and it’s just me and the paint. When I find myself thinking too much, I stop painting for a bit, take a step back, maybe make some notes, clean up a little. 

From l to r, two paintings in progress from the All Things Flow series, 5 x 5 ft and 4 x 6 ft, both untitled, and potentially to be included in my solo show at Morpeth Contemporary next spring.

  On the right, Soft Parade (with ochre), 38 x 42".
In the foreground, Soft Parade will hang in the Morpeth Contemporary and
The Open Space Gallery show: "Four Notable New Jersey Artists"
 Illia Barger, Pamela Farrell, James Jansma and Micheal Madigan, 

July 24 thru Aug 31, 2010

LH: Do you ever get stuck with your work and how do you remedy this? 

Pam: Not much in life is certain. For me, this applies to art-making especially. Once I can embrace uncertainty rather than fight it, I can usually get to a place where I can make the kind of decisions that get me unstuck. Sometimes I ignore the block and challenge myself to push through, do something different or opposite. Other times I will go out to the studio, sit in my blue chair and just look, which can allow me to get a better sense of what is bothering me. Often, with a little time, I can identify what the issue is, and then work toward a potential solution. I guess I get stuck a lot. And then unstuck.

LH: Do you have particular habits that you think support your art practice? 

Pam: I may have developed more of a healthy work ethic as I’ve gotten older. At least I feel like I work harder now, more than ever.

Pam and her beloved cat, Sophie

LH: What are you reading right now? 

Pam: I just finished Winter’s Bone, a novel by Daniel Woodrell, set in the Arkansas Ozarks. It’s about family and survival. I’m still picking my way through a handful of this month’s art periodicals: AIA, ArtForum, Modern Painters. There is a pile of books next to my bed that include Gerhardt Richter’s The Daily Practice of Painting, and Methland, by Nick Reding. Another recent read was Dan Falk’s In Search of Time. I also read a lot of psychology, social science, and related materials for my other career.

LH: Do you have other jobs other than making art?
Pam:  I am a licensed clinical social worker, and I’m in private practice as a psychotherapist. Primarily, I work with adults and a variety of issues, early childhood trauma, depression, anxiety, OCD, body image/eating disorders, as well as identity, relational, or other interpersonal issues. I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule, to be able to learn from my clients, to work with talented and compassionate therapists, and to be able to help others. I’d say that the therapy informs the art and the art informs the therapy.

LH: Where would you like to be in 5 years as far as your art making? 

Pam: Oh…maybe to have more focus, or to have further honed my skills. To have more time to make art. But really, just to be making art that I’m happy with, and have that art being seen by a wider audience.

LH: Do you have any upcoming shows that you'd like to mention?


Pam: At LGTripp Gallery in Philadelphia, I’m excited to be showing some pigment prints in her summer group show, RSVP. Also, Morpeth Contemporary, where I’m represented, will be showing some of my work in a satellite space in Frenchtown, NJ. Looking ahead to next spring, I have a solo show at http://www.ruthmorpeth.com/Morpeth Contemporary, and Fall ’11, I will be showing some mixed media sculpture at one of the galleries at U Mass Amherst, in a group show.

You can see more of Pam's work here:

www.pamelafarrell.com

www.pfarrellartblog.blogspot.com 

LGTripp Gallery

http://www.lgtrippgallery.com/

47-49 N. 2nd Street

Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tel: 215.923.3110

Morpeth Contemporary

http://www.ruthmorpeth.com/

43 W Broad St.

Hopewell, NJ 08525

Tel: 609.333.9393