By Silver Webb
Silver: First of all, thank you for being so very generous in letting Lit Jo feature your art on the cover of Volume 11. The feeling of whimsy and color in your paintings made me think straight away that you were the kind of person I’d like to know, and so I’m delighted to speak with you and hear a little more about how you came to be a working artist with your own gallery space, with paintings in the homes of many people whose names we might recognize. Can we start with hearing a little more about your background and how you came to be an artist?
Baret: My parents are both trained artists, but I never imagined that I’d be one. I wanted to do something like be in the diplomatic corps, and bring people of different cultures together, to be a diplomat. I lived all over the world, and was born in Italy and lived in South America and France, finished college at Barnard College in New York. A few years after I graduated, I moved to California because at the time I was part of a group of people who were interested in things I wasn’t interested in, like getting married, buying nice clothes, etc. It didn’t resonate with me; there were so many homeless people, and I saw this great disparity. So I knew I needed to leave New York, but I didn’t know what that meant.
I came out to Los Angeles, and it was really hard to find my footing; it’s so spread out and I didn’t have any friends. During that time when I was really blue, a new friend invited me over to his home. He had music playing, wine on the table, and paints on the floor. He said, “Let’s paint,” and I picked up a paintbrush for the first time and started painting. I felt like a fish in water, like I could breathe for the first time. I just loved it. Obviously what I was painting was very naïve because I had no skills, but it was about the feeling that I got, getting lost in the canvas and leaning into the curiosity. Because I didn’t have any training, I didn’t have to follow any rules. I didn’t beat myself up for not knowing perspective, and I was able to play all the time.
Later, when it became clear there was a lot I didn’t know, I didn’t want to start taking classes. I just had this freedom. I knew that a lot of kids got out of art school needing to find their voice, and I didn’t need to unlearn anything. It’s been thirty years now and I’ve developed skills and I’m better at some things. I want it to be authentic to me.
I love my art because a lot of it comes from someplace else, like I sometimes don’t know how it happens. Something takes over while I paint. I rarely plan anything out. The things that need a tiny bit more planning are family portraits, where I have to get things right. But even for that, I allow for a lot of play and painting over things and changing things. It reflects my authenticity and love of playing.
Silver: So many people have talent, yet find it very hard to make the transition to being a working artist. From that initial moment of playing with paint, what has the road to becoming a self-supporting artist been like?
Baret: I never thought I’d call myself an artist or that I’d be making a living like this. I started because it fed my soul. I sought it out, little by little, buying my own materials and making time to do it myself. I started getting commissions really quickly because there was such an appreciation of art in our family. So I had an innate sense of balance and color. By virtue of the fact that I wasn’t trained, these paintings were different, they became something you could give as a gift. By word of mouth I started getting a lot of commissions shortly after I started, very naïve canvases but so much joy and color, and you could recognize the people even if it wasn’t perfect.
I kept painting. I started painting my heroes. I did that for ten years before I called myself an artist and thought of it as the way I made my living. There was a learning curve but in terms of it being a business, I think I’ve struck a good balance between being an artist and being a business. There are people more talented than I am who can’t get out of their own way, and there are some people who are more transactional and commercially driven than I am.
These aren’t just wall coverings. I’m creating a piece of me. It’s so personal. I have a hard time parting with my paintings, but if I know someone is going to love my painting as much as I do, it’s okay.
Silver: Your sense of color and whimsy are so much fun, and I see a lot of gold, which is hard to do. How do you work with these colors?
Baret: I love the color gold, but I also love the contrast of these very whimsical, playful things with the gold. It’s almost like creating iconography; gold is used to inspire awe and to suggest the divine. I don’t even think about it. When I reflect, I think, I’ll do a muted, soft painting, but I always go back to the colors I love; they elevate me. The other things you see are the depth and dimension and different layers, and that’s just me painting over a canvas. I keep going until it works. It can have four or five iterations underneath it. I play, play, play, and at the end, it’s going to have some texture, which tells a story about the canvas. But it also reflects that we all have layers and stories. We’re not one dimensional. It’s so much more interesting to have the dimensionality. You can see the human hand in it. That’s what I love.
Silver: If I look close up at “This Must Be the Place,” I see magic mushrooms, a dandelion, a blue bunny, a little mouse, a pansy, strawberries, so many little details that add up to a fairy-tale magicality, and animals seem to be a big part of that.
Baret: I really believe we all are mostly made of the same material, that we’re connected. We are all recycled bits of shark teeth and eyeballs and mushrooms and all these different elements that go into the ground. We’re more alike than we are different, and the more we’re careful with the planet around us, the more we thrive. I see these magical qualities in so much around us, from not only in the wildlife that surrounds us but also the flora and rocks and pebbles and shells. They will all become a part of us. It’s similar to the native American way of thinking. I came to that organically. Seeing how we don’t put thought into killing snails with pesticides or killing mice. What does that do? It kills the birds. We have to be more thoughtful about our environment.
With my paintings, there is a soulful and loving activism. It’s something I don’t necessarily verbalize but that I feel strongly about. Almost everything that I paint, even the abstract pieces, have a message, or have inspired me in some way. Even if it’s just a red field with a gold line intersecting it, it’s a painting inspired by Leonard Cohen’s phrase “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” Sometimes when things seem impossibly bleak, that’s when we can actually perceive a tiny bit of light and work in unison to change things. There’s an optimism in my work, even if I’m a depressive person with this weight on my shoulders. I think we have to stay optimistic to move forward.
Silver: You mentioned painting your heroes, and I see many of them on the walls of your studio, some even painted on cigar boxes. Tell us about them.
Baret: I love the dimensionality of cigar boxes. I love that people can hold them in their hands and read about these people and see it less as art and more as meeting someone and learning about them. My art comes directly from my heart, and that’s why I’m starting a new Kamala Harris portrait on canvas because I’m so inspired. I just go with my inspiration.
Silver: What’s it like creating commissioned portraits? Do you have to like the person or people in order to make art with them in it?
Baret: People who reach out to me for something so personal that’s going to celebrate their family usually have a sense of me. The commissions are an investment, and for the most part, they know my world view. I want to get to know the people that I paint. I spend a lot of time with their photos and information, and I get to know them and love them. I find beauty in the people I’m inspired by.
Silver: Blueberry is such a wonderful creature! How did you find her and is she a good studio dog?
Baret: I stopped in really quickly to a pet supply store, and it happened to be the end of an adoption fair. I already had two dogs, but I said I could foster. I looked around and said, “Which is the smallest one?” I took her and fostered her and within weeks adopted her. She’s been my muse for the past thirteen years. They guessed she was three when I adopted her, so she’s at least 16, and she’s traveled all over the country and the world with me. She hangs out with me while I’m painting. She’s always super respectful of the canvas, never walks on it. Except the other day I forgot to put her little bed down for her, but I’d thrown a rag on the canvas, and she sat down on that instead. She cracks me up. I love having a living being in my studio and in my home, and I love adopting. I’ll be adopting again soon, but for now, Blueberry likes to be the queen!
Silver: You’ve just finished “This Must Be the Place,” which you’ve generously let us use for the cover. I’m fascinated by the fairytale feel of it, the colors, and its size. This is a big painting!
Baret: This painting reflects my internal world more than my external world. “This must be the place” means being at peace with myself and who I am. I’m not separate from nature, I’m of the earth, and I owe who I am to these creatures. The painting behind you, “All of My relations” is from the “All of My Relations” series that speaks to a Lakota world view of connectedness. This painting is suggestive of DNA and little cells, and it speaks to the fact that even if we have differences from one another in size or color, we’re made of the same things and we’re more alike than different.
Silver: What are you looking forward to?
Baret: I’m traveling and I’m excited about sharing my creativity sessions. I continue to be so gratified from these sessions and from the feedback. I created a series of sessions for adults to come and play with art to embrace the knowledge that they are born to create. People forget this. Kids say right away, “I’m a singer, an artist.” They own it. It’s so freeing, it feels so good, and it’s the feeling I had when I first started painting. I don’t care what happens on the canvas, it’s just icing on the cake. I care that you’re present and play, even if it’s just the color green the entire time. I don’t call them classes because I’m not teaching anyone how-to, I’m just encouraging and giving a safe environment. I limit the group size to six, so anyone who needs it can have my attention. It’s a great way for people to come together.
Silver: Thank you so much for sharing of your time, your story, and your art. I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you better, and I’m inspired by what you’ve said.
For anyone who would like to know more about Baret, you can visit her website at www.baretboisson.com.