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Today’s Artist Interview Is With Donald Kolberg From Hahira GA.

Whopple:  How long have you been an artist?
Donald: I don’t know how to answer that. The knee jerk reaction, like so many others, is to say I’ve been an artist forever.
But the truth is there have been periods of time when I wasn’t an artist. Basically life got in the way.

Whopple:  Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
Donald: I remember a time in grade school when we had to write a story.
I used the letters of the alphabet as characters and did it on a roll of brown paper with illustrations running down the border.

I wish I had that now, it would be fun to see.

Whopple:  Do you make a living with your art?
Donald: Absolutely not, yet! My art sells fairly well which is to say I have dry spells.When it does sell a good portion usually goes to the gallery doing the work of selling.

As most artist will tell you they don’t usually have the time to sell online.
But like most artists I live my art and hope that there is enough interest and sales so that I can continue to create it. And for that matter afford to create it!

Whopple:  How many hours a day do you create?
Donald: Creating doesn’t get turned off and on. When I’m working on a piece I really don’t have an awareness of time. There are even times that I watch the sun rise.

Whopple:  How did you pick your creative medium?
Donald: Mediums have a tendency to pick you. For painting the immediacy of acrylics linked with the permanency of the pigment really got me going. Then I discovered the craziness of spray paint.
Steel mesh became one of my sculpture mediums when I had to fix a screen door.

There was a piece on scrap, I had it in my hand and the next thing I knew I had this cool shape forming.

The concept of mass you find in most sculpture didn’t appeal to me but working in steel mesh had a sense of air and movement.

Recycled Glass Sculpture found me when I looked down at a piece of shattered glass at a New York construction site. With some manipulation
organic shapes started to show. They quickly grew into three dimensional sculpture. This was followed by searching out interesting and common place discarded glass from buildings and churches. Working with this medium gave me a good feeling about how I was integrating my need to do art with not hurting the environment. Now whether I’m in a city or around farmland I always look for discarded materials to work into sculpture.

Its amazing how much wire, steel, glass and wood panels you can find to use for art.

Whopple:  What are your inspirations?
Donald: I think my most important inspiration comes from just watching the world around me.  It seems to always be telling a visual story of one kind or another

Whopple:  How do you recharge when your creativity hits the wall?
Donald: I like watching people. It’s like watching images of human landscapes, constantly changing and always in motion.
Driving in a car, anywhere, recharges me when I feel the over stimulation of life that stops my creativity.

Whopple:  What was your first job?
Donald: My first art related job was working for an art store just out of high school. I got to meet some of the craziest people in the world and knew the direction I wanted to go.

Whopple:  What are your favorite snacks when you are creating?
Donald: There is rarely a time when I don’t have coffee on hand. And there has to be peanut butter and saltines near by.

Whopple:  What gives you hope in the world?
Donald: The fact that children in their innocence can still surprise me and make me laugh gives me hope for the world.I have 11 grandkids and they are a joy.

Whopple:  What do you wish you could do?
Donald: Since my heart attack this past November, I wish I could eat sausage and cheese, but not always together.

Whopple:  What are your artistic goals?
Donald: To be able to continue creating art and to be open to learning new ideas about art.

Whopple:  What has been your most exciting moment as an artist?
Donald: Luckily none has been the most exciting and at the same time they all have.

To See More Of Donald Kolberg’s Artwork Please Visit The Following:

www.donaldkolberg.com

www.donaldkolberg.com/wordpress

http://www.facebook.com/pages/KOLBERG-STUDIO/107871474146?ref=mf

www.donaldkolberg.com/art_core.htm

Newspaper interviews at:
http://valdostadailytimes.com/local/x546438260/At-Random-Donald-Kolberg

http://donaldkolberg.com/Articles/local_story_174215904.html

Text from TV interview;
http://donaldkolberg.com/Articles/10_country.htm

These Interviews With Artists Are Copyrighted To Whopple.com.
Classifications:  Abstract Art Artists, Abstract Contemporary Art