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Today’s Artist Interview Is With Princess Rashid From Tampa, Florida

Whopple: How long have you been an artist?
Princess: I think I’ve been an artist all my life but I began a serious studio practice about 6 years ago.

Whopple: Tell us about your first attempts to be creative.
Princess: In high school, I wanted to take an Honors art class my senior year. To do so, I had to be selected by the teacher. I knew I needed to impress her so I took the summer developing a portfolio that I hoped would impress upon her my passion and possible talent for fine art. It worked but even more importantly for me, while developing the portfolio, I realized that I could learn a lot by self- study using books and practicing independently.

Whopple: Do you make a living with your art?
Princess: I’m working on it.

Whopple: How many hours a day do you create?
Princess: I generally try to work between 2-6 hours a day. I work around the needs of my kids so I’m always multi-tasking. That’s seems to work for me because it has to. But I do look forward to about 3-6 hrs on the weekend of uninterrupted time to concentrate on paintings or making prints.

Whopple: How did you pick your creative medium?
Princess: I’m primarily an acrylic painter. I have two small children so I naturally gravitated towards water media in order to minimize exposure to toxins. I also like the intensity of color and versatility I get from using fluid acrylics.

Whopple: What are your inspirations?
Princess: The art of my children inspires me. Other living artists who are making a living from their art also inspire me.

Whopple: How do you recharge when your creativity hits the wall?
Princess: I start working with a new medium, technique, or style. Just to explore. It’s refreshing and the pressure of producing a sellable work is absent. I’m just in exploring mode and its quite liberating.

Whopple: What was your first job?
Princess: Well, it wasn’t exactly art related but it did increase my curiosity about the relationship between art and science. I worked as a lab assistant at AT&T; Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ in the optics division. I was 16 years old. I got the job because I entered the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Science Fair held at Princeton University during my sophomore year in high school. One of the judges was Dr. Murray Feldman and he was so impressed by my holography science project that he offered me an internship at Bell Labs. It was a great experience. I got to play with lasers all day. That experience led to my interest in wanting to better understand light and its relationship between vision and perception.

Whopple: What are your favorite snacks when you are creating?
Princess: My favorite drink is a good, rich cup of coffee. I usually go through about 3-4 cups a day. You know it’s terrible but honestly, I have to make myself eat when I’m painting. I get so into the work that I forget to eat. I guess because painting is such a contemplative exercise. There can be a lot of just staring at a painting and thinking. For me drinking coffee works well with that but not stopping to eat. I remember in art school, most of my painter friends smoked. I’m not a smoker. I guess coffee is my thing. Give me a strong cafŽ con leche anytime!

However, when I’m making woodcuts, etchings, monotypes…or doing any type of printmaking, I have to eat. The process of making original prints is so physical that I would never be able to pull an edition without some hearty food in my system. It’s weird. That’s when I want some rice and beans! I think studying art in Puerto Rico had a profound influence on me.

Whopple: What gives you hope in the world?
Princess: These two passages from the Bible give me the most hope: 1 Corinthians 13, 4-8 (The passage about true love) and John 3.16 (the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ). Next to that, the dreams of my children give me hope. It is also hopeful that art is still being made all over the world.

Whopple: What do you wish you could do?
Princess: Right now, I just want to find a suitable studio space in the heart of Tampa, FL that I could work on very large paintings and large etchings. Once I have that studio, I wish I could hire a personal assistant and two studio assistants. Also, I don’t know why but I wish I could fly!

Whopple: What are your artistic goals?
Princess: To become an influential international artist, to build my dream studio, to contribute significantly to the global community through my research in art and science, teach at a major research institution and encourage a new generation of artist/scientists, make independent films about living artists, start a foundation to support living artists and to make at least a 6 figure income from my art sales alone (after taxes).

Whopple: What has been your mo
st exciting moment as an artist?
Princess: So far, my most exciting moment has been my first solo museum show. It was at the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) in Jacksonville, FL. I had to give an impromptu speech to a standing room crowd opening night. It was the first time I had really spoken from the heart about how I felt art could be used to influence people (especially kids) to become more interested in science. What was truly exciting was that my audience really seemed to get what I was saying. That really validated that I was on to something with the science-art connection thing and that it resonated with people.

To See More Of Princess Rashid’s Art Please Visit The Following:

www.princessrashid.com (Website)
www.mediciclub.blogspot.com (Blog)
www.theswordandbrush.blogspot.com (Sport-Fencing Art Blog)
www.theswordandbrush.com (Sport-Fencing Art website)

Her art is also for sale here:

www.foglefineart.com/ (My Art Dealer)
http://theswordandbrushgallery.imagekind.com/ (For Reproductions/Giclees)

*Black and White Photos Of Princess Rashid Taken By Lindsey Klinger.

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