Meet Carrie Ann Baade | Painter and Professor of Art

We had the good fortune of connecting with Carrie Ann Baade and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Carrie Ann, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. Gustave Flaubert I was first made aware of this statement by a colleague. In her opinion, I was likely risk taking in both my work and in my life. Not making risks in my life, came with maturity. Yet in order to become a successful professional, it had been necessary for me to recognize the obstacles, run at them, and jump into the unknown. We are told that learning occurs when we get outside of our comfort zone. For me, the advancements in my career have all occurred when I dared to be uncomfortable by testing my limits, kept clear goals, and challenged myself beyond my prior capacity. No one prepares you for how much self confidence it requires to “do what you love.” If I could gift all my students resilience and self belief, I would. After earning two degrees and having numerous apprenticeships, I had the training I needed to make the work I wanted to create. At that moment, it was necessary for me to jump out of my life and risk all. It felt like jumping out of an airplane and waiting for the “universe” to catch me before I hit the cold, hard ground. In reality it was no more than quitting my job, leaving my marriage, and moving to a city that would support my creative endeavors…but this felt world ending. I knew that I had to dare to be a full time artist, if I was going to make it as a painter and hopefully as a professor. Graduating from art school (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago) in my 20’s, I was plagued by this idea of the “starving artist” and I misunderstood this term. I thought starving artist was someone who was too inept to feed themselves through their own skilled labor. So I started my own business doing commission artwork, restoration of historical interiors, and murals. I ate well, I bought a car, I traveled the world. I thought of myself as a well fed artist and was proud of being able to support myself with my talents and education. However, I was an artist for hire, I was not making the work I wanted to create. In my 30’s after graduate school, I realized that “starving artist” meant that I never cared to eat again because I was so focused and obsessed with my work. The starving artist is “one who sacrifices material well-being in order to focus on their artwork.” This was me. For two years, I faced eviction and uncertainty that was livable because I knew I was here to paint, if I got the recognition, then it would be possible for me to be hired as a professor ( and I already had my three years teaching experience). Yet, during that time, struggled with health issues, car accidents, a partner went to rehab for substance abuse, family members passed, and I was divorced. There were months when I felt like I was having a heart attack. I was a professional failure and good at this. I applied for shows, and jobs relentlessly. Sitting at my computer, I would shout into the abyss of the internet sharing my site, insisting that someone: LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOOK AT ME! One day, the abyss looks back. One day, I was seen! Through this my work in a show in NYC, then into a best selling book, then I was accepted into a gallery in LA, and then after many years of interviews into a tenure track position as a professor of art, where it is my job to exhibit nationally and internationally. While I am now in my late 40’s, I must still apply these lessons from these formative years and continue to push my work and my connections to have my work seen. Any time I am unhappy or unsatisfied, I know what it takes to move to the next level, I must jump!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As a contemporary painter whose work quotes from, interacts with, and deeply relates to art history; I paint in dialogue with the past. The result are surreal narratives that is simultaneously biographical. I consider myself a scavenger salvaging lost aesthetics, composing with a women’s voice within art’s past. I typically depict the world realistically and then subvert and distort it in order to construct a strong sense of narrative and meaning. Each composition becomes a dense meta-narrative, informed by religious, mythological, and cultural iconography. The subjects of my work include gods, rulers, and demons as metaphors for the diverse archetypes of the human condition. The concepts behind my new work are informed by a lack of women’s voices in art history. Imagery in my paintings has evolved, and embraced the idea of apocalypse, not a literal end of the world, but an end to the religious and sexist dynamics which prevail in the current paradigm. The greatest impact on my work in the recent years has been the #MeToo movement and the startling revelations of abuse and sexual assault but also how we have underestimated our daughters and eclipsed the careers and aspirations of our mothers. Women have often been unable to live their hopes or until recently, even imagine a world they wanted to be in or how they could contribute. I have arrived into a job and profession of my dreams but there are few role models and the aggression of men towards women is nearly as great for how women treat women since they have had so little support and poor foundation for having their own needs met that they prey on each other. My paintings are reflections on these missing stories and sought after understanding. When I am not painting and teaching, I am hard at work making networks of support for my former students so they may achieve. My biggest lesson in art, is that this is not a solo campaign, we are in this together. My students’ success, is my success. My art career took off in 2005, with success through the Lowbrow or Pop Surrealist artists which originated out of the West Coast. I have exhibited in more than 20 solo exhibitions and 150 group shows nationally and internationally, including: the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Mesa Contemporary Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville, the Delaware Contemporary, Billy Shire Fine Arts and La Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles, the Harwood Museum in Taos, the Instituto de America de Santa Fe in Granada, Spain, the Ningbo Art Museum in China. and I enjoyed being a Guest of Honor, Dragon Con, Atlanta, GA (2013). Raised on the front range in Colorado, I live and works in Northern Florida, where I am Professor of Painting and Drawing at Florida State University.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Miami is a wonderful city for the arts. I have enjoyed the offerings each December through Art Basel. The places I would take a visiting friend would include the Museum of Graffiti, the Perez Museum and the Rubell Museum. Through these events and institutions I am impressed with Miami’s support and enthusiasm for the arts.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
In the life of an artist, there are so many to recognize. From the many collectors who believed in me and collected my work, to the gallerists who make incredible sacrifices to bring art to the public, to the curators and museum professionals who work tirelessly to make culture happen. The word “culture” derives from the Latin “colere,” which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivation and nurture. There are times when I am concerned that related our business leaders do not understand the function of the arts and culture, they are here to actively fostering growth in us as humans. What are we without the arts and culture? We are merely tools in the cogs of the commerce. To have an internally rich and meaningful life, we need to support our art centers, our community theatres, attend book readings, and hear live music. I hope as the pandemic fades, that there will be a renewal for our connection to culture since we have been deprived of its fruits for the past year. My shoutout is to all of those who are working to make culture happen: we need you!

Website: https://carrieannbaade.com/

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