Christmas is coming up, and to help you not only find something awesome but support an artist I've done a new interview with an Alabama artist. Meet Sierra Seay, a painter who has talent and personality (she also does commissions).

What kind of artist do you consider yourself?
I feel like there are so many labels I could adhere to myself, but I definitely identify as a green artist. I'm very new to the industry and only recently introduced myself into the public art world. I'm a moderately committed artist. I've not completely sold my soul to my craft… yet! I'd say I'm a compulsive artist, which means I don't tend to do too much planning or preparation, like some artists do with all of their thumb nail sketches and paint samples. When the idea is there, it's there, and if I don't capture it, it's gone.
 
What is your favorite type of art?
I love surrealism. I think of all art types, surrealism is likely to invoke the most curiosity and abstract thought, even in people who only see the ordinary.
 
What is your favorite media to work with?
Oil paint, hands down. It is a beast. Every time I start an oil painting, I feel like I'm preparing for battle. There's this sort of dread, because I know just how much work is in front of me. It's daunting, but who doesn't love a good challenge. Oils don't come easy to me, so it's a fight to achieve what I'm looking for. I haven't had much instruction, so I feel I lack a lot of the technical ability for oil paint.
 
What started you in art?
I really couldn't say. I remember being drawn to a character in an anime who painted and lived on her own in a cabin. She seemed very strong and sure of herself, and I liked that. But that's really the only heavy influence I can really attribute my start to. I was always encouraged by my family to draw, also to keep practicing. I kept the front of our fridge very full.
 
Do you have a favorite artist (Past)? Why?
Hieronymus Bosch. He was my first favorite. He's also how I discovered surrealism. His paintings are beyond his time in my opinion, and full of curiosities and creatures he conjured up. Today we have so many preconceived notions of certain animals and monsters. We have CGI and technologies to really bring these things to life, but he didn't really have any of this, only his imagination. His paintings remind me of Where’s Waldo, so cluttered, but with purpose. You could look at one of his paintings every day for a year and find something new each day.
 
What inspires you?
This is a hard question because I'm not sure I can narrow it to a thing, or even an emotion. If I need to paint something, say a commission or something with a due date, and I'm not feeling in the mood, I'll listen to electronic music to get it flowing… but honestly that's the only thing I can think of.
 
 
What do you feel is an overused media?
Digital painting. Don't get me wrong, people make some stunning and beautiful works of art digitally, but I'm afraid of seeing less and less traditional artists as the years go on… I suppose I'm biased since I'm a traditional painter.
 
Do you find a judgement for the type of art you do? If yes what kind and how do you feel about it? If no do you find that people are accepting about the art you do?
Not entirely, with some of my anatomical heart paintings people have made comments that they're morbid, but that's not the popular opinion. And honestly if someone forms an opinion about my art, whether I think it's good or bad, my work has done its job.
 
Does art energize or exhaust you?
Sometimes, both. Oil paintings definitely stress me out at times, but the smell and the feeling of brush on canvas, are soothing to me. The process in general gets my endorphins going.
 
What is your favorite thing about being an artist?
It's the skeleton of who I am. You think it only applies when I'm painting, and I used to think that too, but I've found that it's actually wired into every part of who I am. For me it's less of a talent and more of a lifestyle.
 
How do you feel people look at artists? Are they respected or not? Why or why don’t you think so?
I think artists have always been and continue to be respected. People respect things that they cannot do themselves. I say that meaning that's the opinion of the majority. There are plenty of folks who find a lot of art weird, or they don't get it, or think we should get real jobs, but those people will always exist.
 
Is there a kind of art that you wish you had the ability to do but can’t?
I would love to be able to sculpt things out of salvaged items, but I have a hard time thinking in 3D. How people create dragons out of tin cans and windmills out of bottle caps and rubber bands is so far over my head.
 
Anything you want to add for people who might be too shy, or scared, or uncertain about their artistic abilities?
Everyone has an outlet for creation, everyone. And I think we've narrowed art to this small niche and category some people feel like they can't belong in. Just because some people submerge themselves, doesn't mean you can't just dip your feet in. I try to encourage everyone to paint, create, build, sculpt, sketch, doodle, fold, burn, bend, and whatever else they can do to bring a little part of themselves to life.
 
Sierra doesn’t have an official website for her work but you can find her online store at:
Sierraseay.storenvy.com
She not only creates and sells original art but is up for commissioned art, so get your requests in before the holidays get too busy for her!
 
Sierra is also available on Instagram at: @sierraseay
 
Last words: There are a lot of ways I am creative, and there are a few which I am not lol.

I cried yesterday, over my craft. I told several people that I was going to give up writing. I felt heartbroken and crushed. I wanted to give up. I wanted to walk away from it all. I no longer felt I wanted to write. I felt like none of it mattered. I haven't felt like giving up for a long time.

See I entered a contest, and I poured my heart into the piece I wrote, I actually cared what happened to it. For a long time I've done what a lot of authors do, I send things off and then try to forget about them. I don't want to worry and I try to believe I have developed a thicker skin, because rejection is everywhere. There is in fact, more rejection than acceptance in the world of art. It is there for everyone. And sometimes, I still cry.

An artist gets rejected every day. Some days multiple times. People judge the art, and this next part is true for every creative person, people judge you. They say things like: I could make that. Why would I pay $100 for a painting my child could do? Since I'm family I should get a painting (or whatever) for free. That's not art, that's just porn someone is pretending to be art. These are so dark, I wonder what is wrong with the artist. And people say these things right in front of you. They don't care that you might hear them, they don't care that their words sting, and they don't care because creativity is judged.

If you are an actor/actress you are judged every time you walk into an audition. Often there is never feedback. Often you are told you are wrong for a part. Often you see the names of your friends in the post-audition list, and while you want to be happy for them, it hurts a little. Sometimes bitterness arises, and sometimes friendships don't last, but the actor/actress is the person who is hardest on themselves. More often than not we walk away from an audition hoping we get a part, but also critiquing what we might have done wrong. Every movie or play or commercial or TV show you are in is judged. Critics are not always kind, and often they don't take feelings into consideration. If someone is bland in a movie, they critique the person, and forget that the person is not the character they play. Again, they are constantly judged.

It's the same with writing. An author reads the story, book, poem, or play to an audience who may or may not enjoy it. They show people their heart and soul, just like every other creative person. They send out query after query, hoping to pick up a publisher or an agent, but often being told that their work is not right for the agent or publisher they sent their query to. Often authors are never told how to make things better. Often authors are never told why they are being rejected.

All creative people who share their works are putting their hearts and souls out there for people to view. Even if it doesn't seem like it, they are all in.

It has been a long time since I have cared what happened to something I submitted. I am so used to rejection I don't even hope.This time, however, I allowed myself to hope. I wrung my hands together wondering if people would like what I submitted. I was wondering if it was good enough. I was wrought with stress and anxiety going over and over in my mind what could have been written better. The play I wrote was personal. My soul bled when I wrote it. I cried when I wrote it. I teared up when I read it in a writer's critique group. My heart beat faster every day after I sent it on. Anxiety burnt through me, creating a hole that stress filled. The story was hard on me. After I wrote it I didn't want to share it. I was afraid anyone who read it would feel differently about me. I was afraid I had written too much of myself into it.

Then, through Facebook, I found that I wasn't selected as a finalist. I was crushed. I cried. I cried because I wanted this. I cried because I wanted people to know. I cried because I felt I was letting down my friend, myself, and every other military wife who has gone through the difficulty of being a military wife. I cried for my broken soul. I cried because I cared. I cried because I suddenly felt my heart breaking and doubt filling me. I cried because I wasn't good enough, once again.

In fact I cry as I write this blog. I'm not just upset for myself, I am upset for every creative person who feels beat down and broken. I am upset for every creative person who feels like they can no longer do it, no longer take the criticism, no longer take the judgement, no longer take the rejection.

I questioned myself yesterday. I asked if I was just kidding myself. I asked if I was a horrible author. I asked if I should just give up. Why write if I may am never good enough?

Then I told people I wanted to give up. I told people I was broken. And in turn they told me, don't. These people had heard the passion in my voice as I talked about writing. They had been there when I told others that if they felt like they needed to and enjoyed it, they too should write. They had been there when I invited hesitant new authors to the writer's critique groups I am in. I cried again. Most of these people haven't even read anything I have written, they had only heard me talk about writing, the process, the enjoyment, and the love of helping other authors grasp onto their own hesitant and fearful desire to write.

Creative people put themselves into the path of judgement and rejection every time they share their creative outlet. Most of the time they pretend rejection, criticism, and judgement doesn't hurt, in fact they are so used to it they no longer feel it. Then again, yesterday I cried.

I cried when I wrote conversation the wife of an injured soldier, and her best friend, had about her husband's PTSD.

I cried when I wrote a scene where this same wife hears a gunshot from another room as her husband ends his life.

I cried when that same wife stood as TAPS was played and stoically took the folded flag handed to her at her husband's graveside.

I cried when I wrote the last scene of that same wife sending her son off to boot camp.

I cried when I wrote this play. I cried yesterday. I cried today.

Maybe I need thicker skin.

Dan Hollenbaugh is a photographer who specializes in classic nude and era specific photography. He resides in Alabama and has had prints of his photographs shown is several galleries and shows. I interviewed him because without artists authors would not have a whole package. Artists add to the distribution of novels by creating covers and taking those author bio photos you know you look at an often find funny. He is the first of a select few artists who I will be interviewing.

Let us learn about Dan and his photographs!

What kind of picture you take and sell?
 
I'm going to stick with art nudes for now. There are plenty of landscape photographers, plenty of people producing abstract photos, tons of portrait photographers, but not many folks working in what I consider a classical style. Fortunately, my retirement income ensures I'll never, ever have to shoot a wedding to support my art.

What is your inspiration? What inspired you to take the pics you do?
 
At about the same time digital cameras began to carry so much capability, I came across some nude art photos from the early 20th century. The most striking of these to me were Alfred Cheney Johnston's photographs using dancers from the Ziegfeld Follies as models. The models brought their natural beauty and dance training. Johnston brought skills in photography, artistic composition, and lighting. Together they created beautiful images.
 
I dug into early 20th century art photos deeper. Others that had an impression on me were Lucien Walery, Studio Manasse, Man Ray, and Frantisek Drtikol. My largest influence from the postwar era has to be Peter Basch - his use of lighting to define and dramatize the female form is eye-opening. I began collecting images from photography's beginnings up to about 1960 (I now have something like 50,000 on my home computer.) Burlesque promotional photos, French postcards, art photos from all over the US and Europe, became my education. With my head full of these great pictures, and all this new technology at hand, I decided to see what I could do.
 
I've never been into expressionist or abstract art, as I don't find it approachable by people like me with no art education. I didn't want to learn anybody's rules, I just wanted to go produce something beautiful. Staying in the forms developed before 1960 allows me to just make pretty pictures.

Why do photography, what got you into it?
 
First of all, I feel that photography is visual art for people who can't draw. I can sometimes see what I want in my head, but I can't put those images on paper with a pencil. I first learned photography with a 35mm Minolta SLR in the late '70s. Since then, I've used nothing but automatic cameras, and taken nothing but snapshots. Three years ago I retired, and began exploring the arts to keep myself busy. One of the things that intrigued me was the capabilities of the new digital cameras and photo editing software.

What kind of camera do you use?
 
Everything I've shot and sold to date was done with my Samsung Galaxy S6 cell phone. It's really an excellent camera, with one primary limitation - its fixed lens. I've recently purchased a Nikon D3400 DSLR. The first thing it taught me was that I need a larger studio. As I work with it more, all those techniques from my 35mm days are coming back - use of aperture settings, film speed, shutter speed, depth of focus. I'm sure the knowledge and skills will improve my work, but damn, that phone takes some good pictures.
 
I use a freeware program called GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) to do cropping, editing, and period aging on my photos. It's not quite Photoshop, but it's a lot cheaper, and does just about anything I can think of.

Where do you find models? What are they like?
 
I started out advertising on Craigslist, in the "creative gigs" section. My first model, whom I still work with, is a young housewife who wanted to make some extra money. She's become very professional in her approach as we've worked together, and we've each come to understand how the other works. We've also become good friends. I have two other local models I've worked with, women who work in modeling as a sideline, and are looking to make it more of a full-time job. Most recently I've been working with full-time professional models I found through ModelMayhem.com, a website for models and artists to connect.
 
With the non-professionals, it's a matter of education, teaching them how to do something that is basically still-image acting. I've worked with one non-professional who had dance training, and she was wonderful - she understood how to use her body to express emotion. With the professionals, it's sometimes a matter of de-education, getting them out of the routine poses they've used dozens of times in formulaic pinup photos and into the artistic frame I'm trying to fill. With all models, there's the same challenge - finding something honest and real, finding the person down there behind the lights, costumes, and poses, and getting that person into the camera. I don't have a method to do that, other than putting the model at ease and exploring together, but when it happens, it's magic. It's art.

What is it like, taking nude photos?
 
I show men my work, and I get a wink, a smile, an elbow, and "Hey, tough job you got there!" It is hard work. Find the model, decorate the set, do costumes, reset lights between shots, take the photos. I spend hours looking for vintage clothing and accessories to set the scene. I can't say I don't enjoy the view during a shoot, but I don't just sit around looking. Usually I'll take about 100 photos in a two hour session. By then I've run out of energy, ideas, or both. Then it's hours at the computer, selecting raw images I think I can do something with (out of that 100, I may use 5), and editing them into what I think is art. The final product, as mounted on a wall, includes mattes and frames. I use vintage and antique frames when I can find them. I haunt thrift stores seeking suitable frames (when I'm making some money at this, I'll move up to antique stores.) When I'm editing a photo, I'm thinking of the whole package - what type of frame will enhance the image I'm trying to present? What do I have on hand that will work, and how do I compose this image to fit that size? I farm out my printing to professionals who have equipment I can't justify buying and don't have room for. I mount, frame, and finish the final product myself. It's hard work.

Do you find that there is a stigma attached to nude photography
 
Yes. I've had galleries tell me they wouldn't exhibit my work. The usual line is, "I love these, they're very beautiful, but some of our customers might be offended." Facebook shut down my access and warned me to remove a photo I posted because somebody complained about. It was on my separate Capitalist Tools Artworks page, in a folder with a big "adults only" label. I understand all that as part of the culture, and a limitation I accepted when I decided to go this way. I know that I'll always be a niche artist for this reason, and my goal is to be a damn good one. I've managed to find a few outlets as I've progressed. I sold a number of pieces from a space in The ARTery, a Huntsville gallery that unfortunately has closed. I have a dozen or so currently on sale at The End, NOT, a new gallery on Winchester Road in Huntsville, Alabama.

You can find Dan's art page on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/CapitalistToolsArtworks/about/?ref=page_internal

And you can buy his photographs on Etsy:
www.etsy.com/shop/CapitalistTools