I am a part-time teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and have a not quite full-time job as an optician/buyer at a local optical boutique. This schedule allows me to survive as a professional artist in Chicago. The trick is, of course, to make enough money to live in the city while having the time and resources for studio work and art-related activities. I balance on the ancient dilemma of working artists: to pay the bills, and yet make art that is creatively successful and emotionally satisfying.
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What is interesting about collaborating is the creation of a shared language. It's amazing ! more...

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You would think that a college graduate who managed to attain an M.F.A. from a prestigious eastern university would have been taught the process to becoming a professional visual artist. Did not happen...
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I have worked professionally as an artist for thirty years, and began my career as an artist working with community groups to create art. While an undergraduate at Brown University, I took a semester at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago ( a junior year 'across', rather than 'abroad'!). There was a wonderful class led by John Weber, with the Chicago Mural Group, teaching students the process of creating a community mural. I was hooked after one project, and from that point on, divided my work between doing studio work and working on participatory mural projects. more...

“Momma, don’t let your babies grow up to be artists”, somebody once wrote. And...what?...it was “Cowboys”?
”Don’t let your babies grow up to be COWBOYS”
Are you sure? I would have sworn it was artists.
It’s a lot tougher being an artist - in Chicago at least - than being a
cowboy. And if you think it’s tough being an artist, try being a Black one.
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I think that many organizations have helped my career as an artist. Before I went to college, I thought that making art was about working on one's own. Someone would come to your studio, take the work away to sell it and then leave you alone in the studio again to just keep producing the work. Going to college was the first time that I realized, because so much of our time as artists is spent on our own, the importance of organizations to provide contact and opportunities, both for career development and for our mental health.
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If the art world has a food chain it probably looks like this: Curator –Gallery—Artist (or "C-G-A"). That is, until you become an “art-star” then it inverts itself to: A-G-C. The “art world” is probably one of the only places within the professional working world where this phenomenon happens. more...

An interview with Britton Bertran, CAR Artist Story Editor  

Inspired by my maternal grandfather who had come from England to work as an artist on the Columbian Exposition of 1893, I made my first painting at an early age. An aunt who was a career woman and a feminist contributed by sending me to Junior School at the Art Institute. By high school I was going to the free weekly art sessions in Fullerton Hall that were sponsored by the Museum Membership. more...

An interview with Britton Bertran, CAR Artist Story Editor
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