Interview with Trace Meek: Artist, Web Designer, Musician, Hockey Player

Our roving reporter met with Trace Meek to talk about the intricacies of being an artist and living a balanced life. Trace can be found most early mornings, before most of us rise, quietly working and enjoying his studio at One Cottage Street.





1. Why are you an artist, Trace?

In the words of our inimitable local hero, Dr. Seuss, "I Am The Lorax, I Speak for the Trees".

For me, art is more spiritual practice than career. I love the process of distilling experiences into cogent visual statements (or questions). Part of this is purely aesthetic; appreciating form, color and proportion. Another part of it is concerned with meaning (or magic); asking big questions like, "Why are we here?" and "Can we heal ourselves?"

2. Did you know you wanted to be an artist when you were a child, did your family encourage you?

I knew that I did what I did, but I didn't know it was called "being an artist." I was always drawing as a kid. In school I would fill the margins of my notebooks with drawings of planes, motorcycles, buildings, boats, trains, tanks, trucks, etc., and later logos like sports team logos and automobile brand logos. I was very interested in structure, and how things worked. Without knowing it, I was studying engineering, graphic design and art, all in one!

I don't remember my family ever getting involved or invested in my "figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up," but they were generally supportive of whatever I was interested in at a given time. My dad is an architect and my mom an artist/crafter, so how could they have objected?

For some reason though, in high school I started to focus more on the left-brain stuff. I was really good at chemistry, physics, algebra, geometry, calculus, French, etc., and so I ended up going to Georgia Tech to pursue what I thought would be a career in electrical engineering. It wasn't until much later that the boomerang came back, and I ended up with a BFA Degree in Painting from UMass Amherst instead! Now I work in web design, which seems like a good compromise between those interests and competencies.

3. Could you tell us something about your paintings?

I don't make enough of them! I generally work at a scale that is just slightly bigger than is convenient to transport. I want to teach myself to work on a smaller scale so that the prospect of beginning (and finishing) a painting is not so intimidating. I often start painting in acrylic and end in oil.

I'm very conscious of my use of color, and have a theory of color relativity that I try to abide by in my work. It's basically that one's subjective perception of a color has everything to do with the other colors that surround it. I guarantee you that I could open a tube of Naples Yellow oil paint and use it in a way that would cause you to perceive it as lavender.

4. What artists have been an influence or do you admire?

The usual suspects: Matisse, Picasso, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Cézanne, Modigliani.

I also like The children's book author-illustrators Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss, David Wiesner and Chris Van Allsburg; the sculptor Deborah Butterfield; and the poets Mary Oliver, David Berman and Wendell Berry.

I'm also deeply influenced by a lot of creative people who are (or who have been) a real part of my life: Maggie Nowinski, Sally Curcio, Briana Taylor, Richard Yarde, Jim StipeMaas, Janna Ugone,Carol Struve, James Tate, Thane Thomsen, Matthew Zapruder, Brian Marchese. The list goes on and on.

5. What inspires you to paint and how do you keep motivated when things get tough in the studio?

I'm probably not the best person to answer this question; I can be sort of a binge painter. I'll go months without actually putting a brush to canvas, and then a deadline will emerge (such as a show date or a mural) and I'll crank out a substantial body of work in two or three months.

To wit, working creates its own inspiration. I'd like to be able to say something profound-sounding like "I can't NOT be a painter." But I'm not sure I believe that. If I were no longer motivated to express in this way, I would stop painting and would no longer be a painter! (I have almost gone this route on a few occasions.) And that would be OK. But I'd have to find some other creative outlet, like film making or photography or graphic design (some of which I do already) or invention. Painting is hard work and takes a lot of faith. It is essentially about confident decision-making in realms where no known right answers exist.

6. What other interests do you have (besides painting)?

I play ice hockey. I like walking, and the great outdoors, especially in the fall. I play bass in a band called the Figments. I love the web and web design, and I've invested a lot of energy over the past few years becoming somewhat of an expert in semantic XHTML and CSS. I look forward to the day when these skills are as valued as the flashier aspects of web design. I like a lot of alone time.

7. So what would be an ideal day for you?

I have too many interests to fit into one day, but a good day might start at 5 AM (when the world is quiet) and proceed as follows: jogging three miles, drinking good coffee, going to the studio, painting, tinkering, web designing, reading design-related blogs, breaking for lunch, going back to the studio, breaking for ice skating, meeting a friend for coffee, going back to the studio, having dinner at a good restaurant, going back to the studio (do you detect a theme?), going out for some live music, having a relaxing sauna, and retiring by 9 PM. Rinse and repeat. If anyone actually knows a way to fit all of that into one day I'd love to know the secret.

8. Any parting thoughts you'd like to share?

Sorry to invoke a cliché here, but I mean it: "Do what you love and love what you do."