Quickie Artist Interview Series
All materials copyrighted

Interview With Linda Cain
Linda Cain began taking art courses in the early 60’s but after getting married, she moved to Colorado to raise her family and put her art on the back burner. Eventually, art began to beckon her again and she could no longer put it off.

Today she cannot go a day without creating something, to do so leaves her feeling unfulfilled. She loves the challenge and sense of accomplishment when each piece is completed and creating makes every day worth waking up to. However, she says her greatest success, as an artist, comes every time her grandchildren step into her art studio and create a piece of art they are truly proud of. Discover why she believes learning many techniques enriches your mixed media art in a way that only one medium cannot and why she believes you must stay true to yourself as an artist.

There’s a lot of mixed media collage work on the market these days, how do you differentiate yours from the rest?
I have tried to dabble in anything I could get my hands on. I find that each and every time I learn a new technique I can incorporate it into things I'm currently working on. I put antique hand tools or door knobs on canvas as well as scrapbook ephemera from the local stamp store. And wire, I love wire and beads on projects. I've even written words in wire that have found their way onto my collages. My latest adventure was actually a request made by a group of girls that design vintage bead findings. They asked me to design several journals using their findings. Of course I love the concept because this is something I have not seen anywhere else: truly different.

But the thing that I love most about my collage pieces are the embossed metal pieces I've done and pieced onto my houses. It's one thing that seems to add dimension and shine to brighten the piece. My Row Houses are something that really made me feel good about myself and what I've accomplished. I did them after my mother passed away and I was in a real slump. The embossed metal on them sets them apart, I think. I got hooked on embossing with metal after a class that taught me how to use many different tools on several different kinds of metal. And of course, my pen marks now seem to be required on most pieces—whether it's white pen dashes or dimensional black dots—they’ve become my trademark.

As you know, art is very subjective in nature. What some people like, others do not. I’m sure you’ve received both positive and negative feedback in your career, but what I want to know is how you handle the negative criticism, especially when it hurts deep down within your soul?
I guess I've been either very lucky not to have gotten much criticism from very many people to my face, or I've just chosen to ignore them. But if I had to think in terms of criticism, I guess it would be when they disagree with the way I want to put something together. I simply do what I want, thank them for their opinion, and say..."that's the way I want it", and I do it. They still may not like it, but I will sleep better knowing I did it the way I wanted. It's better than being bitter about being talked into doing it their way and hating the piece. When it comes to art, it’s important to remember that it's your time and your money; do what YOU like. (Of course commission pieces are different.)

I think all artists kind of wear their hearts on their sleeves to a certain degree but I've come to the point in my life where I know there are people who genuinely like what I do and that's all that matters to me. Making students happy in a class I'm giving is more than enough to make me feel good about what I do. Someone once told me, after I had my feelings hurt about something, that "the person that criticizes someone else's life usually doesn't have one of their own." It's worked for me, but it took way too many years to figure it out.

My advice: save yourself time and energy and just do what makes YOU happy if you can. If others truly don't like your art, there's nothing you can do about it anyway.