9 Cells, 1 Show, 10 Questions.

Nine Cells Floating - by Tricia Rose Burt

I was pleasantly caught up in Tricia Rose Burt's story the first time I heard it.  I had received the DVD in the mail and finally had a chance to watch it late one night while on a trip visiting family.  The next day I told my wife she needed to see it too. 

After hearing Tricia's story, I found myself asking important, searching questions about my own life, creative career and general life plans.  However, I was asking these questions in a light, freeing way. Nothing oppressive or discouraging here.  A sign of good art in my opinion.

After returning to NYC, Tricia and I were introduced through a mutual friend and have since had an ongoing dialogue about creativity, art and many of the life-factors that impact creativity.
So with Tricia performing her one woman show in NYC this week, I thought was a perfect time to pepper her with some questions and share with you a little about the artist behind the art.

Tricia Rose Burt in "I Will Be Good"

Creative Conversations 

with

Tricia Rose Burt:

(Visual/Performance Artist)

1. How would you describe your creative work?
My work deals with transformation. I create works using ordinary materials in unexpected ways – masking tape, tea bags, ceramic figurines. In my one-woman performance, “I Will Be Good,” I chronicle how I unexpectedly transformed myself by going to art school. My world became entirely different.





2. What is it you love about what you do?
The freedom and the possibility. And there are few things more satisfying than a well- crafted sentence or a perfectly placed mark in a drawing.


3. What is it you hate about what you do?
The financial insecurity. It is hard to create with a revenue gun to your head. However, financial parameters force me to become resourceful and inventive.


4. Why do you do it?
I’m good at it and I love creating something that wasn’t there before. Plus, I’ve got tremendous creative energy that needs to be constantly engaged -- if I’m not making artwork, writing a performance, or producing some creative project, I am not my best self.


5. Can you describe a bit about your creative process(es)?
I usually have the idea long before I know how to execute it, so I focus on finding the medium that best tells that story. I sketch. I collect images, phrases, materials that seem to resonate, and live with them for a while. sometimes a long time. For instance, I got the idea for “I Will Be Good” about 15 years ago, and while I performed it in my head for years, I just starting writing it two years ago. In my graphite drawings, “Be Fruitful and Multiply,” I collected ceramic figures for months before I started to draw them.


6. What makes you feel most insecure creatively?
Not making work. If I stay away from my work for too long, for whatever reason, I start to second-guess myself and my process.


7. What makes you feel most confident creatively?
Making work. When I make work – no matter what the medium or who sees it -- I am part of the creative conversation. I am contributing.


8. What is your most embarrassing failure?
Showing work-in-progress to a corporate collector when I knew I shouldn’t.  If I make a decision from an anxious place, it is always a bad decision.


9. What is your favorite success?
A gesture drawing I made in my first drawing class. I had never drawn from the figure and was petrified. At the end of class, I had created something I never imagined I could. That triumph redefined me as an artist and still propels me to try new things – like performing a one-woman show!


10. What do you hope for in your future?
Fulfilling creative work. I’d like to continue performing (I’m currently writing another piece about trying to make art, money and babies), but mostly I hope to consistently collaborate with other artists who challenge me to think out of the box. My new motto: There’s no time to be timid!

Here are some of her favorites:
Book: The Art of Racing in the Rain
Movie: Lars and the Real Girl and Up
Visual: Cy Twombly

Bio:
An award-wining contemporary artist known for her works on paper, Tricia Rose Burt is currently performing her first one-woman show, “I Will Be Good,” which humorously chronicles her transformation from good Southern girl raised in business to contemporary artist living in New England. She lives in Hancock, NY with her husband.

I Will Be Good runs
April 28-30 in NYC
WOW Café Theater, 59-61 E. 4th Street

Tickets are $12-18 and are available at Fourth Arts Block

To preview scenes from the show, or to view her artwork, go to:

http://www.triciaroseburt.com

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