Today we’d like to introduce you to Monica Minshew Cowsert.
Monica Cowsert, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was a kid, I went to visit my grandparents, and they had this autoharp they let me play with. I came home and told my mom that all I wanted to play was the autoharp, and about a month later, we had a huge harp in our living room. My career in a Country and Western band was essentially over at that point, but so began my first venture into the arts. My mom used to take me to nursing homes to play – I’m sure because the audience was either nearly deaf or asleep, but none mistook my playing for having gone to heaven! Years of practice led to being able to play for the non-hearing impaired, and she had my poor, underpaid, harp-hauling dad dragging that huge harp to churches and weddings and anywhere they would let me play. I didn’t make a career out of music after all those years of my mom taking me to lessons, but the discipline of knowing it takes practice, practice, practice has helped me so much along the way in this journey of making art. It was a great start to learning an artistic discipline, but in my next life, I will pick the piccolo!
My actual painting career started on the grade school playground. Not mine, but that of my kids. We had just moved to Dallas, and this cool mom told me she was teaching art classes. Since I had no friends on the playground, I thought I’d better sign up. My mom had just been diagnosed with cancer, and we were so lucky to be in Dallas (she was an hour away). Between juggling doctor appointments with my parents, hauling kids to their activities, and owning and running a wedding venue that was 30 miles away, I took as many art classes as I could for the next five years. That great teacher from the school playground, Marianne Gargour, encouraged me to rent my first studio space in the building where she was. It was the same month that my precious mom passed away. What had started out as something for myself on the side became the therapy to get me through my grief. And even though my mom never got to see it come to fruition in person, she is there.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t know why I struggled so hard at the transition time after I rented my studio space at the Continental Gin Building, but I struggled with feeling worthy to call myself an artist. It just didn’t roll off my tongue naturally. I felt like a fraud. A fake. Even now that feeling creeps up some when you see so many creative artists around.
Apparently, I suffer from comparisonitis. It is a serious disease in this case, whereupon seeing a Marianne Gargour French Countryside, a Julie Brown abstract, a Joni Bemish sculpture, an instant list starts ticking off all the things I need to learn, how I could change my technique, what can I do to be more like the other artists. It’s a terrible thing to suffer, comparing yourself to others, especially when really only you can be you. So I just back off and admire others’ works and am so proud of my art friends. And they are proud of me. It is so much more fun to just let them be them and me be me.
The Dallas art community support is really strong. I don’t know if that is the case everywhere, but the Dallas creatives seem to really lift each other up. If you are stumped on an issue, have questions about a technique, are struggling with a problem in your art, you can just call your friends over to your studio, and they will for sure try to help. And if all else fails, they will be there to help you open a bottle of wine.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with MCowsertArt – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Following college at Texas Christian University, I worked for a time in interior design with my mom, then owned a retail store called Hennigans Outfitters. It was a great experience to learn all aspects of running a business, but marketing has been what I have continued to use. Later I owned a small wedding venue called The Bird’s Nest in Melissa, TX. It was a lot of work but such a great experience. I kept that until a few years ago when I decided to pursue art full-time.
Marketing and looking at art through a business eye has been helpful. When buying for a store, you need to think about the customer. The same can be true when painting, but you also want to stay true to your art. One way my retail background helped me is through the making of prints on stationary, paper, canvasses, and even metal. I love this when people come to my shows as not everyone is at a stage in life to buy original art, but they have walls and love art. They want to support local artists. This bridges the gap and is a win-win for all. I see these collectors on no different level than the ones who can afford an original, but thank goodness for those folks with more change in their pockets or I’d have to move to a broom closet!
Being an artist takes grit. I had to look that word up because Texans use words that you sometimes step back and wonder what they even mean after years of use. But grit in this context doesn’t mean small particles of stone, but rather courage and resolve and strength of character. For one thing (and a very practical thing), it is expensive to be an artist. I’m lucky to have had such an amazing support system along the way. When my courage would waver, there was my husband, family, friends and art community that would be there for me and encourage. Hmmm…I’m just putting those words together!
It’s a vulnerable feeling to show your art, and you want to appeal to clients. This can really work against an artist and stunt our growth. I have had times of painting that the piece itself was horrible, but I learned more from its making than if I had stayed doing the same things. I typically like to paint big; it is way more fun to let loose and be free on the canvas. But every year I enter this local contest that requires the smallest canvas in an odd size. I love it. I never win. If I ever DO win then I won’t get to enter again, and then I won’t force myself to paint small and tight and focus on details in a new way that I don’t normally do. I think my point is you have to take a course of action that may not appeal to everyone, but you need to resolve to stay true to yourself as an artist and not always worry about appealing to the masses.
When you ask what sets me apart from others, I’ll love to tell you something profound. I don’t think I really can, other than that the art is mine. And what comes out of me through my art maybe reflects what is inside of me. Pure genius. Totally kidding. My art tends to be on the colorful side. I truly try to tone it down, but fail every time. I will tell you one word I hear from so many people, and if that is all that comes from people, then I feel like just maybe I have succeeded. Your art makes me…“happy.”
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
It was such a blessing that I had my start in the Continental Gin Building. The place was just this huge, dirty, wonky building in the heart of Deep Ellum. The building manager was often out front, smoking and on the phone doing business, but she was never short of a huge Christy hug. And that just set the tone. Looking back, the whole building felt like a big hug. It was a safe place to create, a place to get and give support, and a place to show our art to others. Like so many good things in life, change happened when the building sold, and now I am in a small, dirty, wonky place called the Tin Ranch on Griffin St. E. Our community is smaller in the building itself, but the Cedars neighborhood is full of artists!
As for planning, there is this time in the early morning when I am still mostly asleep, but my brain has begun its day, and I am able to let loose on planning my life. There are no boundaries, and I think big thoughts for my life and all I will learn and do. I will do a residency in France, be in a gallery in Santa Fe or Charleston, learn to sculpt, paint with George Bush. But then my eyes open and the day begins, and I see limits with time, limits with obligations, limits with finances. I am a super-content person by nature, but I am itchy content. I’m itching to do more, learn more, go more.
In the meantime, I just keep plugging along. I try to keep the grit and pray I am content where I am, but not so content that I don’t grow. If I am really quiet, I can hear my mom’s voice telling me to keep practicing and don’t give up. She is often with me in those early morning dreams, and maybe she is trying to help me see that there is no life without limits, but if we could see those limits in a different way, they just might be opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1419 Griffin Street E
Dallas, Texas 75215 - Website: www.mcowsertart.com
- Phone: 214-385-7768
- Email: monica@mcowsertart.com
- Instagram: mcowsertart
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