Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracie Storie.
Hi Tracie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a homegrown artist. My mother was an incredible artist, and so was my sister. I grew up with art-making materials around me all the time. I’m lucky. I learned from the best! Mom was a mostly self-taught artist, and by the time I started college, she was selling her art at Festivals around the Southwest. Mom’s art sales helped pay for my art degree. My mother taught her kids to love Nature and all its creatures and phenomena. Her art incorporated her love of the outdoors, and when she became quite ill, I began painting and writing about Nature in my backyard to relieve stress and process my grief when she passed away in 2020. I’m also lucky to have good friends who enjoy painting outdoors, and soon I was journaling about flora and fauna and the great times we had in their backyards. My children, now grown and living far away, had played in this yard from early childhood. I started drawing these moments in a 9 x12 watercolor sketchbook using a tiny watercolor palette I created from an Altoids tin and a very old Rapidometric technical pen. I remembered past ones when the plants were brought here and how they have grown. My drawings are rich with text, but they aren’t botanical illustrations. Descriptions of small plants or animals are mixed with notes about what pigments I’m using or conversations I’m having.
I combine my sketchbook drawings with other art media to record those observations in different formats. One of those, “Self-Portrait with Pandemic Hair and Nature Journal” (acrylic on a previously used canvas board), was shown at the Downtowner Gallery in Round Rock in “The Art of Thy Selfie” show in 2022. The drawings were not originally made for public display, but many are framed and displayed for March in my solo show at Papi’s Pies Cafe in Round Rock. I’m also the Artist of the Month and have work displayed in March in the office of Representative John H. Bucy in the State Capitol of Texas in Austin. When my kids were very young, I had a solo show at Women & Their Work Art Gallery in 1992. My work as a young mom was small and intimate, very personal and revealing. (Much of my work still is, but I haven’t shown it publicly. LOL) Those works about motherhood and marriage were painted on vintage handkerchiefs, and until I started writing this, I didn’t realize how similar my current work is to those. The art on handkerchiefs also used flower and garden themes surrounded by tiny text and images drawn with the same refillable ink pen I use now. I thank my Mom for giving me a love for art and the ability to see art in the smallest of things, and I thank my wonderful husband, Gene, for his patience and love, and support of me and my art.
You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been fairly smooth?
I have been gliding on a very smooth road in the grand scheme of things! There was a bumpy part when I was 19 years old. I was a passenger in a car wreck and suffered a traumatic brain injury. I had to delay college for a year; otherwise, it didn’t slow me down. I went on to meet and marry Gene, the love of my life, graduate from UT with a BFA with Honors, have two wonderful kids, and be an artist with my work in amazing places and collected by amazing people. In my 30’s, scar tissue on my brain started causing havoc. The first doctor I saw treated me for almost 20 years, changing my prescribed medications frequently. Each year I got worse. My health, personality, energy level, and even my creativity were sapped. My now adult daughter finally talked me into seeing a different doctor. I wish I had listened to her sooner. My new doctor told me I had been prescribed the wrong meds by the previous doc, who wasn’t even a specialist in my condition. Under the new doctor’s care, my life is much better, and I feel like a new person. I regret the time wasted and the detrimental and long-lasting effects of some wrongly prescribed meds. However, I thank my lucky stars. I lived through it all and embraced the good life I have now.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I enjoy making art that doesn’t need a traditional gallery space. My best friend and I exchanged snail-mail letters decorated with paint and collage for many years. In recent years I made a 100-Day Project of sending ArtMail to my son in New York City. The parameters I placed on myself were it had to be created of materials I currently owned. I love that those art pieces made it across the country and were seen by many people before they were delivered to his apartment, where his roommates and friends saw them. Those can be viewed on my Instagram page using: #100daysmailarttraciestorie. I also created a 100-Day Project making art journals with the same criteria: materials reused or found in the house; even the journals were inherited. I took the idea to the local art gallery in Round Rock (then called Art Space), and a group show of 100 Day Projects was displayed there. My display included a “co-lab journal” for visitors to draw or write. My journals can be seen on Instagram using #artjournaltraciestorie
I’m proud of all the art shows I’ve been included in and the prizes I’ve won in some of them. I was proud of my solo show at women and their work and at Book People and the Court House in Austin many years ago. I’m proud that my work has been purchased by several people whose collections I admire. I’m most proud when people like my work enough to purchase it. It’s very gratifying that they enjoy what I have created. For the last few years, I’ve pledged to buy no more art supplies and use what I have first. I’m working on many sketchbooks and art journal projects simultaneously. I like the tactile quality, audience participation, and even the elements of mystery and surprise that turning the page provides. I’m fortunate to have multiple supplies currently in my studio, and there is always a supply of ideas for new art to create.
What changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Self-Promotion on social media is the most important form of advertisement for one’s art. Psychologically, it is difficult for me to embrace; it’s not something I grew up with. I’m glad for this opportunity to share my work with this platform. I’m interested in some of the businesses I read about on VoyageAustin, and others may be interested in my work. I turned down many opportunities in my career because I always felt I would have more time later, and I was sure I would have more opportunities later. Sometimes Life happens when you’ve made other plans. I encourage anyone who wants to be an artist to start now, create what expresses their authentic self, create the art they want, and create what brings them joy and meaning. And if they can make a living off of it, even better. Prints, sales via the internet, computer-generated art, AI, all of it is Now and Next. Have fun! and take some business classes while you’re at it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traciestorie/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracie.storie
