What makes an artist? In this case, adversity

SHARON — Sharon resident and artist Robert Kipniss spoke about his memoir, “A Working Artist’s Life,” at the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon on March 18.In an interview before his talk, when asked why he wrote this memoir, Kipniss said, “There are no guide books on how to be a successful artist. I had to learn myself. Having succeeded with that I thought my story of success might be of interest to young people.”Kipniss’s art is displayed by major museums in this country and abroad.“Since my late adolescence I was as attracted to writing as to drawing,” he said. “From the age of 19 to 30, I both wrote and painted with intensity. When I reached 30 I had to put one of these pursuits aside. I stayed with painting thinking I would write later in life.”The painter/author added, “For many years I have thought about writing a memoir. Twenty-five years ago I had written about 20 episodes but it was too difficult with a manual typewriter. Everytime I wanted to do some editing and rewriting, I would have to retype the whole manuscript. I just put it aside. It was too much like hard work. “But with the invention of computers and learning about word processing I decided to go back to it and try again.”Kipness said he felt isolated as a young painter because there were no blueprints about how to become an established artist, or even just how to become an artist. “I did not think anyone could teach you how to make art because it is something very personal. If you learn from someone, you just learn someone else’s problems and I wanted my own problems.”Five or six years ago, Kipniss said, after years of writing essays for catalogues and magazines, he wrote a novella. “I really enjoyed that and got to thinking about the chapters of a memoir I had written years ago and put aside.”He realized many of the personal episodes of his life had a story quality and thought this would be very interesting to anyone who is interested in how art is made or why an artist would want to make art. “I thought it would be nice for young artists to read a book like this, or just people interested in the arts to find out more about an artist’s life.” Kipniss said that writing the book gave him added insight into how he became the person he is today.“From the beginning I saw that adversity [of my younger years] only exaggerated the certainty that was already within me.”He continued to paint while he was working on the book, and had to reconfigure his schedule to make it possible. “I would continue to paint Mondays through Fridays at our home in Westchester and work on the book on weekends in Sharon. I found myself so engrossed with this that I could write eight or nine hours on Saturdays and almost as much on Sundays. Occasionally I would also write on a weekday evening. “There were times when my wife stayed in Sharon to garden and write, and I would also stay here and spend an entire two weeks writing. It was my printmaking that had to be put on hold.”Kipniss’s wife, Laurie Lisle, is also an author.Kipniss’s memoir, published in September 2011, is available from The University Press of New England, www.upne.com, or by telephone, 800-421-1561.