Meike Aton | Artist Interview
Rea: Welcome.
Aton: Hi, Jimmy. Good to be here. Thank you.
Rea: Now, that doesn't sound like a Southern Missouri Ozarkian accent to me. Sounds a little bit farther away. Tell us where you're from.
Aton: Well, I'm originally from Germany, and I came here in '79 and have been here ever since.
Rea: What brought you here?
Aton: Married a local boy.
Rea: Ah, OK.
Aton: We attended a summer school program in Greece. And so there just happened to be a lot of Americans who had arrived by plane while I had arrived by car from Germany. So I was really a big number there because I had a car to go places.
Rea: Very nice. And so where did the art bug first bite you? When did you decide that you loved art? And then when did you decide that you wanted to begin creating it?
Aton: I think anybody who's in the arts knows you're born with it because you're always into something, creating something. But I never took it as anything serious to pursue until my children were old enough to be on their own. And that was in 2010, when I really focused on it and pursued art full time.
Rea: Have you lived here since you moved here?
Aton: No, I've lived all kinds of places. When I came over in '79, my husband was in Boston, so that's where I went. And after the first winter in Boston, I said, I don't think so. I don't think we need another one of these. So let's move a little further south. And we had Virginia in mind. Well, we ended up in Florida, and we stayed there for about 10 years.
Rea: A little warmer.
Aton: A little bit warmer. Yes, yes.
Rea: Where were you down there?
Aton: We were in Gainesville at the University of Florida, and then we came back here after my husband had his law degree and decided he wanted to practice where he's known. It so happened, if you've been gone for 20 years, people don't know you exist. So there were actually some people who told my mother-in-law, well, Louise, I didn't know you had another son.
Rea: My goodness. Excellent. The exhibition is entitled "Girls Just Want to Have Flowers." Now, that sounds a little familiar to us. I think if anybody knows that Cyndi Lauper tune, how'd you land on that? Was that something you came up with or a suggestion?
Aton: That tune is in my head all the time, you know? And it came in, and as I was talking about, OK, what kind of a topic do we give this? It's all about flowers. And so it just clicked. And I thought, OK, let's turn fun into flowers.
Rea: Yeah, indeed. So what's the medium here? I can see it, but we're on radio. So you brought a couple pieces in here. What are we working with?
Aton: I paint in acrylics and mixed media. So this one painting here that you see is rather rough on the surface.
Rea: Yeah. Textured.
Aton: And that's the mixed-media part. So there are other things in that besides paint. It could be paper, it could be gesso, it could be all kinds of things.
Rea: Very good. This exhibition will be running through Nov. 29 down there. And not just a full month here of the exhibition, your work on display, but you're going to be doing a workshop as well. That'll be on Nov. 28, the Saturday before the closing. Tell us a little bit about that workshop.
Aton: Yes, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So instead of going shopping, go and do something creative and paint your own floral. It's real easy. You don't need any experience. We are not painting like a photograph. We're painting like anybody can do it, right? And all of the material is furnished.
Rea: Very good. So people can show up. They don't need to bring anything. It will all be provided, and instruction there. And you can paint your own flowers.
Aton: Yeah, but you need to register ahead of time so we make sure we have room and enough materials.
Rea: Visit smac-art.org to find more information on that, whether it be the workshop, the exhibition itself or tonight's opening reception. Now, we also have your own website. Folks can look at meikeaton.com. So you have your own studio and gallery here in town, is that right?
Aton: I do, yes. I've had this location for about 10 years now. It's in Woodhurst Office Park. It's very easy parking right in front of the door.
Rea: Very nice.
Aton: And I have exhibit spaces and studio spaces, so you can come in anytime when I'm there and look around and maybe pick something out, one or more pieces. I also have workshops on demand. And I'll show you my workspace when you come in unannounced. It's just my workspace. And if you take a class, it will be all cleaned up. You'll have your personal private workspace in my studio.
Rea: Yeah. Very nice. So whenever we talk about inspiration, is this something that's a daily exercise for you? Is this something that you need to wait until you see something or are inspired by something, smell something, hear something? Or is this something that you just work on daily or periodically?
Aton: That's a really great question. Yes, I go to my studio every single day and I do something. Sometimes it may just be marketing, which is not my favorite thing to do.
Rea: Yeah. Tell me about it.
Aton: And sometimes it's cleaning up. Sometimes it's trying to find something I haven't been able to find forever. Best days are when I actually can be there and paint. My inspiration comes from any kind of thing. Maybe a color I see somewhere, or a combination of colors, or I see somebody else's artwork, and I really like it. And something in it speaks to me. So I start off with the colors that I saw, maybe with a rough image of what I saw. But then very quickly it becomes my own, and nobody can see where the inspiration originally came from.
Rea: You know, I'm a musician. You may be able to tell by my guitar here in the studio, but folks in music do the same thing. You hear something, you get inspired from it, and you don't necessarily... It's not stealing. You just borrow a piece of it for your own inspiration. And by the end of it, whenever you mold it or twist it around or spread it on the canvas, it becomes your own somewhere along the line.
Aton: I love hearing that. I had never thought of it, that music would be the same thing. And maybe that's why famous musicians peg each other as, "You stole this from me."
Rea: Exactly. Oh, lordy. Well, I love having visual artists on the radio because it gives another insight into the rich, rich tapestry of art that we have here in Springfield. There's so many great traditions here in town, whether it be film or theater. Visual arts run deep as well, and there's lots of different ways to experience it. This is just one way.
My guests is Meike Aton and her studio and gallery that's located at 1200 E. Woodhurst Drive, Building K, Suite 300. That's here in Springfield, Missouri. You can visit her website at meikeaton.com. Or down in Hollister all month long with the current exhibition, "Girls Just Want to Have Flowers," running through Nov. 29 and doing a workshop as well on this particular style and these works on Nov. 28 down in Hollister at the Southern Missouri Arts Connection. More information can be found at smac-art.org.
Meike, what role does art play in people's lives? What can it bring to somebody's life, whether they're creating it themselves or viewing it or working together and collaborating, like your workshop on the 28th? What does art bring to someone?
Aton: So people who take my classes, they come out and say, "Ah, I feel so relieved. I had no idea I can do this." Now, I start people out by getting their fingers dirty. You know, you have to get your fingers into the paint first, and that loosens you up. Whatever's inside you guides you. And then you may look at what's on my walls. That gives you an idea, or I may give you hints. So you come out, you have created something. And so many of my students come and say, "I am so happy, and I have been able to go so far in my art just from your classes."
And the same happens when you view art, especially since my art is not photographic, it's more abstract. So you look at a piece of abstract art, and it awakens something inside you, and you see something based on your life experience. I have one particular painting. It's hilarious what people have seen in it. A kid saw a spiral. It's something related to some of those video games they play. A mathematician saw a formula in it, and somebody religious saw Mary holding the child in it. So abstract art is open to whatever is inside you.
Rea: Just a way to get it out and to feel it.
Aton: Yes, that's what it is.
Rea: Many things can be covered up in our day-to-day lives, and the stressors and the bills and the ups and the downs. But art gives us a chance to slow down and maybe tap into something, uncover, peel back the onion, and feel a little deeper who we are.
Aton: And especially color. You know, I really go for color. I paint stuff in nonlocal colors. That means if something normally would be red, I might paint it blue. And that also wakes you up in a way. People are attracted to color. I observe that when I do shows, you know, when I do these outdoor tent shows, people walk in because they're attracted to a color. Then they go closer and look at what's really going on there. And then they find that that is what's calling them, or that the other thing is calling them.
Rea: And color is such a wide spectrum, too. I mean, you can start with one color and mix in this or dilute it with that in so many different shades out there, just like people, just like humans.
Aton: Actually, the name of the workshop is "Girls Just Want to Paint Flowers."
Rea: Look at that.
Aton: Girls and guys just want to paint flowers.
Rea: Thank you so much for coming in and sharing your thoughts. Congrats on the exhibition. And when is the next open house? You said December.
Aton: Oh, at my gallery, it's Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. That's the Christmas open house.
Rea: OK. Very good. And hopefully we will talk more in the future. I would love to hear more about your future work.
Aton: Thank you, James. I really enjoyed being here, and I appreciate being asked to talk about my art.
