Adrienne Wannamaker may not have embraced the title of fine art artist until later in her career, but creativity and artistry are woven into the fabric of her soul. Like many artists, she began on the graphics art side of the field, first working as an art director before moving into advertising.
It was the fortunate digitization of graphic design that prompted Adrienne to search for something more. Not keen on sitting in front of a computer all day, she offered to freelance for a friend who had gotten into decorative finishing murals and needed some help with keeping up with the demand. Her first day on the job, Adrienne was hooked.
That project quickly evolved into a full-time business. As Adrienne kept answering her heart’s calling, a series of serendipitous events seemed to follow. Though it wasn’t necessarily on her roadmap, her work caught the attention of a local gallery owner in Portland and before she knew it, she was selling her work to paying collectors.
Just like her career, Adrienne’s artwork is layered––rich with texture, color and story. Each layer contributes to the finished piece in a meaningful way, building intrigue as the eye naturally moves around the work discovering different shapes, textures and exposed layers.
Q&A with Adrienne
When did you know art was your calling?
I’ve been doing it [art] pretty much my whole life. I was an art director then I went into advertising and then into decorative finishing. After that, I had a store that sold product for decorative finishing. There, I had sample walls of what the product could do and started making these big wood panels of them and people wanted to buy the panels. So, I thought I can make art. A guy from a gallery came in and said, I love these. Would you consider selling them in my art gallery? I put them in there and the next week he sold all three of them! That’s how it started.
How has your creative journey evolved?
When I was in advertising, I had a girlfriend who did all the illustrations for me, and when we moved into the computer age, everything went from meeting and going over the illustrations to just scan it and send me a jpeg. That fun, interactive part kind of got lost. So, she started doing decorative finishing murals and she needed help. At the time, I was freelancing, so I just cleared a Thursday and Friday and went and did it, and I loved it. I thought it was so fun and so physical, which was a huge draw––to be creative, be moving and interacting with the people.
I did that for a number of years. She and I were super busy in Silicon Valley, and then I moved to Portland where I continued to do it. Then the store where I bought all of my product went up for sale. So, I thought, I’ll just buy the store and then I’ll train people. It felt like a natural evolution––learn, master and then teach. So, that was a big part of my store was teaching people how to do the applications. It was basically teaching people how to be creative. Then I just evolved into getting into a gallery, but I did have my store for five years while I was in the gallery.
How do you bring all of the layers together?
I start with a wood panel then I put a base coat on it in either black or gold. That’s the part that’s going to show through the cracks. Then I put on the cracking texture, then start adding layers of either paints or more textures. It’s just building a whole bunch of layers.
There’s no fear, it’s just paint. If I don’t like it, I just go over the top of it. I don’t worry about it if I don’t like it. I just go over it and keep trying new things all the time.
What do you love most about the creative process?
My motto is what makes my eyes happy––and that’s the combination of textures and colors, and sheen and shapes. When you start working with all of those elements together, and then they come together to create something like a composition to pull your eyes around the piece with interesting places to rest and then move and rest and move. It builds intrigue and I love that.
What challenges you the most?
What to do next. I love geometric shapes and blues and neutrals, but I’m constantly thinking I should do something new. I should experiment. I do like to do series, but that’s my challenge––finding something that is kind of new. A lot of times I’ll sit down and look at my pictures from my travels, and then I’ll find some little element of it that I love. Then I start to figure out how I can incorporate that and have that translate into my work.
What drew you to the Celebration of Fine Art?
I went last year and I was in love with it. I knew a couple of the artists. One of them is Robin Damore, a portrait painter from Portland. So, I went and visited her, and the people…the whole collaboration of a group of artists…there’s an amazing energy there. You feel like you just want to be kind of part of it. I feel like I got into Harvard and so I’m going to treat it like I got into Harvard!
