On Knowing the Worth of Your Work: An Interview with Whitney Batres
Every year, bbatx curates a monthly residency highlighting the work of 10 to 15, Texas-based women and nonbinary visual and musical artists that create work and perform in our programs. As we move to take our programs online, we’ve partnered with Bumble to launch a digital version of The Residency. From now through November 1, 2020, you can tune in for weekly mixes, visuals and workshops from 16 women and nonbinary artists and DJs.
Today, we’ve got an interview with Austin-based visual artist Whitney Batres. In conversation with bbatx staff member Margeaux Labat, Whitney talks about how she learned to develop her artistic voice in college, book recommendations, and how she’s still figuring it all out.
ABOUT WHITNEY BATRES:
Whitney Batres is a visual artist who currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her husband and their cat, Karen. In 2015, she graduated with a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin and stuck around for the people and the food. Her inspiration comes from family and cultural traditions of domestic craft, and she aims to bridge the gap between craft and fine art in her work.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into making your art. :)
My name is Whitney and I’m from the Houston suburbs, but Austin has been my home for nearly ten years now. Things that bring me joy are food, horrible (but wonderful) movies, and exchanging memes. My husband let me adopt a cat upon the condition he got to name her, and the two of us plus Karen have been a happy little family ever since.
I hate to be a total cliché, but I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember. There’s a spiral notebook somewhere in my parents’ garage full of four-year-old Whitney’s drawings, and quite a few pieces of Rodeo Art. By my freshman year of high school, I knew I’d go to school for art and be a working artist. Once I got into college is when I really started to figure myself out, though, and what I enjoyed doing the most. My middle-school dream of being a professional illustrator didn’t work out, but I definitely prefer what I’m creating now.
You graduated with a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. What would you say are the most valuable takeaways or lessons you learned from your educational career?
Critiques were simultaneously the worst and best parts of school, for me. Worst, because there were so many times when I felt like I was doing a horrible job, and that no one was liking anything I did. But, the best because those were failures I learned from, and I grew a thicker skin because of it. By the end of university, critiques were my favorite part of any studio class. I don’t know if I would have grown or pushed myself out of my comfort zone had it not been for professors and peers giving me a different point of view. I also don’t know if I would have learned to stand up for myself and my work in the same way.
On the oTHER HAND, do you believe there are certain aspects of being an artist that are best learned outside of a formal education? If so, what?
It may be different now, but when I was a student, there were very few classes about how to be a working artist. We honed our technical skills, we learned all the jargon and lingo, and how to think critically about our work, but when it came down to how to make money and “get yourself out there,” there weren’t many resources for that. I’m still learning what it looks like to be a working artist and it’s definitely not easy, but most of that has come from real-life experience and research. Most artists aren’t represented by galleries, or have mysteriously rich benefactors, and school didn’t really prepare me for that. I’m still trying to figure out how to price my work appropriately, but I’m getting there.
Some book recommendations that have helped me a lot: Art/Work by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber, and The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines.
From what or whom do you draw the most inspiration from?
Textiles and craft, hands down. The women of Bauhaus are huge inspirations for me, especially Otti Berger and Gunta Stölzl, but I love any and all textile patterns and design. A modern influence for me is a textile artist named Karen Barbé. It’s been really cool to have actual conversations with her through Instagram, and even get permission to use some of her patterns in my work. It’s maybe too long a story to share here, but handicrafts have been important to me since I was a kid for a lot of reasons, and as an adult I have an even greater appreciation for them. My hope is to honor them, in a way, with my work.
You work with many different mediums when creating. Do you have a favorite? How does your art change in respect to the medium?
That’s a hard one! I go through seasons where one medium is more used than others, but I think gouache + fiber paste are my ride-or-die. I always come back and find new ways of using them.
The more tactile the material, the more important it is for me to create an illusion of sorts. I’m not as concerned with representational forms or figures. It’s all about the process of it, and making someone question what they’re looking at - is this a painting or a piece of fabric? Are these stitches or something else entirely? But if I’m working on paper, it’s about the design, and making something that just sings to me in a visual sense. I like creating work with deeper meaning and all, but I like making something that’s just nice to look at, too.
What do you find to be the most difficult aspect of your creative process? How do you work to overcome this obstacle?
Most recently, my biggest struggle has been comparing myself to other artists. Instagram is a great tool for connecting to artists and finding inspiration, but it can also be a big hindrance when you spend too much on it, I think. I’ll be hard on myself for not accomplishing the same things I see other artists do, like selling my work constantly, or being in some gallery or other, or just having a lot of engagement, and that just makes it harder to focus on my own shit. And logically I know social media is just everyone putting their best foot forward, but I still get sucked into a comparison trap. Whenever that happens, I delete Instagram off my phone for a couple weeks and give myself time to find my equilibrium again. Usually it helps, and I feel more like myself afterwards.
If you could give your younger artist self a piece of advice, what would you tell her?
I’d tell her not to be afraid of going after what she wants and valuing her work appropriately. Pricing artwork can be hard if you’re not confident in yourself; young artists want to make a sale so badly they won’t charge what they’re worth, and it’s difficult to unlearn that strategy. Standing up for yourself and believing in what you’re making is a big part of it.