Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work
#335: Delita Martin (Multimedia Artist) (pt. 1 of 2)
This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with Delita Martin. She’s an acclaimed American multimedia artist, and the founder of Black Box Press Studio based in Huffman, Texas. She works in a variety of mediums including printmaking, painting and stitching.
Delita frequently incorporates symbolism, and many of her works contain West African masks which highlight the connection between the mortal and spiritual worlds. Her works are in the permanent collections of acclaimed venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Museum of Art, and Crystal Bridges. Join us to hear how her relationship approach to business helps grow her studio and lifts everyone with whom she collaborates. https://blackboxpressstudio.com/
Welcome to the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast. Making art work. We highlight how entrepreneurs align their artistry, passion and vision to create and pursue opportunities to capture value in the arts. The views expressed by guests on the Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the podcast or its hosts. The appearance of a guest on the podcast, the venture they represent or reference to any product or service does not imply an endorsement or recommendation by the podcast or its hosts. The content provided is for entertainment and informational purposes only and does not constitute business advice. Here are your hosts Andy Heise and Nick Petrella.
Andy Heise:Hi Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast listeners. My name is Andy Heise.
Nick Petrella:And I'm Nick Petrella. We're excited to have Delita Martin with us today. She's an American multimedia artist and the founder of Black Box Press Studio, based in Huffman, texas. She works in a variety of mediums, including printmaking, painting and stitching. Delita frequently incorporates symbolism and many of her works contain West African masks which highlight the connection between the mortal and spiritual worlds. Her works are in the permanent collections of acclaimed venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges. Make sure to visit Delita's website to see her vivid art and learn more about her and the foundation she created to empower artists. Thanks for coming on the podcast, delita.
Delita Martin:Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Nick Petrella:By any measure, you have a successful career, Since you have a variety of experiences on your CV. Did you always want to have your own studio or did you want to go into teaching or some other aspect of visual art?
Delita Martin:No, my aspiration was to be an independent artist. Always I wasn't quite sure how that was going to work out, but it was interesting because I never had any inclinations to do anything else and I never really thought about anything else. So I'm just kind of glad it worked out.
Andy Heise:So your vision of wanting to be an independent artist. Did you have some either? Um role models isn't necessarily the right word, but like um some, some ideas, other people, other artists that you saw and you're like that's pretty cool. I think I'd like to maybe do something like that.
Delita Martin:No, I didn't have a clue. Um I I don't think I began really looking at other artists in that way until graduate school. Prior to that it was more of you know, researching artists and you attend those types of things. But once I got into graduate school, then I began to think more closely related to you know, how do I make art my profession? How do I become a profession and go to work for myself every day?
Nick Petrella:Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I was going to ask. We've had some artists in here before where family members were artists and then they saw that growing up, any of your family members, artists or no?
Delita Martin:Yes, I, you know, like to say I grew up in an art school because there were a lot of writers in my family, a lot of oral storytellers, quilt makers. My father was a painter. My grandfather made furniture as well as my father, so I was around creativity at all times. However, I am the only one that pursued it as a profession.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so it was in there from a little kid yeah.
Andy Heise:Yeah.
Nick Petrella:It's awesome.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and so so you've created, as Nick alluded to, um, you've created a strong platform for yourself, not just as an artist, but as an entrepreneur. Do you, do you identify as an entrepreneur? Is that something that you said? Is that something you call yourself?
Delita Martin:I don't and and I guess, um, I don't know. I just I wake up every day and I do the thing that I love and I try and help people do the things that they love. So I've never really personally put it into a category, but I guess if you had to name it, that's what you would name it right, that's one, it's one, one option Certainly certainly for this podcast, that's that's something we call it.
Andy Heise:And so so how? How your your definition of success? What? What does that look like for you in your career as an entrepreneurial artist?
Delita Martin:So, you know, growing up thinking about all the amazing opportunities and watching other artists exhibit overseas the Biennale, watching artists you know sell their work become part of these major collections. You know I had this checklist of goals that I wanted to accomplish and so just being able to, you know, exhibit during the Venice Biennale, you know, be a part of the Cuban Biennale, to, you know, have my work at the Smithsonian in their private collections at the Women's Museum, so those types of things to me are just things that I've checked off my list and so that's a success for me being able to maybe sit down one day and share these stories of, you know, adventures that I've had in the art world with my children, with my child and my grandchildren. You know that for me would be success. Yeah.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and so it sounds like very much sort of in the fine art world. So the galleries, the museums, that route was sort of the vision that you had for your career and the things you wanted to accomplish.
Delita Martin:Yes, yes, that was a part of my personal vision, but I also have the vision of being able to help other artists. Printmaking is one of those things where you need lots of equipment and certain things to do, so I've built a studio where I welcome other artists to come in, you know, to work on projects whenever I can, you know. So I look forward to that as well.
Nick Petrella:Yeah. Yeah, you did tick off a lot of goals, yes, but I'm wondering what's out there that you haven't ticked off yet? What's on the horizon?
Delita Martin:I don't know I'm still looking for that one project. You know how you have that one thing that you do and I have a feeling I may be there now and I may not be there now, but you know I'm writing more now. I'm looking at, you know, publishing a novella in conjunction with the body of visual works. So you know, that's new for me and very exciting, but it feels right.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, well, it falls under multimedia.
Delita Martin:Absolutely, absolutely.
Nick Petrella:So, dalita, you have representation. So I'm wondering how far along you were in your career when you secured that representation and, if you would, could you talk a little bit?
Delita Martin:about that process. Yes, so I gained representation. I want to say in late 2013, 2014. It was an exhibition. Crystal Bridges hosted an exhibition with 101 artists across the United States, so I gained representation shortly after that exhibition opened. It was a very quick learning curve, but what I learned is that there are different types of galleries, you know, for different types of artists. You have the galleries that you know will hang your work and hope that you know visitors come in and purchase. You have artists that you know, galleries that go out and seek opportunities for their artists. You have, you know, people who place work in particular collections. But I always tell artists you know you have to decide what type of artist you want to be. You have to be okay with it and you have to seek out those partnerships with. You know gallerists at that point, and so you have to find a gallerist that you can have a relationship with, to you know, help you advance and grow your career.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, that's good advice. And what was the process like when you started?
Delita Martin:Asking questions, very important. You know, understanding what your needs and your desires are as an artist and sharing that with the gallerist, and asking questions. You know how do you represent your artist. You know what is your exhibition process. How do you advertise for your artists, what do you do to you know, to advance your artist's career, how often do you have solo exhibitions for? So all those questions and more are very important in understanding if it's going to be a good fit.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, so you just didn't fall over the first person that contacted you. Absolutely not, because those are excellent questions. Absolutely not.
Delita Martin:Absolutely not. I mean and there's so many other questions out there and I think that that varies depending on the artist and what your needs and desires are but you have to ask the question, you know, just as they are interviewing you and considering your work. You have to do the same thing because it's a partnership.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, ideally, absolutely.
Andy Heise:Ideally. Yeah, well, and so that was. That was sort of like the onboarding process. But what's that relationship like now? What are the sorts of conversations that you have with your? I have an incredible relationship.
Delita Martin:I work with three galleries. I work with McLean gallery here in Houston, texas, and I work with gallery Mertiz in Baltimore, maryland, and Stella Jones in New Orleans. And what was very important to me is that each gallery understands that I have a relationship with each one of them and they have to be able to play nice together. And what I love about the galleries that I'm with, you know if I'm showing with Gallery Mertiz, stella Jones, as well as McLean, is happy to send out invites to their clientele or to show what I'm doing with this other gallery. So it's that type of relationship that makes me want to be in the studio to make sure that all the galleries you know have equal work that they're. You know that I'm making sure that we're all taken care of. Yeah.
Nick Petrella:Is that a common arrangement?
Delita Martin:I don't know how common it is, but it was something that I must have. I don't know, honestly, how common it is. I have not heard anyone else speak in those terms, but that was something that had to happen. That everybody understood. I'm not leaving anyone, and you all have to play nice.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, because we've interviewed quite a few artists and gallerists on here and it seems uncommon to us, but we're musicians so we don't live in that space. Yeah.
Delita Martin:I haven't really seen it, you know, per se, but it was important to me because I feel like everybody benefits, not just the artists, but the gallerists too, when you can say, hey, look at this artist, they're doing this thing, I represent them. Just the variety of opportunities that I have out in the world, when they're shared with people, makes a difference.
Nick Petrella:Andy, did you have something?
Andy Heise:I was just going to say that my impression was that sometimes there can be some regionality to it, like maybe a West Coast rep, and East Coast sort of thing, but but so OK.
Nick Petrella:So what about this? Say you have a piece of art. Say, Andy, and I commission you for a piece of art, and it goes into a gallery. How do you choose where it goes? How do you? How does that work?
Delita Martin:Well, the first thing that I look at. I'm not exclusive with any of the galleries that I'm with, but I make sure that they are taken care of and that you know there's never a question into their commission at all. That's first and foremost. But I've had situations where you know someone has come to my Baltimore gallery and wanted a work and they're like I don't have it. But you should reach out to this other gallery Stella Jones has work. Or McLean has work, and you know they've all done this. Or McLean has work and you know they've all done this. So you know it's never really a conflict per se.
Delita Martin:I just had an exhibition that opened here at Rice University in Houston, texas, and you know that work is consigned to McLean Gallery. But you know, if something comes up with Gallery Mertiz or Stella Jones, they are welcome to reach out and, you know, work out whatever commission they need to with the galleries.
Nick Petrella:Gotcha. So it's like a competition sort of thing, isn't it?
Delita Martin:Yeah, you know, I don't know that I'd look at it as a competition. It's more of support for the artist. Yeah, so the more successful I am, the more successful they are. I don't, I don't know. Yeah, okay, I haven't gotten the impression that they look at it that way. I think they all look at it as you know um, helping me to grow my career, because that's important, because not all the time can you have a relationship with your gallers. So you know it goes beyond work. If it's, if you're just looking at me for numbers, then that's not a good fit for me.
Nick Petrella:Right, yeah, yeah, I think that's. That's pretty fascinating and I bet you know we haven't known each other long, but I think your personality just lends to that. It's going to work.
Delita Martin:I hope so. You know I I don't see why it wouldn't work and I and I think of it as beneficial to everybody all parties involved, so yeah that's great yeah.
Andy Heise:So, uh, we just talked about when you, when you sort of took on, or when you took on representation, uh, with your first gallery um, but, and maybe related to that question uh, was there a, was there a tipping point when you realized that you could sustainably make a living doing your art practice?
Delita Martin:Oh, I had no idea if it was going to work. It was a conversation I had with my husband and he says to me you know, you are really a studio artist at heart and you should go into the studio full time while we can afford for you to. And you know, one of two things is going to happen Either you're going to live your dream or you're going to have some great stories to tell our kids and our grandkids. And so, you know, I jumped off that cliff in like 2013, 2014. And it was the scariest thing that I ever had to do, but it was the best thing that I ever had to do, but it was the best thing that I ever did and what I had to do.
Delita Martin:I think the challenge was figuring out how to make art my business. Like, how do I do that? And I had to tell myself, ok, you get up every morning and you go to work for someone else. Now you have to get up and go to work for yourself. But what does that look like? So I tried, probably within that first year, year and a half, I tried like 10 different models. You know, mondays, wednesdays and Friday was studio day. Tuesday, thursdays were admin day. So because you're wearing like 50 different hats and so I had to figure out a system that worked for me, and I think getting it in my head that it doesn't have to look like someone else's structure is what helped me over that hump.
Andy Heise:That's amazing. Could you share what your sort of system or model is for? How you manage all those different things?
Delita Martin:Yes, I have help today.
Andy Heise:Sure, yeah, that's great.
Delita Martin:But, early on I did. I spent two days out of the week and I just came to the conclusion that it didn't have to be a set day, because that's just not how I function. So I had to realize that you have to create the structure, the way you function, or it won't be successful. So two days out of the week was a research day. The other three days were for actually working on physical artwork, and then a couple of hours on the weekend I would spend like doing research. So all those components just kind of happen and then being able to pull people into your circle to help you.
Delita Martin:So you know you need help reading contracts. You know that's important. You have to be able to read contracts. You have to be able to maybe have someone help you with scheduling. That's a really big thing with me is being able to have someone to schedule things for me, keep a calendar, keeping a strict work schedule where you're protecting yourself and not necessarily having too many studio visits or people distracting you from the work. So there's so many things that you have to consider when you're working for yourself.
Andy Heise:So did we catch you on an admin day or a studio day today?
Delita Martin:Well, I circled out this time for you. So right now this would actually be probably a work day for me. I just finished working on a body of work, or at least work for this exhibition. So it would be a cleanup day, get the studio ready for the next project, type day.
Nick Petrella:Yeah that's great Was it easier for? Because you have a family and at the time would have been a growing family. Yes, did that help you? To kind of that you had control over your schedule. That help you or no.
Delita Martin:So here's the thing. Um, you know, I feel the question of balance coming, and so I have to be honest I don't believe in balance. There's no such thing as balance. I mean, there are days when I am an amazing mom and wife you know laundry's done, put away, food's cooked and there's other days when I suck as mom and wife. No one's eaten, there are no clothes. You know things need to be straightened up, but I'm killing it in the studio. But what I do believe in is grace giving yourself grace and giving yourself permission to be who you need to be in that moment and surrounding yourself with people who are on your team enough to support you in those decisions. And so that's how I function in the studio and in that's my my work-life balance yeah, that's awesome.
Andy Heise:We've heard that from other artists on this. As we usually do ask that question about how do you balance all these, and that's like there doesn't you don't balance, yeah, yeah yeah, that's great.
Nick Petrella:And you're doing a lot of stuff and, as I mentioned in the intro, you have a foundation.
Delita Martin:Yes.
Nick Petrella:So you're looking after that. So what prompted you to launch it and has that been effective? Or has that been as effective as you envisioned?
Delita Martin:So the George Floyd unfortunate situation happened and I have a son, a young son, and so the conversation came up about. You know how he felt in the situation and what he was looking at. So it was one of those moments when I got to see him as a young black male and he got to see me as a black mom and you know what I felt for him and my wants and desires for him, and so I asked him to help me with this project and so I said, well, he loves hoodies and I'm like, so what would you put on a hoodie? He's like let me breathe. And it was such a command and it wasn't a question, it wasn't a timid ask, it was it let me breathe. And it was such a command and it wasn't a question, it wasn't a timid ask, it was. It was let me breathe.
Delita Martin:And so at first I was like you know I'm not too sure about this, you know you're just wanting to make some money. And he's like no, we can give this money to. You know people that need money to create art and to do these things. So I was still a little suspicious. So I told him he had to help me with the formation and getting these things together. So he was very much involved in the process.
Delita Martin:But I was very proud of him and so um um Black Box Press Foundation was founded um I I envision it being more than what it is right now. Like, right now, we're supporting artists in terms of um exhibition grants and project grants, and so we've um supported one organization who works with um, aline Roy, who does does um salons, art salons for new collectors, so they received a $5,000 grant. We had two other artists that received uh grants for exhibitions and I'm inviting um several artists into the studio to create works. So I try and support as much as I can, but um you know it's mainly myself and my husband and you know our small board that's running the foundation right now, but I envision it being bigger and even better in the future.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, that's a great story. So I'm wondering is it as far as impact local impact, regional impact, national impact?
Delita Martin:No, no, it's a national impact. My dream is for this to be international. I would love to. Actually, my husband and I are working on, you know, opening the residency up even further so, you know, potentially turning our entire property that we have into a campus for printmaking, letterpress printing and papermaking. So I think really big you know, and it's like. I don't know when it's going to happen, but it is going to happen and we are in the process of, you know, business plans and meeting with attorneys to make sure everything goes smoothly.
Nick Petrella:That's amazing. You're going to get a lot busier.
Delita Martin:You know, I keep telling myself this is my version of retirement. Ah Right, it's building a new branch of business. Is my version of retirement, yeah?
Nick Petrella:Why don't you bring on other people?
Delita Martin:Yeah, but it's so important you know I love art so much and I love what I do and I love supporting people in what they love to do, so it just it makes sense and it feels really good.
Andy Heise:Yeah, yeah, and it strikes me as it's a way to stay engaged with, you know, young emerging artists, absolutely, and so you're still involved in that art making community and helping it thrive and, like you said, supporting it, without all the pressure of you having to be the one making all the work.
Nick Petrella:Right, exactly, I'm sure that you will always make work, as most artists do, but Well, I think it's interesting. Well, I think it's interesting. So, like, in addition to the multimedia theme, it's as if you are influencing the future because your, your art, your art art lives well beyond the life of an artist. Teaching, and you're talking about writing a book that lives well beyond the life of an artist. Yeah, and then what you're doing? Inspiring, with a foundation that can also do it. So you're really building a bigger footprint in literally space and in time.
Delita Martin:I was asked a question once which totally threw me off. During an artist talk, a gentleman asked me what did I want my legacy to be? Oh my God. God totally threw me off. I'll be honest, at the time I had some total bs answer, but it made me go back to the studio and really think about that question, because it was. It was very jarring and what I realized was that you know artists like um Elizabeth Catlett, jim Dine, um John Biggers, doc Starch all of these artists, gauguin, monet, all these artists that I look at and study their work. I want to be for other artists what they have been for me, but I had to figure out. What does that look like? What does that even mean? How can I create something that's larger than myself? And so it became the foundation. It became DEMA Designs. You know the lifestyle brand. It's my artwork. It's all of these things being able to give to others and inspire others and, hopefully, help in any way that I can.
Nick Petrella:Yeah, it's fun to watch that unfold.
Andy Heise:Yeah, and there's that entrepreneurial spirit again. You went back and said, well, how can I create this? Rather than saying I'm just going to see what happens and let it happen to me. Let other people determine what my legacy is going to be. You said I'm going to take control of this and make it happen.
Delita Martin:Well, yeah, anything that I feel like your name is attached to, you have a responsibility to make sure that, whatever it is, it's the right place, the right thing to do, and so, yeah, I can't see myself leaving that up to happenstance or leaving that up to anybody else.
Andy Heise:Right yeah.
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