I sometimes tire of social websites that perpetuate the popular and blogs that regurgitate the issues du jour, so my interest was piqued when I recently chanced upon LeliaThomas.com on the 9Rules network. I was drawn into the blog of Lelia Katherine Thomas by the exceptional thoughtfulness and creativity she brings to it. Lelia is an original artist of the internet who calls herself a new artist with an old style and old spirit. Born in the United States in Mississippi, she is currently working on obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in multimedia studies at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to doing painting, photography, computer graphics and website design, Lelia also writes creatively. She posts in her blog her own works of art and pieces of creative writing, whenever she finishes them. She also brings us the work of others through her blog, when she highlights artists and musicians in her regular MP3 Thursday and Artist Spotlight Friday blog entries. Moral Matters Monday brings us her own considered opinions on moral and social issues, and her whimsical and humorous sides come out in Del.icio.us Tuesdays and Hump Day Funnies. When I interviewed her for Squirrel Tao, it was Lelia’s turn to be in spotlighted.

How did you become an artist?

When I think back on everything, four things had to occur to make me what I am today. The first two are simple and probably apply to just about everyone. I loved to draw and create things as a child, and, oddly enough, I also loved to write short stories. (Granted, the stories weren’t too riveting back then!) As an only child whose family moved quite a bit, this became a huge outlet in my life.

The other two things occurred during my pre-teen/early teen years. One was positive, in that I had an amazing art teacher by the name of Betsy Bucher. She could have been a top level artist of America had she wanted, I fully believe; her artwork was unbelievable. However, she was an art teacher, and one of the most encouraging and upfront people I’ve ever met. It was her encouragement that made me want to grow in the visual arts. The second event, unfortunately (or fortunately?), wasn’t positive. I encountered an English teacher who, for some reason still unknown to me, didn’t like me–hated my guts, in fact. When she told me that I would never be able to “write properly”, it angered me so much that I’ve been writing pretty well nonstop ever since.

Who are your favorite artists?

Oh, wow, so many to choose from! We’ll start with the dead ones, just to be morbid. I love the Pre-Raphaelite era of traditional art; in my opinion, it is the essense of what art is meant to be, in that it provides enough reality to mean something and enough fantasy, be it in theme or style, to provide escape. John William Waterhouse fully encompassed that ability, I believe, as did William Bouguereau, another favorite of mine.

In terms of modern artists, I have always loved the works of Christophe Vacher (he’s got a terribly-designed website, but trust me when I say his art–of all mediums–is incredible!), Linda Bergkvist and Katherine Dinger. I’m also a fan of anyone who can capture something remotely interesting with a camera. Honestly, I have a few favorites in all mediums.

You call yourself a traditional artist. What do you mean by this, and what made you decide that this is your current path as an artist?

I think I’m a traditional artist in a nontraditional way. What made me begin using my motto of “a new artist with old style” and “new art with old style” was I kept receiving emails and comments that my artwork and writings had a really old-spirited feel to them. In this sense, my work is traditional. While I do sometimes tackle more abstract and modern things, I still try to keep my work grounded in tried and true, universal emotions. I feel that’s what people can relate to the most. Time proves it!

What was your first exposure to art on the internet, and what was your first impression of it?

For the writing, I first encountered it on sites like FictionPress (when they were “good”). I think Epilogue was the first place I was really exposed to so much visual art online. My first impression was amazement, mainly to find people of similar interests, as well as people I could learn from. Having grown up in mostly small towns, finding people who liked the sort of things that I did wasn’t always easy.

How long have you been promoting your artwork on the web?

I started learning to create websites in 1997, when I was 12 years old. From there, I created a huge array of quickly-flopping websites, mostly for creative writing. Lucky for me, I mostly used pseudonyms back then, or I’d die of embarrassment. It was in 2004 that I registered the domain for LeliaThomas.Com, and I’ve been working with it ever since. Of course, working under my actual name has also inspired me to hide a bit as well. Everything comes full circle, eventually, right?

What do you like about self-promotion on the world wide web?

I think it provides direct access to art, for art lovers, and gives artists a means of truly communicating with those who keep up with their artwork. It takes out the middle man, so to speak, and you can be influenced by all sorts of art from all countries. The artwork you find online, mostly by artists who are promoting their own work, is work that you’d not have seen even 30 years ago, unless maybe it was published in an art compilation book. And then, what would have been the chances of your buying that particular book? Online, I can be influenced by an artist in Chile as easily as I can be influenced by one in Ireland. It opens doors for careers and relationships that you wouldn’t normally have, and I think that’s a spectacular thing.

What do you dislike about it, if anything?

How much time it takes. I often have trouble deciding when I’ve spent too much time promoting and not enough time creating, and vice-versa. It’s also hard sometimes to evaluate what is worth your time in self-promotion. For instance, I post my work to several art sites, and some are more worth my time than others; some I’ve stopped posting to altogether, because I never received a return for my work. That’s one of the perils of self-promotion on the internet. I feel you have to work at it for a long time to get anywhere, unless you’re one of the lucky few who gets hold of a huge, international fanbase for something you’ve done. (Doesn’t happen often, or at least that’s what I like to tell myself.)

Do you have any experience with more traditional means of getting your work in front of the public, such as art galleries and art fairs? If so, how do they compare to the net?

Hopefully I won’t get much hate mail for this, but I found it incredibly hard to get my work “out there” traditionally in the United States. The sheer size of the population, which creates heated competition, as well as issues of political correctness, really affected my ability to promote myself, I found. I had given up on a lot of it. I never got around to trying the art fairs, though, which I’m sure would have been different. I’ve not tried either in Australia yet, now that I’m living here.

In general, the internet is a lot easier to deal with as a self-promoter. It takes less time to work with, and even it can take too much time! I think you also have the added bonus of maybe taking out some discriminatory factors, because most of the time you won’t be seen or heard online; it will only be your work that is judged. Traditional contests/galleries/etc. say that’s all they judge, too, but I can’t say I fully believe that yet, depending on the group.

How do you think the public perceives artwork on the internet, as opposed to artwork offline?

With few exceptions, I think it has to do with a user’s computer experience. Someone who’s been using the internet for several years knows it’s not all fluff and meaningless entertainment, and therefore will maybe view one’s online artwork with an appreciative or critical eye, as they would any other creative works. People who haven’t used the internet for long, or don’t like to use it, probably view it all as a waste of time. Those are the kind of people who I find get that suspicious lilt in their voice when saying things like, “Oh, you’re one of those bloggers.” (As heard in an actual conversation.) You’ll not be able to reach them, I suppose.

This is one of the reasons I try to create accessible websites, in hopes of reaching them as closely as possible.

If you could change one thing about being a creator on the internet, what would it be?

To make people slow down. Apparently the average user judges an entire site and its content in a mere blink of an eye, which I find appalling. There are few sites, even poorly designed ones, that I judge that quickly. Maybe I’m just slow! My site statistics support the studies that came up with that information, too, as plenty of people exit on the start page. Very frustrating! Slow down, people! No wonder you’re developing carpal tunnel! I blame it on the gaming. :p

If you could change one thing about being a creator in the offline world, what would it be?

I’d give young people more outlets for being creative, which is something I hope to do if I ever become a teacher myself. With the exception of the art teacher I mentioned above, I had terrible art teachers, and my other teachers generally made sure our studies were devoid of all creativity. For anyone who was interested in the arts, you were left to your own devices and means of working with them, because you could bet money you were not going to get anything from school to help you. I feel Academia robs a lot of creative people of meeting their full potential. I know I always wonder how much further I might have come now, if only I’d had some teachers who knew what they were doing and cared about enough, even if it was just to make a drab general project a little more creative.

How do you think that net art (the visual arts in particular) can become more noticed?

As media converges more upon itself, and more people get online, it will become noticed more naturally. We in highly developed countries often forget there are still billions of people who aren’t online at all, who may not even have a personal computer. This will change in time, and it will be interesting to see what that does to society online, and it will surely bring more traffic to artists–as well as find new artists along the way.

For now, I think the best way I’ve found to publish my art is through a blog. It’s more accessible to users, via the web, yes, but also through RSS and pinged sites which can bring in new users (e.g., Technorati). Mobile browsing is gaining popularity, too, in some cases, and that will be something to consider soon, if not now. Technology is changing rapidly still. If you can keep up with the changes, I think you’ll have a better chance of getting noticed.

How do you think internet artists can get paid more for their work?

For me, it’s been combining my various works under one “roof”. I quickly found people weren’t interested in looking at three different sites, organized by type of medium, even if that was more organized and “pretty.” I’ve found much more success, both exposure-wise and financially, in putting everything together, so I certainly suggest that to anyone who’s starting out. And, as icky as it sometimes makes even me feel, text ads will more than pay for your hosting costs as an artist, so you might as well give in and be evil with the rest of the internet. It only makes you feel dirty the first few times.

I also think there’s just an issue of “time”. There are a lot of teenaged users online, because they have been the generation to truly grow up with the internet, not just computers (like my generation, to a degree). As they grow and become financially independent, it provides more opportunity for all revenue-seeking individuals and companies. For now, though, I find a lot of sparked interest by young users, but they typically can’t pay for what they’re wanting, be it due to financial situations or their parents not allowing them to order things online.

Are you conscious of anything in particular driving your creative process; such as a quest for truth, an expression of meaning, an exploration of the boundaries and potentials of your chosen medium, or some other overriding passion?

Ah, this is such a huge question, and it’s one I actually ask myself a lot! Some people believe creative arts are mainly just for escapism, which I agree with to an extent; others believe creative works are there to make changes, and I also can agree with that some. I often struggle in wanting to provide a place for people to escape that will also deeply mean something to them. There have been a few pieces of art and a few books that have given me that in life, and it would be an amazing feat for me to reproduce that, even if on a small scale.

I feel creative writing always has been and always will be the outlet I will be able to do the most with, and it is also my bane at times. My dream is to create something that lasts beyond my life (not that I will know or care about such things once I’m pushing up daisies…).

Is there anything else you’d like to discuss that has not been covered by any of the above questions?

The only thing I can think to add is some advice, not just for artists, but people in general. Do it, even if you’re afraid. Anything that’s worthwhile that’s changed my life, including promoting my art itself and moving to a different country, has been done in absolute fear–fear of rejection, fear of mistake, fear of failure. Almost always you’ll surprise yourself with your own ability, though, so do it in fear, anyway. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

Also, thank you for interviewing me, Jennifer! It’s been a pleasure!