{"id":7376,"date":"2019-07-29T10:43:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T17:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000001078"},"modified":"2019-07-29T13:53:31","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T20:53:31","slug":"qa-allison-bamcat-on-the-healing-power-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/qa-allison-bamcat-on-the-healing-power-of-art","title":{"rendered":"Q&#038;A: Allison Bamcat on the healing power of art"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Artist Allison Bamcat works on her mural for POW! WOW! Long Beach 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-M8QKA0miMg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles-based artist Allison Bamcat has been dreaming of participating in a POW! WOW! Long Beach since the inaugural festival in 2015. As a designer for Converse, she&#8217;d travel from Boston to Long Beach for trade shows and conventions, but would always find a way to check out the murals going up. Her mural at 3444 E. Anaheim is her 16th work of public art and her best yet. We spoke with Bamcat about how she uses art as therapy, transitioning from a digital artist to using paints and communicating through her work.<\/p>\n<p><b>What draws you to art-making?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I definitely look at my art as therapy for my soul and getting pictures and feelings and colors out that are stuck in my brain so that I can try to communicate what I\u2019m feeling and what I\u2019m going through. It\u2019s something I feel like I have to do, like you have to exercise, you have to eat, so I feel like I have to draw and paint and get those colors and pictures out so I can look at them.<\/p>\n<p><b>Growing up, when did you decide you were definitely going to do art and design?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Well, my mom has pictures of me from when I was five or six and I\u2019m drawing in all of them, so we pretty much predetermined when I was a little girl that doing art was something I was talented at.<\/p>\n<p><b>You mentioned in your bio that your characters represent a simmering turmoil. Can you elaborate on how art has helped you find your voice through tumultuous experiences?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve gone through some really horrific things; I\u2019m diagnosed with PTSD and so making paintings\u2014I went from working in design full-time to really focusing on my paintings and being able to use characters or creatures as like an avatar, a stand-in for myself and then the turmoil around me. Being able to tell that story in a way that is actually visually pleasing and more of a friendly thing to revisit helps me process a lot of the things that I\u2019ve been through and am still going through. So it\u2019s kind of like how would I want those characters to handle it? Like what would I put them through and what am I putting myself through.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m actually an assault victim. I was also a child assault victim, so it\u2019s a lot of things, but I\u2019ve been in therapy for years and that has been so helpful, like life-changing.<\/p>\n<p><b>Is there any advice you can give to someone going through a similar situation?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Many of the women and even some of the male artists that I know have been through horrific incidents in their life, but they\u2019re painting and creating art so it doesn\u2019t seem like it\u2019s a part of their daily life because they have a bunch of followers or because they have a lot of opportunities, but when you read through their bios and their interviews and things like that you realize, oh, that\u2019s coming from <em>that<\/em> place, and they\u2019re using art to heal, too.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that I\u2019m not the only person using my art as a voice or as an instrument of healing has been awesome. And that\u2019s another testament to the art community in LA and Long Beach, is that openness around what everybody\u2019s art means to them. I think drawing, writing, singing and dancing are crucially important things to honor yourself and celebrate yourself, whatever marks you make on a paper they\u2019re yours and no one can take that from you, so whatever you can do to help yourself deal with it, it\u2019s hard to articulate, but, just sitting and doodling is the best.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_999937523\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-999937523\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-999937523\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/0202-BATTLE_17.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"818\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-999937523\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Allison Bamcat studies her mural during the Tooth &amp; Nail female painting competition at the Icehouse Arts Complex in Long Beach. Saturday, February 2. Photo by Bill Alkofer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>How do you overcome the more tedious parts of art, when you make a mistake or you don\u2019t like how a certain piece is coming out? Does that happen to you as a professional?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s constant. Only two percent of the drawings I make move past a couple of lines where I\u2019m like, \u201cI hate those lines!\u201d The paper\u2019s ruined now and I just flip to the next page. I\u2019ll rarely go over something, I\u2019ll rarely fix an old idea because if I didn\u2019t nail it then, then I won\u2019t nail it now. It\u2019s very stubborn.<\/p>\n<p>I was actually a digital artist all through school because I\u2019d been using Photoshop since 8th grade. I was really intimidated by physical media, and I didn\u2019t find the value yet in what a physical piece of art meant.<\/p>\n<p>There was a turning point when I had just done my first painting, I was doing my college thesis and I was doing it on clowns. I was using clowns to deal with my parents who were separating at the time, I wasn\u2019t sure if I\u2019d be able to finish school, I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be taken out my senior year. It was a really tumultuous time and I was painting crying clowns and interviewing clowns and talking to them. That duality of putting on a happy face to do your job and then taking it off and going back to your real life&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That was the first time I\u2019d ever used painting as a way to try to help myself process a difficult situation, I think that was definitely the impetus for me to continue doing that.<\/p>\n<p>So transitioning from a being a digital artist to a physical painter, that was a lot of like, \u201cI feel really bad at this, I suck at this, why am I doing this?\u201d It was a big learning curve, and I\u2019m experiencing the same learning curve now with spray paint. I have to tell myself, buckle up because you\u2019re going to suck at this before you\u2019re ever going to be okay at it.<\/p>\n<p>I feel like I have stuck to fostering my own style, very adamantly, because I knew that what I was making, or painting at the start\u2014weird little crying monsters\u2014I knew that wasn\u2019t commercial, that that wasn\u2019t going to sell, but I knew that it was finally something authentic and that I was enjoying, I liked how it came out for me personally. So I decided if I stick with this maybe it will evolve into something that maybe people will resonate with.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000001373\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000001373\" style=\"width: 1800px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10000001373\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/0717-HiLo-009-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1800\" height=\"891\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000001373\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Art by Allison Bamcat \u201cFixated\u201d at the Hi-lo art gallery in Long Beach Wednesday July 17, 2019. Photo by Thomas Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><b>You\u2019ve been painting murals out in public for a while now, can you remember any meaningful interactions you\u2019ve had with people stopping by your work in progress?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure there have been a lot more meaningful ones, but the first ones I think of are\u2014I\u2019m always so careful where I put my coffee down now, because I was painting in downtown LA and just had a dude pick my coffee up and leave. Okay, that was mine, but whatever. And I was standing on a ladder in downtown painting the same mural and a guy walked behind me, like a middle-aged dude, and he barked at me like a dog. And without missing a beat I turned around to him and said, \u201cThat\u2019s really rude.\u201d And I was like four rungs up on the ladder, and he looked kind of ashamed that he got caught, like I wouldn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n<p><b>Where did you grow up? How many years were you in Boston?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>I grew up in the [San Fernando] Valley until I was a teenager. My parents are originally from Boston, they had moved out to LA in the 80s, so they had kids there, and then moved us back to Massachusetts when my sister and I were teenagers. I lived there for another 15 years so I spent most of my high school and college and after college over in Boston, but my husband got a new job opportunity and it was a good transition point for me to do my art career full time, so it&#8217;s like coming home. I\u2019ve always wanted to come back, always.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s drastically different. Number one, the art community is different because Boston is really a college-based town and it\u2019s really tech-based. So there\u2019s a lot of graphic design opportunities and like user interface and technological advancements and things like that, but out here it feels like a lot more physical art and street art and gallery focused, and product and apparel. It\u2019s definitely different in that sense, and it\u2019s also different diversity wise. Like moving to Boston was a shock, and then coming back here felt like putting on a warm sweater because I missed being around so many different cultures in my friend group, having that different perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles-based artist Allison Bamcat has been dreaming of participating in a POW! WOW! Long Beach since the inaugural festival in 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":65786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[53],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[2744],"class_list":["post-7376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hi-lo","tag-pow-wow-long-beach","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=7376"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}