2008 has been "Year of the Wrong" for independent artist Thea Wolfe. And while Wolfe has set that particular phrase to be the name of her art compilation release for spring 2009, it seems to hold a few different meanings for her.On her web site (http://theawolfe.com/), Wolfe explains that her art pieces from this year (around 100) will be compiled in a hardcover book, as a tribute of sorts to her experiences in 2008.
"This has been the best year of my life," she writes on her web site. "I've traveled 28,214 miles to spend mere hours in front of Ween, killed squirrels with my thoughts, and repeatedly sacrificed myself to questionable situations in the name of potential fun or humor. I've boarded countless airplanes in a terrible state of wrong, thrown killer parties and have tried to wear my nuditard as much as possible."
But 2008 has been about much more than parties and live music for Wolfe. In a phone interview, Wolfe spoke about personal growth and the development of her art.
While Wolfe said she initially made her groove as a portrait artist, she didn't really get into visual art until she was almost 20. After attending Berklee College of Music in Boston for almost 2 semesters, she dropped out and found herself at a tattooing apprenticeship. After 2 years of tattooing and playing in a band, Wolfe returned to the other side of the country and attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.
"I kind of was just going down a whole bunch of wrong paths in Boston, I guess," Wolfe said. "I just decided to leave music and pursue a more private life, to just start again." Now 25, Wolfe has since graduated with a double major in sculpture and painting.
"I think that this whole year, there's been kind of a shift for me," she said. "I really wanted this year to be the year where I give myself permission to do what's in my heart."
On an abstract level, this has meant going into situations that challenge her comfort zone, Wolfe said. But with regard to her art, it may mean taking a new direction - even at the expense of patrons.
"The last 18 months, I've had sort of the courage to let go of caring what my audience thought, kind of," she said. "That's been, in some ways, kind of difficult because some of the people who have been long term patrons of mine have been losing touch."
While many of her patrons know Wolfe for her portraits, she recently stopped accepting commissions for that kind of work.
"After doing that for a few years, I got really burnt out on just making art as more of a product," Wolfe said. "I think as a whole in our culture, art is kind of evaluated based on its value as an aesthetic object and beauty. I think I kind of got sucked in for my ability to do these realistic portraits."
While Wolfe said she is still very attracted to portraiture, much of her more recent work is surreal in its subject matter. Many of the pieces found under the "New Work" section of her online portfolio are marker and pen drawings or acrylic paintings depicting animals, skeletons, or other dark images.
"I think for people who are buying art as objects for their houses are sort of put off by that," Wolfe said. Some of her work does have a sense of humor, though. One picture entitled "John McCain Channeling John Waters" depicts the former presidential candidate in drag next to a unicorn. In the sky, the notorious mustachioed director floats above, face framed by a heart.
"I think a lot of people see the dark stuff in my work, but more of it is intended to be light-hearted," Wolfe said. "And I do have kind of a light hearted approach, or at least the ability to do the darker stuff in humor."
Wolfe's shift in work has not left her without success. In November, Chocodog Records released a coloring book that Wolfe authored in honor of her favorite band: Ween.
"I always go back to the story of the first time I heard Ween," Wolfe said. "I literally fell over. It just hit me - a really, really hard punch. I don't really know how to describe what it is about seeing them live that's so amazing, other than that they're doing something very, very real and very sincere."
Wolfe said that Ween has been a central force in her life for the past year in general. The coloring book came about after following the band around on tour. Wolfe initially created it as a gift of sorts - an expression of fandom that she had no intention of releasing to the public. To her surprise, the band liked the book enough to release it as merchandise.
"Dean Ween is my favorite artist of all time ever, in any medium," Wolfe said. "He really made this book happen because things were financially tight. It's definitely the greatest, most awesome honor of my creative life."
The coloring book differs from Wolfe's other work because of how personal it is in nature - she created it as a personal fan gift as opposed to an art piece. And while Wolfe regards the experience of seeing Ween and releasing the coloring book as an awesome adventure, it's hard for her to describe where it came from.
"I guess I just wanted to do something that was the closest to the adequate expression of what a rare treasure I think Ween is as a band," she said. "I wanted to do something that was more than I thought I could express in just one painting." She said the coloring book came up when she was writing another piece of fan mail to the band, and the idea stuck with her.
"I don't even know what to describe this coloring book as," she said. "It serves as so many things."
The Ween coloring book has been the first taste of international recognition for Wolfe. She is otherwise self-promoted through word of mouth with the help of her husband, Lars Peterson. Peterson, who works in media and graphics, currently is handling the management end of Wolfe's work.
"He handles basically everything," Wolfe said. "He does all the hard stuff."
For now, Wolfe feels like self-promotion suits her.
"I feel like i probably could be reaching a lot more people if I were taking a more conventional route, but I feel like this is the right way to do things for me," she said.
Whether from the success of word of mouth, or from the release of the Ween coloring book, Wolfe has noticed a difference in the outcome of her standard promotion method: her art shows.
Typically, Wolfe and Peterson light and install her pieces and open their home to potential patrons. While the shows are open to the public, Wolfe does not heavily advertise the events.
"I tried to do it so that it could be kind of my more conservative patrons earlier in the night, and have it turn into a party later," she said. However, the art shows have traditionally been friends and a few others. Wolfe said this has been changing lately."I don't think I'm going to be hosting parties at the house anymore because it seems like my following is changing, and becoming more people I don't know," she said. Wolfe prefers to have the parties open, but also intimate.
"The last time I had a show, I was kind of like, 'Wow.' I'm kind of getting to the point with these last couple parties, where it's probably more than I can handle to do it this way."
Peterson's web site (www.larspeterson.com) mentions plans of taking Wolfe's work on the road and throwing art parties across the country. Wolfe seems more reserved about these plans, calling them "loose ideas," but she agrees that it's a nice thought.
"I love throwing parties, and I feel like it would just be good for me to travel, and good for my career to get my work out in different places," she said.
For now, Wolfe is focusing on her plans for "Year of the Wrong," which is still a work in progress.
"I'm not exactly sure what kind of format, or how personal I'm going to get with that," she said. However, she's decided that she is probably going to go with a hardcover book of her work.
"Art is really extensive, and one of the things I've really liked to do is make art accessible to people who don't normally buy art," she said. "A book seems like a good way to do that."
The plan is to look through everything she's made in the first few days of January. And until then, she is just sticking to her daily schedule: Waking up every day before 5 a.m. and working on her art.
"I'm really happy that its been working out for me," she said. "It's the best life I can pretty much imagine."
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