Studio Visit with Gina Teichert

Originally recorded June 22, 2022.

George Irwin of Western Gallery visits with Gina Teichert, whose work centers on painting and who is based in Northern California, for a wide-ranging conversation about the artist’s work, process, and studio practice.

Transcript note: Speaker labels were assigned from the source audio where available and dialogue context otherwise. Paragraph breaks were added for readability, and verbal filler was lightly edited. Joint labels mark rapid or overlapping exchanges. This was prepared from an automated transcription, so minor transcription errors may remain.

Instagram Live studio visit—June 22, 2022

Watch the original video on Instagram (43:27)

Participants: George Irwin and Gina Teichert

George Irwin: Hello everybody! This is kind of weird because I can't hear myself. I've got two of these things in. I'm at home, the boys and the wife are here too being summer and it's kind of crazy so anyway I've gotten these things in and hopefully I can stay focused on this. So today we're gonna be visiting Gina Teichert in her Northern California West Coast Western home studio and talking to her about her practice and kind of her journey into finding her direction as an artist of the west. And more actually so this is gonna be good And I hope that you enjoy. I'm gonna see if she is... Actually, that'd be good. There she is!

Gina Teichert: Hello!

George Irwin: Hey Gina, how are you doing? I'm doing great! How about you? Awesome. I am doing well. It's good to see you. I like that you've got your New Western Talent pieces right there behind you.

Gina Teichert: you yeah I always forget that the frame gets split between us so you miss the top of them but we'll you know we'll get into that later yeah you're

George Irwin: like everything looks like it's perfectly balanced and then it's like

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: Chuck it's not always technology yeah how is your morning been it's been good

Gina Teichert: Yeah, it's getting hot here. Probably going to be one of the hottest days of the year so far But I remind myself though on these days yesterday was Salsis. So Technically we're one step closer to fall right? Oh

George Irwin: Man that's a great reminder. It's like it's been like 100 degrees here for like two weeks. It feels like and I'm tired of it. But now that's good. That's a good reminder. Maybe that means we're like almost halfway

Gina Teichert: I don't know. Yeah, I hope that helps in some way. I actually love summer but I think I told you this before my studio was in this sort of sunroom thing in the house

George Irwin: which just happens to get really hot this time of year. So I try to see earlier in the day or at

Gina Teichert: night from 3 to 6 pm it's just horrible. Yeah that time is no good. You know

George Irwin: That's what uh when I was visiting GL in Santa Fe his studio is upstairs and it's kind of the same deal. It's like yeah when um when it gets to be like too, it's too hot to be up here but you know work around do what you got to do.

Gina Teichert: Oh yeah the perils life art life is so hard you should feel sorry for us all.

George Irwin: Yeah well cool um well this is exciting we talked I don't know it was like a year ago or couple years ago. But it's been awhile since we've really like kind of dived into your practice and I'm curious how things are going, you've made a few changes over the past couple years and you've kind of been developing a new style that is really, I think is really cool. And I'm sorry that your figures head has cut off in the background but these two pieces especially I think are fantastic. And then, I also like the snake. If you guys have not seen Gina's work, as I always am saying at the beginning of these things now, make sure you go check them out at western.gallery in The New Western Talent Show. Oh man, I did it again. New Western Talent exhibition. So no salt and salt again.

Gina Teichert: Talent show?

George Irwin: What is a talent show but none of us can sing except you. Well yeah. So anyway, I guess can you fill us in a little bit about You grew up in kind of like a rural western environment before leaving for the big city. Can you tell us about how that... I guess eventually, you came back to this, the ideal thinking about the ideal of the Western aesthetic and whatnot. Can you take us through that journey just a little bit? Yeah, how much time do you have?

Gina Teichert: It's a journey, to say the least. So yeah, I grew up in a ranching family. My ancestors came across the plains and wagons and hand carts and all that fun stuff. I grew upon these stories of this hardy character, this explorer character that had boiled shoe leather for dinner when they ran out of food. Just the mental toughness, I think of those people as something I like to remind myself of myself up when I'm complaining about the fact that it's a hundred in my studio and you know, I also have a pool like whack. But generally I grew up kind of well of course we had electricity and other things but a lot of the things hadn't really changed much since you know those first generations had settled in the Mountain West so one of seven kids we my father's in the cattle industry so We really, you know, we all kind of learned that work ethic and you know

Gina Teichert: It takes different forms throughout your life whether that's you know Spend an hours on a computer late at night if you know You've got a test or you've got to do some kind of a job, but I think for me This past year, but especially the past six months have been about trying to conjure up some of that Maybe the romanticism of the West but also something about work ethic because I realized you really need to be able to to put your head down and like work and work through problems and make paintings that suck can make paintings that are genius that you can't replicate. And, you know, all of those things while they're luxuries to be able to do this kind of work I think it takes a little diving deeper. So for me, kind of returning the easel painting after a few years of odd jobs in fashion and worked at a museum for awhile and all these considered lighter lift type jobs

Gina Teichert: Really kind of trying to bring that work ethic in has been interesting. I remember one of my favorite teachers in art school said like on the first day of class like anybody who walks in this door and doesn't believe it being a painter is a blue-collar job, leave now. It's a grind. You're gonna you're gonna work crazy hours get out now if

George Irwin: you aren't prepared for that. Yeah and it's physical and it can be like all over the place. Yeah, that's a really good way to frame it. It's not typical what people think of as a blue color job but it has a lot of the same kind of requirements. Cool! So you said when you're a teacher in art school you went to the San Francisco Academy of Art? Yes. And did you have this kind of a draw towards kind of like this realism-ish kind of romanticized thing then or were you doing different kind of work? Well it's funny because

Gina Teichert: the Academy of Art is really traditional school I'd say the most traditional on the west coast versus CCA, or Otis, or CalArts, or some of those that you know really kind of feed that conceptual spirit. This is like a learn how to paint like the old master's school. Classically. And so, that was like I have really strong foundations but it's been literally 10 years since i've been painting in a meaningful way every day. So there was some dust to knock off for sure um but I guess as all or at least most art students fall into some other trap um I did dabble in the dark arts of you know mixed media and conceptual art and all sorts of things. So, you know, I got homeless signs from people on the street in San Francisco and I like encased them in resin. You know, it did try to make installation art. I really,

Gina Teichert: you know tried a lot of different things before I came back to painting. And I think what appealed to me most about painting kind of during the pandemic really is that you don't need anything else. It's literally just you and your materials in a space so I didn't need to apply for grants or I didn't need to have permits, or other people, you know, collaborators, or any of these other things. I literally could just sit down and make art no permission required. And it was really refreshing to me um to just be able to be like wow i want to make something today and make something.

George Irwin: Yeah wow that's cool um and it seems like you're knocking the dust off pretty well. I mean I think that when I say that I like I really like the direction of these pieces that you're going, like it was... I don't mean to say like surprise but maybe it was. Like I was just not expecting like full figures to be in your work coming into New Western Talent this time around and it's really I think a really refreshing nice take on what your voice has been developing into and so that's been really cool. Cool, so we got some questions. I know you posted a notice that you were going to be up here and ask people for some questions, but we've got some good ones. Some are kind of open-ended, but I think they might be really great. So I'm gonna throw some at you. Emily McCart or McCarthy? I don't know.

Gina Teichert: curtain. Yeah, but her hand is in the cart so you weren't wrong.

George Irwin: Yes. Yeah okay um she wants to know um or she says well this is a this one's kind of fun I love how your style is also reflective of your art and vibe

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: where do you typically shop? That's a fun one.

Gina Teichert: Well thank you for noticing though. I would say I'm pretty eclectic in that way um as some of you know I've been kind of dabbling in one other dark art of vintage. Don't ask my husband what we're doing with our spare room right now because it's full of vintage clothes, but yeah I hit up estate sales. I like online auctions for things you know kind of out of this region as far as like western jewelry or that sort of thing. It's funny because i was in a show in Cheyenne earlier this spring and I was so excited to go to a western wear store and try on jeans because my body's changed a lot as many of us have through the pandemic and I just wasn't sure what size I wore anymore and I had some bad online experiences so I just went to this you know old school western wear store in downtown Cheyenne, you know that had like a fiberglass horse on top which is always

Gina Teichert: a good sign if you're walking into a western wear store. And so i was able to get you know some new jeans as well that were in my size and long enough thank you cowboy jeans.

George Irwin: Yeah, well that's I mean I think that's a that actually is kind of a nice question because it did lead us into talking about your vintage work and High desert dry goods. Is that it? You got it yeah. Yeah high desert underscore dry goods on Instagram Gina has some great stuff but that is sort of like something that started to make its way into your work, I think even as early as, I don't remember what should, if it was in rainbows or something else. You started painting just like these squash blossom necklaces and stuff and that has kind of evolved into almost the fashion of these figures in these works behind you. It's fun to see all of that connecting and resonating with you is one different Excuse me, different outlets of like one voice. So that's very cool. And you know I can see that Emily, you know probably is noticing that too and in her comment there. Another question

George Irwin: This is- and this is one that Is hits close to home for me because I'm- this is something I'm very curious about and I'm noticing that Anyway, I'm not going to talk about it too much. So gallery representation versus independent artist or a hybrid model. Any thoughts?

Gina Teichert: Oh, this is a good one and yeah, you definitely play a role in this as well. So for those of you who don't know, I've been in three shows of Georgia's so far,

George Irwin: which is really fun.

Gina Teichert: So I'd say that kind of falls under the hybrid umbrella. But you definitely found a way of reinventing the industry through the pandemic, you know, mainstay galleries were closed people weren't traveling and all that sort of thing plus kids love e-commerce right like shopping is easy but going to a gallery and it's like post a phone request is kind of intimidating so I think you're doing a great job creating a space there that's somewhere in between somehow. And for me personally, the idea of being represented by an artist or by a gallery is interesting because I've already been represented before as a model years ago you know i was with Ford models i've been with a few other kind of mom and pops agencies so what I learned through that is really going to inform me through the next steps not saying I wouldn't do it but I really want somebody who's a

Gina Teichert: career partner, you know. I don't want this to be like a one-hit wonder. So being represented by a gallery in more traditional sense is something that I think goes both ways and a lot of artists might not have the confidence to say this and I certainly didn't when I first signed with Ford. They work for you, you're giving them commission off of your product so it really needs to be equal footing and I think a lot artists have a hard time recognizing that. So for me it's not to say that like I'm a genius artist but literally I want something to play ball. Somebody

George Irwin: who's on my team, immediately problems me. Sorry that may be, I think that I'm just you're cutting out just a little bit and I'm not sure if that's uh yeah usually you're freezing up. How about second so I just missed the last part of that?

Gina Teichert: No worries um what I wanted to say is like they need to be you got me

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: How about now?

George Irwin: Okay, cool.

Gina Teichert: Rural internet blue is right there. But really to be able to sign with somebody in a long term way. You want to be a real partner you want to be creative thinkers have established relationships but also like forward looking the industry's changing a lot. So maybe somebody who's got new ideas or I don't know it's interesting dabble a little bit in NFTs and the crypto markets just crashed, you know. So I mean like we're all kind of like trying to gather new information and grapple with all these alternative modes so i think it's the wild west if i can be honest with you it's

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: the total it's The Wild West. Yeah i mean that's yeah and that's funny i mean i think that

George Irwin: that it really is. It's like, it's kind of like, like when the music industry reinvented itself 20 years ago and it feels kinda like that same things have been bubbling over and now it's transforming and it's good but there are bad things that come out of that like lots of galleries with clothes And a lot of artists that are used to the old model are not sure what to do now. Meanwhile, independent artists, not unlike yourself, are able to get their work out there in a new way thanks to technology. And then, in some cases partner with a gallery like Western Gallery where we can kind of help amplify that and then potentially your careers careers can grow beyond that and potentially with Western Gallery. I don't know exactly where we're headed, but yeah so that's an exciting thing to think about. And thank you so much for showing with Western gallery.

George Irwin: I really like working with you and your work is evolving in a really nice way. So speaking of that, can you talk a little bit about some of the pieces that you've got New Western Talent. I know, I'm curious about who these ladies are and

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: then we can talk about snakes if you want. We can talk things if you wanted. Yeah, yeah.

Gina Teichert: Yeah let's start with this figure of pieces. I'll give you a little background and then

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: I'll flip it around so you can see the whole thing. Cool sounds good. So well since we

Gina Teichert: see a little bit more of her face. We'll start with this yellow one, it's called Yamba Madonna. So of course those of us who went to art school or you know have looked at any religious art or anything else over the years know that Madonna and child figures such a you know a trope I guess through art history. And this is my friend Robin and she's an interesting person because she kind of had the flip experience of me. I grew up in rural Nevada came to the Bay Area to go to school. We actually met because we were both nannies and our kids were friends. And so, we'd just be like, hey man, want to meet at the playground? Literally, we can hang out while our kids played. But she ended up getting married and moving to rural Nevada after growing up in the Bay Area. I mean, straight up suburbanized for life and she moves out to this extremely rural place which is called Yamba. It's in the

Gina Teichert: at the Reese River Valley because of a job her husband took. And so I really decided like, okay, I'm gonna be her lifeline to like the world but also it went out and saw her, you know I was on my way to see family or something anyway and I spent a few days with her but I was just so inspired by this life she was carving out, you now and a lot of these jobs are pretty short term most people who work on ranches and don't own them move pretty quickly or other things so I think they were only out there about a year, year and a half. But she had a new baby. She was really far away from her life. They were pulse-steading on some level. Their house is old, there's mice. Coyotes are eating their chickens, like all the things. So for me it was really interesting to kind of envision this modern woman

George Irwin: who'd grown up in the suburbs of San Francisco

Gina Teichert: now kind of reliving that sort of thing. And this is just a photo I took of her while I was there visiting her that trip And I just thought like, you know, she's very blonde. Her family is Dutch and origin. So she's got super, super blond hair and blue eyes. So she splitting into the sun and looking a little like stern but like nobody mess with my baby. And I don't know there was a lot of storytelling in that moment. So that's where this one came from.

George Irwin: And then also Talisman.

Gina Teichert: Yeah on this one I am going to flip around because she definitely, That's, yeah. Yeah we'll flip around. You need to see her face. We can't talk about her without her head.

George Irwin: It's just rude. No decapitated paintings.

Gina Teichert: Oh yeah. So this model is another friend from the Bay Area. Her name is Abagé. And she's been my friend for, geez, 12, 13 years. We met because we were signed with the same modeling agency and worked together quite a lot. But she's also been one of these people that I've seen, though kind of growing up in an urban area really embraced Western life which is fun. So she's always wanted to come to a branding. I don't know if anybody's familiar with the concept of branding. It's a little hairy if you're not used to what that is and she really wanted to we had a neighbor here up in rural Napa County who was having a branding and we invited her and she's vegetarian also

George Irwin: which was funny and everyone was trying to

Gina Teichert: try to gross her out and be all dramatic and stuff. She just kind of looks at him, just like stone cold like I'm not that kind of vegetarian dude. And she learned to castrate calves that day

George Irwin: which I thought was amazing. So anyway everybody, I think Western lifestyle and Western art is for everybody

Gina Teichert: and that's a great example. She literally dove in like all the way.

George Irwin: Sure well I mean yeah. Go ahead. Yeah, sorry to, I mean, I think everybody can relate to it because it's about like, you know, it's like being very close to the earth, you know, and the way that animals and nature interact. And it's good for people who live in suburban land and urban environments to understand that and experience it so yeah. Anyway, I didn't mean to cut you off but-

Gina Teichert: Oh no worries, no worries. Well this is a good segue to actually talk about the piece itself and kind of tie back to that jewelry concept. So this is called Talisman, and if you're familiar with the squash blossom necklace which she's wearing here, and this little symbol up here is called the naja, which is usually the center of the necklace. They're, they come in a few different forms but it's got a really interesting-

George Irwin: I thought that was the Klingon symbol.

Gina Teichert: I love that barbeque. But it's meant to be a good luck symbol and also possibly represents like fertility or the female reproductive system. But its in these necklaces And they actually kind of originated through a very big game of like cultural exchange from North Africa to Spain, to Mexico, to the American Southwest.

George Irwin: So I really liked the idea of like culture is always evolving right?

Gina Teichert: Everything's being appropriated and changed and updated and all these things so even through something as simple as like the history of silversmithing you're seeing that like cultures interact with one another and they're indelibly changed. So that's been fun for me to kind of just play on that a little bit. And since we're on the subject of jewelry, I'm going to take you into the other room. I've got a few other pieces. Oh yeah.

George Irwin: Bring that full circle by putting the last kind of like step of that symbol in jewelry in the New Mexico locale on an African American woman where that where that originally looks very cool.

Gina Teichert: Yeah, I thought it was fun. You know and she spent a fair bit of time in Morocco. She lived there for awhile as well so, to her also. Okay, so I guess we'll talk about snakes first since I'm here. I came to show you more jewelry but we've got this iteration of a snake that you guys kind of recognize this form probably But I'm playing with the same snake in other ways, and that might be slightly autobiographical.

George Irwin: Just a little bit right there. That's intense.

Gina Teichert: This one I called Apex but you don't know who is... Yeah, so all right. other squash blossoms. I've been kind of just doing these fun little studies, I've really been trying to loosen up as a painter and just like, I don't know do a painting that takes an hour or two in the afternoon and really have some fun. So I've been doing a few of these. I'm also playing with the forms a little bit actually on figures

George Irwin: which is fun. And it seems shocking in Western art but the female form has been in art for

Gina Teichert: for a very long time.

George Irwin: Yeah, free of the nipple.

Gina Teichert: Exactly, exactly. So play it around with a few of these different iterations here.

George Irwin: I know one of these are kind of quicker studies

Gina Teichert: but maybe just trying to get used and have fun almost warm up like it's kinda like stretching before a race or something.

George Irwin: Yeah, we're working on something bigger yeah.

Gina Teichert: Yeah and paint something that doesn't really matter. There's a couple others here that I've had fun with lately. I'd been painting old beer cans just like, I don't know. I'm gonna paint something for an hour before I paint something that has to matter. So these have been kind of fun, smashed beer cans, dented up beer cans just once I find along the road during my run or something.

George Irwin: Seems like you should take those out and set them up as targets. Yeah, yeah. Not to devalue what you've been doing as a painting. But it's, that'd be weird meta experience.

Gina Teichert: Exactly, well in my point of like It doesn't have to matter. That definitely means they don't matter if I get to shoot them afterwards. All right, so one other one that's in New Western Talent before I get distracted. I ran out of wall space, so there on my table. This one is called Sympathy for the Devil. Those of you who remember The Rolling Stones song or have ever felt slightly bad about having to dispatch a predator? I have mixed feelings about snakes, but I've never lived anywhere with more snakes than here. We've encountered 25 since we've lived here in the past two years, so it's insanity. But I do have feelings about snakes. I like them actually. I just don't want to near my dog or my toes or my pool or my friends.

George Irwin: Yeah, obviously they do a service and as far as rodent populations everything else that they do for the environment. But yeah, exactly like I don't want to step

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: near one even if I'm wearing boots. Yeah, it does give you a little stretch.

Gina Teichert: And here's another more figurative recent figurative one. I don t know if I can get the full thing in here? There we go. And this has been fun. The graphic elements from my earlier work and put it into the figurative things. I'm not terribly...

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: Base or you know any of that kind of stuff. Gina, I think you might be like putting your finger underneath a microphone here every now and then. Oh there we go. By the way

Gina Teichert: I'm holding my phone right here. Yeah here's just a few other pieces from...

George Irwin: These are cool! I love and I want to talk to you. I know we talked a little about the symbols. But the way that you choose to add these border elements and design elements and frame your pieces within a, you know like what ultimately is a framed painting is interesting to me. And it's, you now, it has kind of like nice like carte n' voe kind of vibe to it. Where does that come from? And did you just decide to do that? Is that like just like a something coming from like the idea of I don't know like fashion and editorial and bringing other elements in. I donno. Yeah well it's

Gina Teichert: interesting because I started doing it a little bit just kind of as a, I donna, just an experiment and then I really liked how distinctive it was you know I think every artist is kind of tasked with this like how do I make something look like mine? You know maybe a border isn't the way you should have a visual signature exclusively. But it is one way that, you know, if you're looking through a group of paintings whether that's in an open call as someone who actually selects from artists or just somebody looking for something to buy I really wanted to create something that really felt like me so i do like using these design elements a little bit you know and you'll see some of these videos like the ones behind me have a little more depth but even then I'm not rendering them in real space. I don't care about real space all that much. So it's almost like they're sets, you know, like

Gina Teichert: I actually worked in Scenics for a while so you're cutting out like things with a jigsaw and painting them with house paint and then you've got these okay, no storybook kind of like cut outs even so some of those elements are really fun for me to add in the borders themselves. I don't know it comes from like everything from baseball cards and tarot cards and comic books, and magazines. I love old tourism brochures and that kind of stuff but they're all different dynamic, visually dynamic so I'm actually trying to bring a little bit more of that Art Nouveau kind of spirit into this next body of work. So I'm funny at once I'm trying to simplify certain elements and then I'm tryin' to get into deeper ornamentation in others. So you know I might try doing You can move your innate borders at some point with patterns and things.

Gina Teichert: But yeah, I think I'm trying to figure out what's important to say, what's fun to look at. That's the other thing. Ornamentation kind of got a bad rap in the modern art world but it's because they were jealous of Clint and the amazing amount of gold he had access to. So for me, I am a maximalist on some levels and I want to be able to push that and see

George Irwin: where it goes without pulling my hair out.

Gina Teichert: Because when you start diving into these big, you know, crazy patterns and things like that's just another 40 hours of your life. So they don't make it a good pattern.

George Irwin: Yeah, it can either be like something that's really meditative and zen or it can be something that is just tedious and no fun. But so one of the things I like about the Yamba Madonna is that in the border, you bring in sort of the sage shape in the corner And then you've also got it like anchored with the skull on top and like these elements brought into this like flat plane in front of the or, you know, I guess it's in front of the overall subject. That's really, I think that's really cool. Really interesting to me. So nice choices. Yeah so So this spring, this past spring, I think you started doing art on a full-time basis. And can you tell us a little bit about like what brought that decision on and how that's been going?

Gina Teichert: Yeah well it's, I mean the plunge in the fire, you know. So it's a little intimidating but it's also been really fun for me to kind of take some of that, I don't know incubation time. I think a lot of people when they're doing other work like sit there with a notebook or sketchbook or just have these ideas rattling around and it's like a little bit of a tease but you don't even have the time to work on them.

George Irwin: So is that I sort of had over the past couple years

Gina Teichert: that I wanna suss out so that's step one is figuring out which one of those are still good or if they were ever good. But yeah, I quit my job. I was working for a tech company on the marketing side and I quit. It's funny enough, end of January. So as a copywriter which is my role there, I was in charge of all these email marketing campaigns and Facebook ads and all this stuff that was about New Year's resolutions. So here I am telling all these people like live your best life, get healthy today, you know all these things. Like don't wait till tomorrow girl! got this, we're behind you know all the things. And so for me, I'm sitting there and I'm like wow it's really hard to stomach all this go get it girl stuff and not do it myself. Like literally oh man i really probably should just do this. So my new year's resolution was to quit my job

George Irwin: amazing and I did it! That's like that's so strange to think of like your day job talking

Gina Teichert: yourself into quitting your day job. Yeah 100% so sorry, I'm sorry my co-workers were going to like miss me so much but literally i just couldn't write one more like inspirational post without

George Irwin: doing it myself. Yeah that's amazing wow yeah um so you took the you took the jump which is no small feat and then you just sort of were incubating on like previous ideas and coming up with new things, and you know maybe like working like some other things like kind of on the side but just kind of like trying to come up with your um I don't know you're like figure out your voice in what you're doing I guess.

Gina Teichert: Yeah and i'd say that's something that's still in progress. I'm the first to admit that like this is an evolution. Um I'm not fully cooked as an artist right now um but it's kind of fun though because I'm I'm not bound by anything. Once again, going back to that representation thing, it's like I don't have a dealer breathing down my neck saying I need seven more of that thing that sold well last year. You know, it's literally like that. The abyss of adulthood is looming before me, you know this intimidating amount of freedom. So it is up to me to kind of have a little bit more discipline. I think being at a nine-to-five for a long time did help me take the yoke of like not having that ultimate freedom. Cause I think that sometimes too much freedom is actually a bad thing for artists, so having a little bit of structure. So yeah, I have taken on a few freelance projects as well

Gina Teichert: as a writer, I'm writing for a couple of art magazines on a freelance basis. So that gives me a little bit of you know okay, I've got one deadline this week that I need to like put pants on for. But it's also interesting for me working for art magazines because I'm interviewing artists and dealers. So it's sort of like a peek behind the curtain,

George Irwin: I guess, you know?

Gina Teichert: And I'm talking to people who are really successful that are getting the covers of Western Art Collector or American Art Collector, you now, there are people who were a few years ahead of me by most estimations on their journey as an artist. So for me just be able to kind of casually chat with them and be like, so tell me about your practice. It kinda keeps things fresh and moving makes me feel at least like I'm not isolated and alone. I think a lot of artists get isolated, especially if you live alone. I'm married so at least I have one person to like bounce crazy ideas off of at the end of the night but yeah kind of feeling like I am part

George Irwin / Gina Teichert: of the community through the writing has been fun as well.

George Irwin: Definitely! I think one of the most important excuse me again I think, one of The Most Important Things for for artists who are just getting into doing this seriously is seeing the examples of people who are doing it successfully and learning from them. And unless you are doing a, like a fair amount of research, listening to podcast interviews, listening to reading things online, kind of seeing what they're doing, that takes a lot of sort of like self initiated work, but when you have something like writing for Western Art Collector or American, I don't know, American artists. I don t remember what it is. But that gives you the opportunity to just to have this kind of connection with these people who are successful at what they're doing and learning from their experiences directly. And it's really can be, I mean, it's not only inspiring when people read that, you

George Irwin: or when you read that, but it's extra inspiring when you kind of get that directly and you kinda get to parse their story and put it into a consumable format. So that's really cool. And I'm excited for you that you're doing that and you get to keep connecting with these people and get their behind the scenes take on things. That's great. As far as talking things through with your husband, Does he have input for you on your work or is he kind of hands off?

Gina Teichert: Probably more than I want. I think it's one of those things when you're kind of just starting to try things out again, you don't need perfection and you don' t need like a crit every day. So I respectfully ask him, hey man if it looks like I'm struggling with something like, don't point it out. But I do have to give major props to him for just encouraging me to take the plunge down a real day job so that I can see just having that partnership there. But yeah, from a creative standpoint, he's an artist himself. But he's bringing in construction. So I mean, he doesn't have much of an outlet, I guess. But i think it's Yeah, I want him to feel some joy and some satisfaction that I'm doing this, you know, for both of us, I guess. But I really hope at some point he's got time for his own practice. So maybe when I've sold a bunch of paintings that I am super rich then I'll help him put

Gina Teichert: his day job.

George Irwin: You know?

Gina Teichert: That's the real goal. I just went first off this cliff but I'd like to drag him with me at some points.

George Irwin: That's cool. And you have a dog.

Gina Teichert: dog. I'm gonna talk to the dog about your work. Oh yeah he's full of opinions actually. No it's funny, he likes to sit in the studio with me in the morning because the tiles are cold so later but anytime he gets a little active he gets kicked out. But yeah I do have a studio dog we have two dogs but it's the puppy Bodhi who's really interested in what's going on in there. Don't let him eat your expensive paint brushes because they'll chew on anything.

George Irwin: Yeah, that's cool. Do you prefer like fancy brushes or do you use throwaway brushes? Or what's your go-to for materials? Oh some of each

Gina Teichert: for sure. You know I've got some banger brushes that are like 12 years old that are completely stiff that are great for I don't know drawing and scraping and things. You they're not used for their original intent anymore but They've got like a special me, like if you gotta pick a little piece of hair outta there, I've got an old brush that can do that really well. But I try to split the difference. I invest in a few good brushes, but I kinda rough on brushes. I mean, a lot of people are. So I find that some of those lower tier like student tier brushes from the art store tend to be good enough for me. And even if you replace them every couple months it's not that big of a deal. But yeah, I have a few precious really good brushes cost me like $60 but I really don't like to use them very much because I worry I won't watch them soon enough.

George Irwin: Yeah, I think that yeah I know there's a lot of artists who are not seeing both. Cool well um so there was another question that I'm not going to ask directly but I'm gonna kind of try and and rethink it. And I guess growing up, would you ever have imagined that you would be living in like rural Napa and painting?

Gina Teichert: At times yes. I guess it depends on how old I was when you asked me the question because I loved rural life as a kid till about 14 or 13 or something, like junior high when you're like, man, I want to go to the mall or whatever. So I think that at various times in my life, I've had feelings about whether or not I wanted to live in an urban center or what whether I wanted believe in a smaller city. You know how I met my husband, I might have moved out of California entirely. I'd been kind of kicking the tires on Santa Fe or Taos or something. I think my biggest hesitation there was the, you know remote work culture hadn't really arrived yet and minimum wage sucks in New Mexico. I'm sorry, New Mexicans. It would have been really hard for me to make a living out there. So the plunge would've been scarier, I think.

Gina Teichert: Bay Area wages are just better. It'd also cost a lot to live here but that was one of my big hesitations about actually moving. And then I fell in love with the Californian and now I'm here for life maybe? I don't know.

George Irwin: Yeah, well cool. Well interesting. All right Gina, well I don't know, do you have like a workspace set up right now or is it something that you just set up kind of like here and there?

Gina Teichert: Yeah, I do. It's just, let me click.

George Irwin: I know you paint outside sometimes on your patio.

Gina Teichert: Yeah so this is technically closed in so if it rains and things. This is another thing I'm working on right now with some urban coyotes here. Speaking of paintings, I've got some creative decisions to make, and I don't want too much feedback on it yet. This is not a crit. But there's a few things in that painting that I've struggled with. So I just take a break and work on something small or fun. I've gotten another easel out this direction.

George Irwin: Oh wow, that's like a whole like turquoise layout.

Gina Teichert: Yeah, and this one's kind of in progress still.

George Irwin: It's cool.

Gina Teichert: Some other ones. I tend to bounce between a bunch of paintings. So, I've got a few landscapes over there that are a little more graphic, a little bit more kind of to that trap poster, Art Nouveau style. But yeah, I like to have a few things in progress at any given time so that if I am struggling with something or if I need to just take a break and think about something else, I can. These are kinda fun. These are literally 30 minute paintings. I've just been painting straight out my studio on the deck here. So that's just the hill, a couple of different iterations of the Hill.

George Irwin: Very cool. And some cute dogs. And then the,

Gina Teichert: they enjoy the air conditioning and the cold tile.

George Irwin: Kinda like sort of indoor outdoor space you're working in. Does that help the oil to dry more? Is that, um, Is it dry quicker or is it? Yes, but exactly.

Gina Teichert: Yes, like when you want it to, it's great.

George Irwin: When you're trying to extend something,

Gina Teichert: it's really frustrating because you've got to work really fast. But if I ever get all that vintage junk out of our spare room I might turn it into a studio.

George Irwin: Too many hobbies. Yeah, I feel that. Well, Gina, it has been really nice to talk to you. Thank you so much for letting us into your home and your studio and talking to us about your career and your work. And again, I love the way your work is going and I'm glad to have these pieces of New Western Talent. Everybody else thank you so much for tuning in go check out New Western Talent if you haven't at western.gallery and Gina

Gina Teichert: Tyker Thank you again so much. Thanks George. I really appreciate it. Yep. We'll talk to

George Irwin: See you later. All right, adios.