Cowgirl Artists of America spoke with Signature Member, Alice Leese about her journey as an artist, getting into National Park Art Residencies and cowgirl grit. Check out Alice's work at https://www.aliceleese.com/ or on instagram @aliceleese

And don't forget that the call for Art for The Cowgirl Gathering in the heart of the Ft. Worth Stockyards closes soon! March 15th! To apply visit https://cowgirl-gathering-2023.artcall.org/

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Hi. Welcome to Cowgirl Artists of America's Podcast, a podcast dedicated to cowgirl artists. I'm your host, Megan Wimberley. Today we're talking to Alice Leese. Alice is a western artist based in Texas. She has been the recipient of multiple national park residencies and is a signature member of Cowgirl Artists of America and the American Plains Artists, among others, alice lives and works on the YT Ranch in Winkler County, Texas.

Hey, Alice, can you hear me.

Yay. Success . What do you know?

How are you, Alice?

I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well. That piece in the back is so cool. Thank you. Do you know what you're gonna call it? I can get it. Yeah, space cows. Oh, that's so cool. One of the reasons I really like that is because I always find myself looking through the branches, and it reminds me of St. Stain glass windows. And I feel like that painting shows that, oh yeah. It's showing what's going on between.

And it's showing, it's inspired by the James Webb telescope pictures. Oh, that's so cool. And I've actually done a series of these that's the first one. Oh, that's so pretty. And that was the illustration for a book called Tumbleweeds and, and you're looking up through a tumbleweed. Oh, that's cool. Alice, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Oh yeah. Good to be here. Megan. It's good to see you. Yeah, I'm glad we finally are getting to talk cause I remember reaching out to you when I very first started c g a about talking about your panhandle fire painting, and then it just Yeah.

You had to fit out the door . And that's in a permanent collection it museum, right? Yeah, it's over in Odessa at the Ellen Noel Art Museum. It That's a real nice museum. And they've they're building a. Wing and that's gonna be in the new wing. So that is so awesome. I love that. Congratulations.

That's a big deal. Oh, thank you. Oh I'm so happy. It'll be there and people will be able to see it, and it was a depressing thought to think that, if, that, if no one, if it doesn't go to a home, it'll be rolled up and. and I, I just didn't want that for it. So Yeah. It's good.

Yeah. I'm real happy. Yeah. It needs to be seen. Your style is so distinctive and I'd really love to walk through the history of your art making and art career. When did you get started in art making? Let's see. I was a little kid. My parents, we lived on the ranch and they always tried to get us involved in a lot of things.

They like piano lessons and stuff. Four H of course. And one of the things they did was give us art lessons. And there was a little old lady in Kermit, Texas, and my brothers and I and a couple of. Of kids we kept who were from the Navajo Children's home in Gallup, in Mexico. They went with us and we all went to art lessons at the same time.

And the poor lady, I feel sorry for her cuz there were six of us. , we, she taught us so much. And the kids from the children's home they could draw really well and. They I just really appreciated what they could do and tell stories with their art. After that my parents could see, I was interested.

So they kept on art lessons here and there, and then art and in high school and then was trying to decide what to do at college and. Prevet, I wanted to do that, but art won out and I have a degree in art from Abilene Christian Little School in Abilene, Texas. A great art degree that we had some great professors.

And then later I worked on my master's at Soul Ross in Alpine, Texas. And. I've always tried to do as much painting and art making as I could. Raised a family in there and just now in the past 10 years or so, getting back at it full-time and it's just been great. . Yeah. That's awesome.

The it's, I love that you had so many opportunities to learn art because sometimes in more rural areas that can be really hard to have access to. Yeah. It was a commitment on my parents' part. We lived about 20 miles from the nearest town in about 50 miles from the nearest big town.

Mom was a taxi driver, more or less.

but they put lots of miles on the car. Yeah. And so the style you have now, is that something that was, has always been a little bit of part of you or is that something you developed throughout, your process of creating. . I couldn't tell you where that style came from. It's just, I can't get away from, I can't not do it.

I don't know how to stop that style. And, I can pick out my work from across a room and I don't really know exactly what it is, but I think it has something to do with the movement. Movement's always been real important in my paintings I try to show the landscape's always moving.

There's always some wind, there's always stuff floating around. The grass is always moving. The wildlife's moving, the clouds are moving. So that was always really important. And then looking at other artists, how they portrayed the west and the rural lifestyle. I, there's been some great influences.

Peter heard he, his just his stark New Mexico landscapes were such an influence. And then Alexander Houe he was really an influence. And then for the movement, Thomas Hart bitten, was he his lyrical moving shapes. I just love those. and the Ellen Noel is gonna have a show opening, I believe next week.

Thomas Hart mitten. So I'm excited to go see that. Yeah. It's been an interesting theme this week because we've been doing some interviews with artists that are in wildflowers, and two of them, Peggy, Judy, and I can't remember who the other artist was that I was talking to, but they were just talking about how they can't get away from their style.

It just is and it comes out, and I think that's so cool. And it's, I think, great for newer artists to hear, because often. And Peggy says, she resisted her style for a long time. It was like she was trying to get away from it. And when we embraced that, that's a really cool thing.

And I had that thought similar on my walk the other day, and I've been doing these thoughts while walking, post and I have one coming out, so it's. It's just funny to me how sometimes a theme will just keep showing up in your life. It's like you can't not do it. I think if you set out to develop a style, that's when you might go off the rails.

I think if you're just making art and you're paying attention to all the things it takes to make great art, and looking at art, looking at good painters. All that information is going through you and coming. At the end of your brush, and it's gonna reflect you, it's gonna re, you're gonna develop a style whether you want to or not.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, I think as you're painting, it just takes that time to put it in, put in, not. You have to actually put in the time to paint and every time or whatever you're making, painting, drawing, whatever. And every time you put in that time, or every time you go to a museum or talk to another artist, we're just like sponges.

And like you're saying, we're taking all that in for sure. Every, everything you look at is going to in influence you. So be careful what you look at. Always look at really great. And and you're right, it takes time. I've been painting for 38, 9 years and I, and still I don't know anything.

I, there's so much more to learn and yeah, I don't, I think if you painted three or four lifetimes, you would never, you'd, you would never feel like you had learned enough. Yeah. I feel like there's so many things in life like that we, growing up we. That was something that was really put into us with horses.

You never know enough about horses. There's always more to learn about them, and if you think you got 'em figured out, then you're in trouble then. Then you sure don't, yeah, you always, a horse will teach you more than anything else will . Yeah. You can have all the degrees in the world, but.

Start training a horse. Yeah. That you'll learn a lot for sure about yourself, . Yeah, absolutely. . So something that I wanted to talk to you about because we're having, we do these monthly themes and for March our theme is improving your application. And so we're gonna have a panel discussion on March 2nd, which is gonna be really cool that members can join in.

I think I was on like one of the social media pages and saw something from the National parks. And if you start looking, if you get on NPS Dot. And start looking at the national parks. I think there's about 59 national parks in the us. Almost every one of them has a art residency. And the ones I've been doing are through the National Parks Arts Foundation and they're very reputable.

I really enjoy the people that run it. And so far I've done four of. And it's an application process and there can be hundreds or thousands of people applying to these residencies in the national parks. The N P A F takes all, every artistic discipline, like I was noticing today, they took a comedian, , interesting.

The musicians, writers poets Sculptors, 2D artists, ceramicists just every artistic discipline. And so you'll be applying with, there might be a poet or several other sculptors or whatever applying with you.

And something I think that's worth noting is that, like you said, there's certain organizations that put them on. And so just because it's a national park that has a residency doesn't mean it's the same organization. Sometimes it can be different organizations. And find one that you think will be a good fit for you.

Some of them provide lodging, some don't. Some provide a stipend. Some don't. , you'll get access to the park, some provide some meals and stuff and transportation, but some don't. So find one that you like and apply there. And with the National Parks Arts Foundation, they require work samples resume proposal that outlines what you're gonna do in the park.

And some a biography. And it's an online application portal, so I think it's through submittable.com. Yeah. How many how many park residencies have you done? I've done four Fort Union National Monument which I really enjoyed. That was the first one. And then, I've been to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park twice, so two residencies.

And then we did, my husband and I did a really fascinating one. Drive Tortugas National Park, which is park off the coast of Florida about you. You go to Key West and then you get on a ferry and go about 80 miles further. You come to Fort Jefferson and then you get on a smaller boat and you go about three more miles and you come to Loggerhead Key, and that's where we were all by ourselves for a month.

Month. And it's about a 50 acre island with a lighthouse and a caretaker cottage. And we had our own desalination plant our own solar array. We made electricity and water. And so we, it was completely off grid. No, no cell phone, no internet and we loved it. That's so wild. Is your husband an artist too?

No he went as support personnel. , . I could see that being good when you're so isolated that could have been very lonely. Oh, it could have been. And you could have sprung a lake in the. Facility and not had any water. I think it, they actually require two people to apply for that.

One because it is a remote, very remote. We had to get insurance. So if they had to fly us off the island, then we would be covered. We had to take some FEMA hurricane training. Different things and safety. You always have to be aware, always be aware of your surroundings and, and stay safe.

But after we left there, there was a hurricane that hit that, that was a direct hit on Loggerhead King, and there's a lighthouse that's been there since 18, the mid 18 hundreds, and we were sure, hoping it didn't. Formed the lighthouse. It tore up a little bit up at the top, but the lighthouse was still standing.

But, oh, you, I think it was Hurricane Ian, but you couldn't have drawn a straighter line. It just went right straight across the eye was right across the middle of Loggerhead Key. Oh my goodness. Wild. That's, yeah, that's the one that went on up and hit Florida. Was there a way of if there was an emergency, a way of communicating with the park?

Did you have some sort of Yeah. Communication device? Yeah. Yeah. There, there was a radio and it, most of the time it worked, so yes. Yeah, we did have some sort of communication and they would send a boat by every now and then, so yeah. That is so cool. , but Hawaii volcanoes is, was, is really fun. They're at the National Park.

They. A residence that's about 30 miles from the park. So you do spend, if you go to that residency, you'll spend a little time driving. But the the lodging is really nice. You can see the ocean and the weather's perfect. And that's a really interesting. So it is so green there and it rains almost every day.

, wow. It was a lot different from where it is where we live now. How did being in those spaces influence your work d during those times?

So at Fort Union I wrote a almost the same proposal every time, but I would state how many I would go work plain air. So get out every day and paint either in oils or in working my sketchbook. And, yeah, here's a little sketch from Fort Union. as far as affecting my working style, I had to do a lot of stuff, plain air.

Being able to come back in the studio and paint from the sketches or the the small paintings that I did that kind of forces you to when you're out there really try to capture. what you're wanting to say about that landscape. Because you might not get another chance to go back in your notes, your photographs your writings any sound recordings you made, that's gonna be what you take back in the studio and make larger works from.

So at Fort Union, I did about, oh, 30 paintings came back with about 30 paintings and they were all small, 11 by 14 or nine by twelves, and then was able to get in the studio and make some larger paintings from those. And one of those went back to Port Union. Some artist residencies in the National Parks Arts Foundation requires you to.

Donate or work back to the park within a year of the end of your residency. That, that's something that you need to consider when you're applying for the residencies. But I sent a pretty large painting back, a three foot by five foot back to Fort Union and they have it in the visitors center there at the Mon Monument.

That's so awesome. So have you gotten a residency every time you've applied for one? Oh, no. ? No. I was gonna, there's you, I could pull up my rejection page and show you the rejections far outweigh the acceptance. And I'm sure that every artist will tell you this, that you have to apply a lot before anything ever happens.

It's like you have to paint a lot before you ever get a few that are good. Yeah. Yeah. I, and I wouldn't let, and it never did discourage me. I was. Okay, I'll just apply again. And , of course, it's a commitment, it's a time commitment, and it's a there's always a fee applying and so it is, and you wanna make that application the very best you can.

So I would, as soon as I got one accepted, I kinda looked at that application and saw the good things in it and then just kept trying to improve on it. it started working for me. Yeah, I've been real fortunate, I believe . Yeah. So at first when you were applying and not getting in did you, each time, did you go back and look over that application and make changes?

How did you approach that? Yeah, I read back through and then looked at the people who did actually get the residency. And read up on them and you can't see their applications, but you you can kinda every, almost every residency requires an artist talk or interview.

And so I would listen to those and they would talk about their applications sometimes and was able to get some good tips that. . Yeah. And then if you're applying you also have to consider that most of the residencies are a month long, and so you need to budget that time and you can't plan anything else in that time because that's when you're gonna be there.

Yeah. That's interesting. I could see that being really hard for a lot of people if the schedule itself changed. And, I live in Yosemite and my partner works for the park. And so seeing kind of the ins and outs, and it is, it's, the park is a di, these parks are, it's a different game.

It's There's all kinds of Oh, definitely. Stuff that can happen. And you just never, you never know what's gonna be going on. You can't control the weather. And you can't control nature. And so being flexible with that, right? Yeah, definitely.

Are there any things, specific things that you've learned about the application process or things that you've specifically changed or improved through the years?

I think the first couple of app of applications I tried to write up might have been too long. . And one of the things, one of the comments that did get back to me from the people reviewing the applications was they liked that my application was clear and succinct. I think give them what they asked for.

And I wouldn't do, I wouldn't try. write a book that they have to try to read because they're, if they're looking at a thousand applicants they're not gonna want, or even if they're looking at 200, they don't wanna read a dissertation. , make it clear, simple what you're gonna do, how you're gonna do it, how you're gonna interact with the.

What you're willing to do for the park. What's your program gonna look like that you're gonna give and how are you gonna work every day? I think just really simple like that is best. And then the images trying to send images that were more fitting. If you're a landscape painter and you're gonna go to a park where you're gonna paint the landscape you've got it made.

You've got landscape paintings you can show 'em. But if you're a portraitist, then I don't know exactly how that would work, but you would have to consider that, I when you were applying the, You could do portraits, but if there's no one there to paint, I mean you're gonna be painting yourself

That makes sense. . Yeah, for sure. I think it's a really interesting point that you bring up is, the people looking at the application, cuz a lot of times, artists are only coming from the artist's side, but anybody who's been involved in a show or anything like that, they know that the applications can get really.

To be a lot. And so it becomes one of those things where, you know, when you've got all 200 or however many applications you're looking through, little mistakes can make a big difference. And like a really good eye-catching application that just brings it home can be, can make a huge d. The both of those things can make such a huge difference and it makes them stand out so much from each other.

Use your spell check. Don't misspell words. I have done that. I have misspelled words, and it's because I got in a hurry and didn't proofread. Little things like that, they may not say it, but the people reading it they'll sink in . For sure. Yeah. Cuz you're trying to make a really, it's like a job interview, really.

You're trying to stand out above everybody else. And especially for these residencies where it's, one or two where, maybe four people getting in. It's, they're very competitive and with the national parks, a lot of people can be applying for them, and, Try to be something you're not.

Be authentic. If you're just starting out, tell 'em you're just starting out. If you're a seasoned painter, tell 'em I think that's, that. Just be honest is a big part of that. Yeah, for sure.

have there been any big takeaways for you, either from the application process or from these residencies that have really just made a big impact on you personally or as an artist? Yeah, I, there sure have I just can't believe the, first of all, the landscape we have here in America. And the structure we have set up to protect that, national parks are created by Congress, national monuments are designated by presidents, and then there's historic sites and protected sites.

So when they got to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone they thought, wow, we didn't know this was out there. We really ought to protect this. And so they created Yellowstone National Park and it's just how beautiful these national parks are. I want to visit every national park in in the US I think there's almost 400 national parks, national monuments, and historic sites.

It would be a really neat a long road trip to visit all of them. , . But and I don't, there's been a few people who have. . Another thing is just the people, the park rangers, the park staff, the National Park Service that was set up to protect and preserve are natural areas.

Those people they're very committed. A lot of 'em came out of the military. Very disciplined. And they care about your national parks. And so when you're visiting these places always be respectful of the staff. They're there to help you have the best time you can have. , it's a really good idea to stop in at the visitor center, visit with the rangers.

They'll, they show you the maps. Here's how to go if you have this, where to go if you have this much time, and here's where to go if you have a week. And they can really add to your experience. Yeah. Just their commitment. All the support staff. National Parks is it's amazing and I feel our lands are in really good hands with. . Yeah, it's pretty, it is really incredible. And just to piggyback off what you're saying, cuz something that's become really a big passion of mine since living in a national park, cuz you get to see it in a different way and you start seeing visitors in a different way and like you it, but a lot of times you come into these places and you don't know.

And you don't know what you don't know. But I love that you're encouraging people to go to the visitors center and to talk to rangers because there's so much. A lot of things like following the signage because that so many of the spaces in the national parks are really delicate and can be damaged.

Oh yeah. Really easily. There's actually a documentary on Disney that's about it, talks about the bears. And when we first moved here, national Geographics was actually out here filming the Bears. And every bear. that is in that documentary on National Geographics, had to be euthanized because of human interaction.

And so people, they come into these spaces. Not realizing that we can have such a huge impact on the landscape and the wildlife. And so coming in and being knowledgeable or, talking with the visitor center. And the other thing is that these places are really wild. And so a lot of times people come in and they think it's like a park, like Disneyland, and it's not.

It is. No, the waterfalls can kill you, , oh. Oh yeah, that's totally off topic, but it's just, you li when you've been in a space like that you almost have to tell people when you have that opportunity, because really easy changes to your actions, can have a huge impact on your experience and on the longevity of the park itself.

Exactly. You have to respect Mother Nature or she will teach you a lesson that's for sure. . That is true. I dunno if you listen to the podcast Mountain and Prairie

yeah. Yeah. It's a really great podcast. And one of the things that he is always. Always saying is that he loves about nature is that you get immediate feedback, . If you get a bad choice, you're gonna get immediate feedback on that bad choice. Yes. Yeah. That was the wrong thing to do there,

Yeah. I was gonna ask you, I had a couple more questions. I was gonna ask you about rejection, but you said that never really affected you, but are there any Pointers that you would give an artist if they are really affected negatively by rejections? Oh I get, I guess it's kinda get just, if you get pitched off, get back on that horse. Don't quit just because of a rejection. If you're really an artist you're putting your heart and soul out there for people to criticize and, you have to have a thick skin, otherwise you're not gonna make it very far as an artist.

Art arts hub means of communication and whatever you're trying to communicate, they're, people are gonna like it or they are not gonna like it e either way. You've got to be able to take it.. Just have some grit.

Just keep. .. Grit is first of all, one of the big features of the cowgirl spirit. And then . Oh yeah. Just gotta have it whenever you're an artist. Cause yeah, you are gonna, if you're serious about it, you're getting rejections. There's no doubt about it. And you're in good company because it's all happening to all of us.

It happens to every artist. So you don't think, you're, don't think you're special when you get rejected. . , there's a lot of us. Thank you so much, Alice. Thank you Megan.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Alice lease and feel more confident about applying and even getting rejections. While we're talking about applying for art shows and residencies, don't forget that you can apply to join the cowgirl artists of America and the heart of the Fort worth stockyards for the cowgirl gathering art show. This is a huge event. The art show is so much fun and it's just a great community of people.

If you want more information, go to Cowgirl artists of america.org, click on call for art tab and then the Cowgirl gathering show. We hope to see you there.