61 Nanci France-Vaz — Don't Ever Give Up

Nanci France-Vaz: 0:00

If you set out to be good at something, and certainly when I set out to be good at something I needed to not compete against other people, I need to get the gold medal for myself. It's for me, it's not to impress anybody. I do it to get better. I do it because I have a lot of respect for me. And I have a lot of virtues and morality in how do I become the best indeed what Benteke to myself. Welcome

Laura Arango Baier: 0:28

to the BoldBrush show, where we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast. We're a podcast that covers art marketing techniques, and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers as well as others were in careers to the art world in order to hear their advice and insights. On this episode, we sat down with Nancy Francoise, a Modern Renaissance painter with a deep seated passion for the arts in all its forms, whether it's painting, poetry, acting, these are all of Nancy's Favorite Things. He tells us all about her eclectic style, and how that has influenced her fascinating trajectory in life, as well as paintings. She never gave up and worked her butt off to get to where she's always wanted to be and continues to grow. And she truly believes anyone can do it too, so long as they have the strength, discipline and love for the craft. She also gives us some great tips on time management, galleries and social media as well as finding your voice. Finally, she tells us about her upcoming shows and her online mentorship. Hey, welcome, Nancy to the BoldBrush show. How are you today? I'm

Nanci France-Vaz: 1:40

great. How are you?

Laura Arango Baier: 1:42

I'm really excited to have you I'm really good. Because you, you have quite an interesting history in how you studied and where you went. And we were just discussing this before recording, we were telling me how you specifically were looking for the instructors that you wanted, which I think is something that not a lot of people think about, but it's so important. But before we discuss that, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do?

Nanci France-Vaz: 2:10

I always say logon Renaissance painter. And I say that because people are you know, they have all these tags. And I said what can I come up with that kind of would be my tag. So people would say well, what's your style, I would say that I have a very eclectic style. If you go into my clothing closet, or you listen to the music that I have in my playlist. I have a very broad like, of different styles and genres. Meaning that I don't I'm not set to one way to do anything. I like a little rock and roll. I like the crooners. I like 1920s silent film. I love classical literature. But then I like some a lot of the film noir from the 40s the music from that period, which was classical, but then I listened to heavy metal and alternative my saying My husband loves the 70s the music in the 70s was good. I like it. I liked the whole the way things came around. Art kind of made a big change, then there wasn't any realism. But my background was modern. And then I said but I liked classical. My grandmother was a classical pianist. My mother said blues and jazz. So I kind of have everything infused into my let's say library of what I like and what I don't like. And I think my painting has that same style. It classically trained Yes, but I try to keep it in the contemporary world. It could be a moment in time from when I was younger, but I still kind of make it seem like it's contemporary. But it all depends on the subject matter. I don't like to be pigeonholed into one thing. I'd like to constantly change, you know, I get bored of everything. So. So that's why we say Modern Renaissance painter is kind of fusing classical with contemporary realism. Somebody else worded it differently actually liked the way they worded it better, but I can't remember that right now. But I would say it's a combination of both. It's it's eclectic. I can you know, one day of painting the flower children and tomorrow I can be painting, you know, something from film noir. And I like it would fall apart. I liked a lot of different people if it's good, and it resonates with me and has visual impact or musically like Wow, I love that melody and that. It doesn't matter what time it came from. It doesn't matter the style. You like it, you like it and so I'm not stuck just like the only one Another thing, so I hope that I can keep evolving and changing, I don't think I will ever reach my peak because I'm constantly looking and searching to change things and become better. I don't think that I'm the top, I think when you think you're the best, and that you're a star and a celebrity, that's when you stop growing. And I think that's when you get stagnant. So I think we should all be, you know, have a little humility and keep growing that way.

Laura Arango Baier: 5:32

Absolutely. That's such a wonderful point to make. Because I think, you know, as you said, you know, it's you don't, and a true artists should never really reach their peak, so to speak. And if you reach your peak, that means that you probably passed away before you can continue growing, you know, growth, I think is like, the the real key to success, both personally, which I think personal success is much more important than, you know, outward social success. And it just, you know, it's a gift that keeps on giving, which is wonderful, too. So in terms of your background, I'm really curious to know, when you decided, Okay, I'm going to be an artist. When I was fine, nice. Me too, actually.

Nanci France-Vaz: 6:17

I was five years old, I remember watching a film. I think my mom had it on, she would always watch, you know, a lot of the classic films. That's why I liked the film noir and substitute, I always had one of those on. And I remember seeing Elizabeth Taylor and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, watching Elvis Presley, you know, in his thing. So Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and I would sit there, and I see mommy, I know what I want to be when I grow up. So first time around, my real passion is acting, I absolutely love acting, and I wanted to be an actress. And I always get upset that, you know, I kind of went into that role. But I didn't say yes to like, do a few things came my way. And I didn't say yes to it. Because my parents were like, No, you can't do that. Oh, no, don't be an actress, people that get into acting, but will the producer and directors only want you because they want one thing. And that's the way like, I think the old school, and I come from an Italian background, they're very old fashion. And so, you know, they always put this negative spin on stuff. But I think a lot of families, I think a lot of the that from that time period, they all did that with their kids. So I'm not, you know, I'm not just one. And you know, what you have to do is get over that, because that can cripple you. And it took for a long time because I said I want to be anxious. A dancer, I love her and Astaire. And if I can't do that, I also love painting, and writing. So they, you know, there was some negative about it. And when I was nine years old, I was really depressed about it. But I would always go into drama classes. And I would get plays after school and go to the library stack of books of plays, and say, Oh, I can play that part. I can play this sport. And my mother would look at me and say, What are you doing, and I would stay in my bedroom, I would come up with these costumes. And when they would go out, I would come into my living room with a costume on I already knew all the lines. And I would bow and make believe I was on a stage. And so most of the work that you see in my art today comes from that background. So a lot of my friends that are actors, they went, you missed your call, you should have done that. I'm like, yeah, they will let you go to the High School of Performing Arts, which I actually bought it years later. But I feel so close to film. And that is the thing that inspires me to tell a story. I started writing stories when I was nine. And I think film is special effects major, you know, when I went to art school because they said Don't tell me you're going to be a painter now. You're going to give up your job and be a painter. And I was looking at 35 years old. And I had a great job in travel American Express travel. And I was just miserable. I was so depressed all through my 20s You know I've competed in gymnastics because it was almost like being on stage. You know? And I did really well with that. But you know, you can only go so far when you hit 21. That's it. That career is over, got into dance wanted to dance competitions with Baldwin. So there was that drive to always be in the arts, whether it was acting, dancing, writing, painting, it's all transferable. It's all related to each other. That's who we are. That's what artists are with to ourselves. And my introverted or extroverted. I'm both I was kind of shy when I was a kid. Believe it or not. My mom's saying this kid. She's too nice. I gotta teach you how to box because everyone's gonna beat you up because So I was like always lending like things and giving things away. I'm still like that. But at one point, you do have to learn how to, you know, you reach a certain age and have to draw the line. And you have to stand up for yourself. So finally, when I was 35, I walked into School of Visual Arts. And I said, I would like to finish my degree, I was a physics major sports medicine minor first time around at Brooklyn College. And how do I get into school? And they say, well, portfolio review is in three, four months, do you have a portfolio said no. How do I get one? They looked at me, they said, Do you draw on paint? I said, Yeah, you have sketchbooks and doodles in my sketchbook and little charcoal drawings and paintings? Can I use those? And they went, No, you have to have life drawing, I stick can you recommend to classes, my company will pay for it. If I say I'm a graphic design major. And they did. And I got in. And I just worked my butt off. Like in the morning when I was taking the train to work. I was drawing on lunch hour to take lunch, I was drawing on the weekends and had a boyfriend that had asked me to go out and said, You know what I think we need to break up because I have a mission goal. And there's no way I'm going to let any more time go by I'm finally going to do this. I don't care what anybody says. So I could say to anybody out there, don't listen to the chatter around you. You have to have the courage. The fear is false evidence appearing real. You have to have the courage to stand up for yourself and believe in yourself. And believe that you can be successful, we can all be successful. Right? We just have to try and not be afraid.

Laura Arango Baier: 11:37

Absolutely. Oh my god. Yes. I love that. That is so inspiring.

Nanci France-Vaz: 11:43

I got it in three months, I got it. I never took a drawing class. And I worked my butt off for two years, I worked full time went to school at night. You know, I always say I'm way behind like my friend, Alex tank, a lot of my friends. You know that been Jimmy way longer than me. I say I felt like I needed to catch up. Because I wasn't supposed to do it when I was younger because nobody thought I should do it. And so I let that fear cripple me to my mid 30s Or I would have been doing it when I was younger. Lesson learned right. Now I was 20 years younger, that would be great.

Laura Arango Baier: 12:28

Yeah, you know, that's one of the main things. It's like, oh, like, how did I do it back then, you know, how was able to have so much energy for everything. But I liked it. You know, obviously you can't turn back the clock. But there's no regrets. You're you're doing amazing. And your work is beautiful. So it really pays off.

Nanci France-Vaz: 12:49

Thank thank you so much for saying that. I always I never forget where I come from, you know, I come from a middle class family. Nothing was given to me. I'm still paying off my $55,000 student loan, I quit my job at American Express. And I went to music and art. And I taught architecture. I never I didn't know anything about architecture. I read the book I got in, but a steady income. But there was a teacher there that said to me, what are you doing in the theater department? He said, What are you doing here? You should come on audition is because you're ready. And you should have been an actress, but your paintings are really good. They kind of remind me of the theater or film I said yes. The desire to tell a story. You know, so the lesson is, don't ever give up. You have to hang in there. You have to figure out a way to make money. I quit the teaching job. Everybody thought I was crazy. They said oh she's not choose to always not. I didn't listen to them this time, you know, moved into the city. And I worked three jobs for a long time up until 11 years ago, when I met my husband. My second husband Tim. He said to me in 2017, I had this big portrait commission and that's what I was doing to make money. Besides being a freelance makeup artist at Bergdorf the Lord mercy. I was able to supplement my income. But I couldn't paint every day, three, four days a week I was working eight hour days. And then all my days off. I was working seven days a week all the time. I had to put the 30 hours a weekend. I had three days to do it. I'm in the studio for 10 hours. That's it. And 11 years ago when I quit, a friend of mine said When are you going she's an entrepreneur sheet that you need to stop now and just go for it. I said okay, I'll do portrait commissions all the time. And my husband said to me We had just met he said why are you doing this? You don't seem like you like doing it. I said you know what, I love doing portraits but I don't like being I felt like it was too in the box for my turn. In it, I have friends of mine that an amazing commissioned portrait painters, and they love it, and they do quite well. So I think you have to figure out what is your temperament. And that takes a while, and then go in that direction. Now, painting your own things is like a musician not playing classical music and copying Mozart or a musician that is a session musician that's playing other people's work, or a singer. That's a backup singer. That's not singer songwriter singing their own stuff. That's the hardest thing to do. It's so hard to figure out what the voice is. And how do you write your story? Not easy.

Laura Arango Baier: 15:46

Yeah. So

Nanci France-Vaz: 15:47

figure out how do you get up every day and be inspired? Me,

Laura Arango Baier: 15:56

that's it. Yeah, that's actually it's so funny that you say that because I was literally, you know, earlier, I was in the shower. And I was thinking about inspiration. So it's so funny that you bring it up, it's like it. Inspiration really is the thing that starts motivation. You know, everyone always complains that I'm not motivated enough to do something. It's like, well, maybe you're not inspired enough. That's like the the mission, you know, to really get motivated. Which it seems like you definitely, you said, You know what, this is it. I'm tired of everyone saying I can't, I can't, I can't I decide. And I love that you compare it to to being you know, like a background singer, right. You want to be the lead of your life, you want to be the lead of your creation is in your work, you don't want to be in the background. It's your life, right? So I love that you just went for it.

Nanci France-Vaz: 16:44

It's very difficult, because, you know, as a painter, you're alone a lot. It's like writing and I to be writing and you have to be alone. You can't have any distractions around you. You know, this a lot of people around like where I live now. They're not from Manhattan. And they want to go out all the time. They want to listen to music. It's a big music venue down here. And you know what, I do that when I was younger, like older years, I wasn't doing art. To him. I was supporting girl, I was out on Bleecker Street. And it happened all the time. My friends were in bands, my friends, brothers were in bands. I was going to acting classes. I had free airline tickets with American Express, I traveled all over skiing, went to Europe went everywhere. That's how and you know, I had an income coming in. And it was free. So I did it. So I would say up until I went to art school. I had an amazing, you know, anything that you would want it to do in your life, or just that, oh, I could do that. And I did it. So I really pouring blood. You know, and then I said, Okay, time to buckle down. Because now when you're in your 30s you say you got to buckle down? What is it you really want to do? That's gonna make you excited about waking up every day. Some people have a job. They love it. But some people are just doing it for a check. And that's a miserable place to be. I was in that place. New Way. I'm not revisiting Dante's Inferno. Oh

Laura Arango Baier: 18:23

good. Yeah, yeah. Um, I love that. Oh, my God. And

Nanci France-Vaz: 18:30

money. Yep. No.

Laura Arango Baier: 18:33

Yeah. I mean, if you're gonna be making money, you might as well do it something that isn't making you hate your life all the time, you know. And speaking of your work, actually, I'm really curious to know because I was looking at your work and it's absolutely beautiful. It's as eclectic as you of course, you know, you got a little bit of everything on your website, you got your portraits, you got your animals, you got landscapes, and in your portraits specifically, I absolutely love that they have this vibe, you know, of like, the expression of the human condition that also you know, it feels like that person in the painting, you know, they're actually there and they want to tell you something, you know, they're like, trying to express something. Do you have a specific painting currently because I know this can change but do you have a specific painting that you're particularly proud of or fond of?

Nanci France-Vaz: 19:26

Oh, that's a loaded question. Girl girl, my children so I love them all. I think they're all a lot of my my series that I just came out of. That was in Dasha solo show that is up until November 18 is cool bohemian spirits. And if you define a bohemian definitely made I don't want to be tied down. I did get married too late. Nothing wrong with having children that just when I was 10, I said I'm having a zero I want to be an artist. That was it. I was set on that's what I want to do. And I don't know how women that have children, and I really applaud them. And then they could still paint into really well. I'm astounded by by that. But I would say that when I found my voice, it was things that I remembered when I was really young. And it was during COVID. I'm so time depressed. And we all work because now we're in solitary confinement. Not that we weren't already as artists were in our studio, were chained to the studio. So you always feel alone, you know. And I started thinking about when I was young, and I had a model ally, who lives right near me, she was recommended by a friend of mine, that actually it was in one of my paintings pulled out of Eden. She spoke to a painter, she goes into like our style, but her name is Brittany, but she has her own voice. And they have this little gallery in Asbury Park, and she recommended a few models. And Ali came with her boyfriend, who's now her fiance, and Nick. And I said, Oh my God, they're going to be great as Paolo and Francesca, the lovers. So that was the first painting, I took them. And it got into the first round of figures at this at the meeting. And I said, Okay, you know, the classic literature, I looked on Jason Pardo, but then I had this idea of John Lennon's Imagine, because we couldn't go out. And he said, You know, I really wished when I was a little kid, I wish we could go back to that time, you know, Imagine all the people, and all you need is love and all of that. And I just remembered moments of when I was a kid, and my friends were 10 years older than me. So they would tell me these stories, I always hung out with older people. And they would tell me these amazing stories, and I started to research it. And I said, Oh, I remember when Vivian told me this story, or Joe told me that story. And and I looked at all the musicians and the music and the lyrics and the vocal covers. And so I wanted to be part of that. And I felt so passionate about it. I think if you go into paint, and you're copying what you think is going to sell, that's not real. That's not passionate, you just copy cat and mouse will copy a painting a, you know, an old master painting or a song or whatever. You have to be inspired by your own story, and who you are, what is your identity, my identity definitely is no matter who it is, no matter what type of money you are, I knew that the middle class girl, I never think I'm a rich person. I don't try to do the designer thing and be fake. That's fake. Because that's not who you are. Unless you've come from that background. But even if you've got all that money, why would you show you know, designers stuff and lo look, I'm part of it. It's fake. Be who you are. It doesn't matter how much money you have, it doesn't matter but you were being real to what you want to say to the world. Now some people will say, Well, you know, a social commentary. Oh, do you paint older people? Oh, yeah, I do. My friends are all different ethnic groups before I went into bohemian Supersite was always painting that my friend Clifton King, he's a black two from Crown Heights is much older than me. But he's an active director, writer, and one of the liturgy Everett Memorial Award at Allied artists before Black Lives Matter. So I was doing that already. But this story just kind of resonated with the flower children. And that is the thing that started me out that I felt inspired by and have been painting, that type of painting until I hit my solo show. And I would say my favorite. Circling back to what you asked me, what is that? My favorite one out of all of them. That's so horrible because I loved Ode to a flower child. I love to emerges, you know this during the spring. But right now my recent work I would say the one that's called whispering echoes the return of Juliet which kind of dovetails into the 19th century and classical literature which I am while to doubt and dark academia. So I would say right now that one it's a tie between that one and a little girl my friends nice that I painted called winner of the year and she squinted there. I don't know. Alone. I love the painting and all I love that I've loved alone based on Edgar Allan Poe. So I think it's all the stuff going into the Edgar Allan Poe right now. I'm very excited about it. I'm very well Read. I honestly have poetry in my books coming out in another year. That's tied to the paintings from Bohemians. So I would say those would be my three, I can't.

Laura Arango Baier: 25:13

Oh my gosh, yeah. And I love that you're also you know, it's, you're not just eclectic in your work, but you're also eclectic in how you express yourself, right? You've got your poetry, you've got your clothing, you've got your paintings, you've got everything. I feel like, it's so exciting and wonderful to you know, it's almost like, kind of reminds me of, you know, like the the Oscar Wilde sort of like, I like floating around. And also, you know, trying to paint but also trying to express myself through writing. It's very inspiring to have so much, I guess, gosh, it's like a cloud of inspiration that you want to spread into, you know, all of these different arts.

Nanci France-Vaz: 25:53

I think all of you know, I guess I was the only nine or 10 year old that would be in my room, and my mom would say, What are you doing in there, and I would have this, this thing that she gave me, which was like a catalog thing that's circled, and you pick the different categories, and I was always picking theater, film, mythology, you know, studied all three and literature for Tennyson, James Joyce, drama and society. It was one of the classes I took in school to visualize a lot of lit classes, I have about 18 credits in literature. And my French would say, Come on, why do you take those classes? That's heavy stuff, like those are hard. Shakespeare is a hard read, and said, Oh, my God, but look at the writing and there wasn't building back then. How did they do that? Deer in the round, you know, Shakespeare people went around, and they'd watched the people with a costume. Probably, if I did it back then I want to be one of those actresses doing that, you know, just absolutely love a story. I love the old way they did film. Yes, I did special effects with 3d. I like the old way. I thought it was more inventive that you had to figure out like Hitchcock, how do you shoot that? Now you get the audience to feel that. And I think that love first is why I think of what you're talking about, like emotive art, I would say Modern Renaissance, but it's a mode of art. I want you to feel my character. I want them all to be different. I want them. They're all different. It's a role, right? But the role is really, me. Being the actress like the little kid that was nine years old. That's rehearsing and being on stage. They're all me. They're all self portraits of things that I love, and that I have read. How do I express that make people feel that?

Laura Arango Baier: 27:48

Yeah, yeah. And I think it definitely shows through in your work, which, again, beautiful, beautiful. Of course, BoldBrush, we inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic. And the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art, marketing, creativity, and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles, and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists. We believe that fortune favors the bold brush. And if you believe that to sign up completely free at BoldBrush show.com. That's B O LDBRUSH show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by FASO. Now, more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link facile.com forward slash podcast, you can make that come true. And also get over 50% off your first year on your artists website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal considering that you get sleek and beautiful website templates that are also mobile friendly e commerce print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you day by day, step by step guides on what you should be doing today, right now in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link faster.com forward slash podcast. That's s a s o.com forward slash podcast. And then the other part that I find fascinating because you and I've actually been corresponding for a while because I've been trying to get you on the podcast but you're such a busy woman that I feel very lucky to have you first of all, so again, thank you for being here. It is timing. Yeah. But um, I wanted to know how Oh, how are you able to manage your time? You know, when you're working through all of these amazing projects, and you've got so much going on? How do you time manage?

Nanci France-Vaz: 30:10

That's a another loaded question. You're firing away the bombs. Management I think I get from, I'm going to go back to gymnastics. Back in my day, I competed for seven years. And, you know, you went to school during the day, I was 14 years old, when I started. You went to school. And you know, my coach, me and this girl, Debbie, we were like the best ones on the team. And I think was the desire that, you know, it's a good athlete, but the desire like you know, doing your routine people watching you on the stage, it was so important to me, because they wouldn't let me go to acting school or performing less than I needed to fulfill that. After school, we always had practice. So I was all around, I was on floor, which was my best balance being fours and vaulting. And you had to learn the routine after school. The meats, the competitive meats started in February. So in September, or over the summer, you never had a day off zero, you didn't have time, because you had to learn the routine, the judge would say, this is the routine you need to follow. And you had to do it perfectly the way the judge wrote it. So think of a role the way the director writes it and tells you, you have to act it, you must do it that way. But then we had optional routines, your own body of work as an artist right now, you're not working for somebody to earn a commission that tells you how to direct it, they're directing you. Now you're directing yourself. So the optional routines, I did all the rounds, as well. And so now, I had four routines to learn how to, you know, evolve choice of the bowl, and four routines to create, pick my music, picked the whole routine, which was about about a minute long. And I had a six months to learn it during school. And I did it. And I think when you train like that, when you're a kid, you're on a diet, you have to wake up, you'd have to eat well, you'd have to have the energy, you have to reduce it, you have to do it to a dice Do or die, your buttons on the live. And, and every February, I'm so excited, I never thought I was ready enough. It's like a solo show. I don't think I'm ready enough. It's not perfect enough. But at one point, you have to let it go. Because maybe other people might not notice it and you're being judged. You know, in front of all a lot of people in front of two judges may think that training for seven years, then working on Wall Street and all the corporate background, working with my mom, she had a skincare sense of all of that I had to do it, I always had to work and said not I don't have a lot of money, I had to figure out how to do it. And if you're not working, you're not in the game, period, end of story. You figure it out. So when I do art, I'd say I have a to do list on my phone. Or sometimes I write it on a calendar with stickies and I say I have like the seller show I have 10 lines. To do that. I need to execute one painting a month to be on time. I'm not going to compromise my quality. It's do or die. I have to be the gymnast right? That does it well, and I feel inspired by it. I have to come up with the idea I have to do the photoshoot. This is not painting from like this is like you have to execute. But then I have to do the business I have to do the social media. So how I usually plan it is early in the morning or before I go to bed at night before going to bed at night. I'm editing early in the morning I'm posting before I start painting on more radio say on Sunday, that's going to be my day to record stuff. Every day that I'm painting, I have my little phone, I'm all set up and I'm recording myself. It may be good footage may not be but to try it out. I'm dumping all my hard drive so I could see it. You know better at night before I go to bed. I save a lot of drafts that I don't get to post a week later. Or I take older paintings and then I read them them and you know not the same type not the same anything because Instagram will definitely penalize you for that. So that's how you do it. I think one day a week that I could do that. But I have the camera on I would say four days a week, I need a break sometimes from the camera because when you have a camera on, you are not focused in your work. And a lot of people have said, How do you do that I'm like, I don't have an automotive tire, I'll pick one day run to a couple of segments and paint in here paints a texture painting in a pattern. That's it, the videos are only 11 seconds, Instagram doesn't like their reels longer than seven to 11 seconds, and I have one coming up, it's only four seconds. So people don't you know, they want immediate gratification. Well, that can zap you off the chart. So you do it that way. And that leaves you more time, I allow myself eight hours a day to pain. So I'm working like at least sometimes in the eight hours, maybe I have an hour or two of social media, when I'm drinking coffee in the morning, I'm doing it. And I just put myself on a schedule. If I miss the schedule, I double up the next day. I if I'd have to get work out. We all compete from life and have a model from like, that's all well and good, great. But if you're trying to sell work in a gallery, it's not about that. It's about execution and making the show, you know, you don't have all the time in the world. And so is very detailed thing. So what works for me is it drawings, value drawings, I work out the design, I do it in Photoshop, I then draw a sketchbook of all my choice of all the paintings that I've done. And what I do is wait, you know, like four or five days, sometimes I'm sketching. If I nailed the drawing, I then go to Kinko's, if it's a big painting, I go to Kinkos, I print it out, I put oil on the back, I will transfer it. And when I'm ready to paint, if I do it from scratch, it's going to maybe cost me a day or two of time, because I got that wrong got this one, I don't have time to do that. I need to just do it. So it's like you're almost like, you know, you're setting yourself up for a job. Your boss tells you today you have to get this done, do or die, see figure out how to do it. Now that I'm not on that deadline scheduled till March, I have another solo show coming up. Sunday, I'm doing this and I'm doing it from scratch, you know, and I'll post my video of it. Now I'll do my little color studies that are like doing it from like, if I don't have a model, I like to do it like I'm doing to get from like, you know, so now I have kind of like, yeah, I could go back to that. I'm not in this deadline. There's no deadline. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:37

Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's a lot of discipline. You know, that's like, it's very admirable. And I love that, you know, like you said earlier, your skills from all of these things that you've experienced in the past are all transferable, which is something that, you know, I think a lot of people don't really, I guess they don't see from the outside, but you living your life, obviously, you're like, Oh, I've done this before I've made myself you know, train for hours a day. And, and now I can just do the same with my paintings, which that's really awesome to maintain that routine maintain that, you know, I know what I'm doing today. And I can expect this from myself, you know,

Nanci France-Vaz: 38:13

you know, I listen to a lot of podcasts, and I listen to a lot of people in, in fine art. And some are very, very disciplined. And a lot of them need to find motivation to paint. You know, her friends, well, this painting is selling God, you know, for this amount, and it's, you know, not that good. So why should I bother? You should always bother. It's because, you know, it's the same thing as if you set out to be good at something. And certainly when I set out to be good at something I needed to not compete against other people, I need to get the gold medal for myself. It's for me, it's not to impress anybody. I do it to get better. I do it because I have a lot of respect for me. And I have a lot of virtues and morality in how do I become the best and be authentic to myself, too. Don't you think? An Olympic athlete just that? Do you think they need to be do you think Simone Biles needs to be motivated? No, she's got a goal in mind. I want to be good at that. And whatever it takes, even if I have bad days, even if I fail, failure is good. It's a learning lesson. Right? She does it. She had a bad situation, the twisties and I know that twisty circuits, I bought them a few times scary thing because she can't figure out where you are. And she came back and look how good she's doing. That takes a lot of courage and discipline and your psychology is the biggest thing. It's how you see yourself when you wake up in the morning. And it's this thing Good actors, they get a roll. They don't give up. There was a guy gibca Diesel, The Thin Red Line. And don't forget the interview. He said, I'm sleeping in my car. I was so broke. He didn't give up. He got the movie Thin Red Line. Bad that made him. Do you just don't know you don't give up? Yes. So many actors out there that are good. There's so many musicians that are good. You don't quit. Anybody could quit. Quit quitting is for losers. So

Laura Arango Baier: 40:32

you got to be a winner. Yeah, yeah. And you have to believe that you're a winner. Yeah.

Unknown: 40:38

yourself? Yes. Oh, my

Laura Arango Baier: 40:41

God. You're making me like so motivated right now. I love it. I should like have like a message from you every morning, like saying that you've got this today

Nanci France-Vaz: 40:52

is for your team competing in the Olympics, and you have to be ready. Whether you sell or not that gallery didn't sell your work. You take it out after a couple of years, and it settles somewhere else. It's happened to me a lot. You don't quit. You keep going. You don't focus on that. It's like it's done. It's gone. Goodbye. I'm moving. I'm doing it at all costs. Yeah. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 41:23

I mean, yeah. And you know, that makes that that's very good point, you know, life keeps going. I mean, life doesn't have a pause button. And, yeah, it's good to take breaks every so often if you really need it, to prevent burnout. So you can keep going. But definitely the love of doing what you love is, you know, the best fuel you can have you just, yeah, you just keep going. There's no pause button. It's not that and speaking up, because I've interviewed a lot of artists, you know, in both sides of I work with galleries and love galleries and other artists were like, you know, I used to work at galleries. But it turns out, you know, I work better when I'm on my own. And of course, there's pros and cons. Right? So in the podcast, I like to get, you know, all the different perspectives on. Okay, this is the thing that works for me personally, whether it's galleries or not. So I wanted to know, for you personally, of course, what has been the most lucrative approach that you've taken to sell your work hasn't been just galleries hasn't been Instagram or other social media? What What combination do you think has been the best for you?

Nanci France-Vaz: 42:32

I think all of it. All of it. Don't, don't put yourself in a box. So galleries is somebody else's business. And you know, you're taking a chance that they are going to put you in front of their collectors. Some of the problems today that I see with guy, I think in the 90s. So turn of the 21st century, you know, there, they were really good before the whole social media thing. And I think since social media came out, as a business owner, myself, I kind of can feel for, you know, social media artists are able to sell on their own right now. But of course, they have to find the collectors that's very difficult to do, I've done it. And I have done, you know, in the past year, I do have those collectors that have seen my work through Instagram. And so that's why I focus on Instagram, or I read about them, and then I went to the event that they were at, and I didn't say anything to them, I just got to know them. And, you know, I became I guess very extroverted. As I got older, I was more introverted when I was younger. And then after gymnastics, I would say in my 30s, I started to come into my own and then in my 40s, now I'm selling and so I found that you have to get along with people, you have to network by just becoming their friend. You have to build relationships. With business. It's all about build relationships, whether it's with a gallery, with a collector, on Instagram, you know, some people just want people to like their work and follow them, but they never comment. Or like your work. There's a lot of people like that. So it's gotta be reciprocal. You have to build relationships doesn't matter how many followers that person has. So I tried to do that. I tried to build relationships with some galleries. I felt like I wasn't ready because I wanted to find my voice. Now I am. So that's why I went with Joshua. When nobody asked me to do a solo show. I said, Ah, I'm out of inventory. I only have one piece left. And I sold most of those on my own. But I do want to be in a gallery To because I think both can be lucrative. If I am in a gallery, and I'm assigned to a gallery if I have a collector that goes to the gallery, you know, I always click the gallery 50% I don't undercut the gallery, I think that's wrong to do. Somebody asked me, you don't take 50% of your prices? No, no, absolutely not. I do exactly what my gallery would do. If my god if it wasn't seen in my gallery, and it's my client. And I'm not represented by a gallery, I'm just a guest. Or as I can sell my work on my own, there is no contract, right? So I do give them I start with 10%. And, you know, I won't give more than, you know, some galleries that have asked me can you go 20%, but I pet it enough so that I feel like if I'm gonna give up 50%, that I'm still making money, especially if I have to ship it to God, it's very hard to do your homework, find the right Gallery and the right galleries that really believes in you that wants to sell your work? Well, you know, I think everybody's trying to figure out the landscape. And how to render that landscape for their business. Yeah. And until, dude, I totally get it, like social media changed everything. So they're trying to figure it out, you're trying to figure it out. I think, being with the gallery, being my mother was a business owner, I'm a business owner, you know, if I had a staff, I would want them to be loyal to me. Absolutely. They absolutely have the right, I'm definitely Pro Gallery. But you have to pick the right one that works for you. But there are some excellent galleries out there that have artists for a long time. And that artist for a long time, and they always give them a solo show, and they do quite well with them. And those are the ones that you want to strive to be in. That's the struggle of artists, whether they're younger or older, you can be older and breaking into the business. There's no such thing as age, age is the number. You know, you can develop work and be quite good. At 80 years old, you don't have to start when you're five. It all depends on the time you put in, you have to look at me. I went on the hamster wheel and I'm trying to catch up. And I think I'm there I caught up. To a certain extent I wish I had 40 more years in this. Maybe I do I don't know. But I think you have to try all of it and see what works the best. But I think having a lot of different venues to try out is good friend of mine, Francine Kriegers, a friend of mine, and you know, she's done a i i don't have any problem with that. As long as they're not saying it's a painting, you know, they should have their own venue and be able to sell their work their artists too. But I tend to like traditional work. And she goes into auctions. And I said oh, really? She said no, it was a lower price point. I said, Well, maybe I can do studies that are like six by nine or eight by 10. Like realism live, I put this little small five by five inch painting in there their auction because I was part of the faculty this year. And it's sold. And I've had it for a few years now. You know, my thought Why didn't I think of doing that? You know, so you can never know. You can try everything. If that doesn't work, try something else. Put that painting somewhere. Maybe they don't hit that collector base, right? Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 48:46

Exactly. No, you got to try all the avenues that you can, especially as an artist, you know, it's good to have you know, income coming in from different directions, especially because, you know, since you are the producer of your own work, there are times when maybe like, you don't have any more work, right? You just did a show, maybe you sold all the pieces and now okay, you're good on money, but now you have to build up that collection again. So maybe you need, you know, maybe you teach some workshops, maybe you sell some prints, maybe like there are so many options, which I love that you mentioned, you know, especially gallery etiquette that is so important to learn. But yeah, I also wanted to know if you have any upcoming shows or exhibitions that you'd like to talk about. Yeah,

Nanci France-Vaz: 49:31

so I bohemian spirits atashi gallery sell through November 18. And I have a show. I was between names I didn't know but I finally told the director I said it's called metamorphosis and the reason why I chose that name and surname and repainting I just sold but it resonates with me because it's like transitioning, and we morph from one thing into another. So in this show, I've done some musicians from The Jersey Shore down under that a female artists, they're pretty well known. And I have a few of those paintings and she said I would love to give you a solo show at Monmouth University in the pollack theater that a Pollock theory is where all the concerts happen. And they have a little hole, a big hallway that leads to in the theater. So among the walls that lead into the concert hall, the stage right in the theater, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, Van Morrison, all of these shows go on, and some of these women have Clinton, a lot of them have played there. And they're amazing artists. They're professionals. But they're just like us. They're going out on tour. They're they're trying everything because people stream today. And it's much harder. They're not selling albums. So they have to go on tour, because that's the way to make money, aside from session planning, right? And so the director said, I love Do you still have this painting and that painting? I said, Yeah, I do. I keep it just in case. So I need to have 25 paintings, but I can use the work that I already have to put in the show. And I'll be painting for more paintings by February. I got one week break. Oh, man, I need, I'm gonna take this smaller, I already have the photoshoots done. And because I knew that this was going to be on my To Do lists, I shot them the same time I was shooting for myself. OSHA was aimed, right. So I'm like, Okay, today, 10 hours is just shooting and getting them and getting the idea and compose them on all my downtime, I already have the compositions in the computer to go on campus. I did that over the summer, a couple of days where I gave myself downtime, you figure out ways like today I'm a little tired to pain, I need a break. But let me sit behind a computer and do this. So you change like maybe what you wrote down, you're gonna do that thing. And you change your production schedule. To so that you stay on, you know, next year, you don't wait to the last minute, you're already thinking way ahead of the game, you have to think that way. Or you get yourself in trouble and you get burned out. So how are we ready to go and just have one more photo shoot to do in December, and then compose you know, come up with the composition. And I aim to have old boards on smaller, there'll be maybe 16 by 20. By by February there might even be smaller so that I'm not killing myself with 20 by 30 or 24. By 36. you strategize how do I execute this. So that shows coming up. middle of March I think Oh, Women's History Month, to May, the opening is April 26. And I'll send out invites to anybody that lives around the Jersey Shore or in the tri state area. If they'd like to come to that it'd be good. The reason why it's going to be good is all those women that are in my show, they're going to do a concert right after the exhibit reception. So from six to eight is the reception from 815. So whenever is the concert, we're trying to get a scholarship funds started for women artists only whether they're visual artists performing artists, musicians, because they can't afford to go to school at Monmouth University. So we'll know I think by next week, if the board approves of a scholarship fund, it's a little tricky to get it approved up. So I'm hoping that they can do that because that would be amazing. That she first when she mentioned it, she said it was doable, but now she has to run it by the board. So if that happens, that would be amazing. Because I feel very strongly that oh, he had a lot of money. I'm still paying off my student loan. Not having my parents paid off for me or my husband that makes a lot of money paid off for me. I've always paid my own way my own car, my own everything. And it's not easy. It's very difficult, but I think it builds character and it makes the problem solve how do we get out of this one?

Laura Arango Baier: 54:20

That's very true. That's so exciting. And oh my gosh, so much work. Oh, that's incredible work.

Nanci France-Vaz: 54:27

And you know, I started a I started up my art mentorship program. I'm going to put in for workshops. In Scottsdale, I have a workshop coming up in the spring painting hair. That's a zoom online I need to put that up on my website which is www dot Nancy Krantz does.com You can also see current things on my Instagram, Nancy France VAs all of the social media platforms is my name Nancy France best keep it really simple, really easy. wait for people to find me. And times your workshops and you'll see the mentorship program and that's one on one. It's personalized and customized for what you want to learn on any level that you are beginner to advanced. Beautiful.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:16

Oh my gosh, that's so exciting. Well, thank you so much, Nancy, for giving us some of your precious time. Again, you're so busy, and I'm so grateful to have you.

Nanci France-Vaz: 55:27

You're welcome. And so nice to meet you. Finally,

Laura Arango Baier: 55:30

you too. Yeah. After somebody runs some correspondence.

Nanci France-Vaz: 55:34

Have a happy Thanksgiving in a road Christmas, happy Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate. And I hope to see you when the new year. Yeah, thanks for asking me to come on. Of

Laura Arango Baier: 55:45

course. Yes. And I might ask you again in the future.

Nanci France-Vaz: 55:49

Definitely do one. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 55:52

please. Thank you.