JM Brodrick: 0:00

You have to first invest in yourself. Make sure that you're ready. Before you can enter the market, you got to make sure that you've got a product that's marketable. So, will this realistically look at your work and say, what do I need to do to make this so that I can actually sell it, or that a gallery can sell it, or that a gallery will be interested in me? So, you you first got to have the product. If you don't keep working at it, you'll get there. Never give up on yourself. Keep at it, and constantly achieve better work.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:33

Welcome to the Faso Podcast, where we believe that fortune favors a bold brush. My name is Laura Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are 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 who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For today's episode, we sat down with J. M. Broadrick, a wildlife painter originally from Detroit, Michigan, who trained early under her Finnish grandmother and now creates large ethereal acrylic works that often get mistaken for oils. She explains her deep connection to wildlife and how she merges realism with abstraction, inspired by double negative film accidents and her dislike of traditional detailed backgrounds. J.M. describes her years in Fairbanks, Alaska, where she balanced single motherhood, a full-time career in commercial insurance, and work as a composite artist for law enforcement, all while steadily pursuing her art on evenings and weekends. She talks about the fear and liberation of going full-time in 2005, emphasizing how competition, self-criticism, and painting faster push her to continually up her game. As business advice, she recommends watching the market while staying true to your voice, using an 80-20 balance between gallery-friendly work and more experimental competition pieces, and always investing in archival professional materials. For artists who want to go full-time, her core guidance is to never give up on yourself, build strong drawing and color foundations, learn from failed paintings, be disciplined with time, and accept that a job along the way can be a part of what ultimately makes you a better, more resilient artist. Finally, J M tells us about her upcoming participation at an exhibition of the American Professional Artists League at the Salmagundi Club and an upcoming group show at Cole Gallery. Welcome, J M, to the Faso Podcast. How are you today?

JM Brodrick: 2:19

I'm very, very good. Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored.

Laura Arango Baier: 2:24

Of course, I'm excited to have you. I absolutely love your animal paintings so much. They're so ethereal looking, and I was even more amazed when I found out that they were acrylic, which is a very unusual medium for well, I guess for our guests, usually you know we have oil painters, so I'm always excited to have someone who uses a totally different medium from the usual. So I'm so excited to have you.

JM Brodrick: 2:50

Excellent, thank you.

Laura Arango Baier: 2:51

Yeah, of course. But then before we dive into your gorgeous work, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you

JM Brodrick: 2:58

do? Okay, I'm I'm J.M. Brodrick. I'm from originally from Detroit, Michigan, and I've been interested in painting wildlife and a variety of topics since I was a child. I the first painting I remember doing was was back in the late '50s. The circus had come to town, and I wanted to paint the circus train, but I needed really big paper. So I asked my father if he would buy me some big paper, and he came home with a roll of butcher paper, and that was my first really big painting. And I think I fell in love with big work as as a result of that. My mother had the painting for years. I think my sister has it now, but it was probably only 48 inches to 50 inches long. But to me, as a little kid, it was was a huge work. So that's my my first memory, and I think that's what kind of got me started on the path. My Finnish grandmother used to live with us in the winter time, and she was a professional artist from Helsinki, Finland, and she kind of guided me. She realized that I had a love for painting and drawing, so she worked with me a lot every winter, and that that was basically my start. And I I started in watercolor. She was a watercolorist and pastels, and in the early '70s, I had a gallery in Detroit that used to carry my watercolors, and he said to me, "It was 1971, and he said to me, "You know, Jay, we can get a lot more money for your work if you worked on canvas, and so then I thought, hmm, what kind of medium would translate easiest? And acrylic seemed to do that. So I kind of consider myself an evolved watercolorist. I use a lot of the same methods. Sometimes I do direct painting with the the. Acrylic, but most of it is done indirectly. So I'm doing a lot of layering. It doesn't dry fast enough for me, so I actually use the aid of a blow dryer. So I know it's like when I when I give a demo, I always have the the blow dryer hanging from my hip like a pistol, and it's it's just I just need that paint to dry faster so I can move forward, and that's that's pretty much what what how I started in the medium and how I evolved into acrylic. I love the medium; it does everything I need it to do. People say, "Why don't you go to oil? And it's like I really don't know much about oil, and why would I when I get everything I need from acrylic.

Laura Arango Baier: 5:43

Yes, yeah, and that's what matters. I mean, if it makes you, you know, reach the results that you want, and it's part of your process, and there's no reason to to change something. You know, why fix it exactly? And and a

JM Brodrick: 5:56

lot of gallery owners, they they receive the paintings and they they go, oh, we well, we thought it was acrylic, and there's our times when I have to actually tell them you've labeled this oil and it's not oil. So, and a lot of them are shocked.

Laura Arango Baier: 6:11

I yeah, that that was the same shock I had because it it truly I would think that it was oil, so it it works out. And then I wanted to know too, what was it about wildlife that drew you to paint it?

JM Brodrick: 6:27

So it's you kind of get a feeling sometimes with either with a landscape or a person or a particular moment where you you you feel a compulsion that you really want to get that down on on canvas or paper, and I can't explain it other than it's just this huge urge. Oh, I got to paint this. And wildlife has always fascinated me. I love birds. I love the challenge of painting white animals because they're. It's difficult because they're they're even though they're white, there's a lot of color in in them, and a lot of personality, and I always try to bring out the the soul or the personality of the animal or the subject that I'm painting. I want people to feel that it's more than just a horse; it's more than just a bird. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 7:19

sorry, my yeah, and animals do have that uniqueness about them. That

JM Brodrick: 7:27

they do, they really do.

Laura Arango Baier: 7:29

Yeah, yeah, and I find that actually animals are quite challenging to get right as well. I mean, a lot of people think you know portraiture is is tough, which it is, but I find animals are probably a bit harder because it is hard to paint feathers, and and it is,

JM Brodrick: 7:45

and and that's the one thing about painting a bird is birds are very soft, and so you want the you want the feeling of that softness and the light that actually goes through their feathers. You need that to come through in the painting, and not just look like it's a duck decal that's stuck. You know, someone stuck on the back of a, of a of a canvas. So that I have to tell you how I kind of got started. I've had this fascination my whole life. Back when when I was younger, we had something that was real film when we take pictures for references, and we nothing was digital back then. It didn't exist, and there was once in a while you get an error that was called the double negative, and I don't know if you're familiar with a double negative, but I was fascinated. Sometimes you get these double negatives, and it would give these beautiful effects, and that always kind of rolled around in the back of my head. So when I merge realism with abstraction, it comes from that double negative idea that's been rolling around my head. And the second thing that has made me kind of evolve this way is I have always hated painting backgrounds. When you do a bird painting or a wildlife painting, it's like, oh, I got to paint in the forest or the the background swamp, and it's like, oh, it's drudgery. I just want to get to the meat and potatoes and paint my subject. So I used to do a lot of vignettes, and I reached a point in life where I thought, you know, I'm just not going to do the background. I'm just going to scribble it in. So that's what's what I started doing, and it was popular. People actually liked the blending of the two, so I don't I don't know what you call it. I don't really fit into the impressionist mold, and I don't really fit into the realism mold. Mold. I'm kind of out there on my own. So when I belong to societies or when I compete in in art competitions, a lot of times I I'm amazed that I get in because I I don't think I really fit, but it's always an honor to get to get accepted, and I I enter a lot. I love competition.

Laura Arango Baier: 9:47

Yeah, yeah, and I I do love that about your backgrounds too. That they're abstracted. They're you know they allow the main subject matter to really be highlighted. Because yeah, it is obviously sometimes nice to to see the bird and its environment, but I think it's also really wonderful to just enjoy the actual bird on its own. Yeah,

JM Brodrick: 10:12

that comes from the yeah from the early vignettes that I used to do, where you could just paint the subject and you had to get the whole thing balanced so it works, and and that so basically these are vignettes only with a with a more I think more interesting background, and they're fun to do. They're really fun to do. That's the best part. It's like this is actually I'm having a good time. Whereas sometimes total realism, it's a bit of drudgery. You've got to you've got to work through it, and it's got to be right. And with the with the abstracted backgrounds, it's like I don't care if it works. It works, you know. I'm just going to keep working it, and I'm having a good time. I've got my music going. Oh, by the way, I listen to opera the whole time I'm painting. I'm I'm an opera buff. I love I love Wagner. So most of my neighbors know the the opera is pretty good, and they they put up with me, which is a good thing. So

Laura Arango Baier: 11:03

yeah, I think that matches.

JM Brodrick: 11:05

Yeah, it helps me get in the mood. It helps me get in the flow. You know, there's mornings when you get up and you go in your studio. You've got to do work, and you may not really be in the mood, but I put on my music and get going, and pretty soon I'm in the flow, and it's great.

Laura Arango Baier: 11:19

Yeah, yeah, and that's another really great habit to have because that happens to me too. I have a playlist that I like to use when I have no energy, because your brain gets used to it being almost like a cue for. You know, we're just gonna do the thing now, and exactly, yeah,

JM Brodrick: 11:37

exactly. You you may not really feel like it in the moment, but you get yourself motivated by listening to music, and it takes over. It's like you know driving a car; it's just automatic.

Laura Arango Baier: 11:47

Yes, yeah, it it's actually pretty magical. And I also yeah, and I also want to ask you because I'm I'm curious to know. So, do how how is it that an idea starts for you? Do you have, I mean, do you have a way where you go out and you find pictures of birds, or do you like find images or take images that you like, and then you kind of decide how you put them, or how does your idea start?

JM Brodrick: 12:16

So I I've always spent a lot of time in nature. When I in the early '70s, I I had gotten married, and I had a little boy, and the marriage wasn't working. So I had an older brother that was an Alaska State Trooper, and he said, "Why don't you come up to Fairbanks for a while? So I did, and loved it, and called my boss and said,"I'm not coming back, and called my husband and said, "I'm not coming back, so I didn't, and kind of made a life there, but living in that environment, you you're very much connected with nature and the natural environment and the challenge of living in the north. It's it's a lot different than other civilizations in in a lot of ways. It's it's uncivilized, and oh, and also I want to mention I was working had to support myself, so I was working commercial insurance and risk management, and so I had my my full time job because as a as a single mom, you need to provide shelter and health insurance and all the practical things of being a mom. So I managed to stay working in my art on the weekends. I showed in a number of galleries as best I could. I used to teach in the evenings. I had always had a watercolor class going, and I also was the composite artist for the Alaska State Troopers, the FBI, and the City of Fairbanks Police Department. And I was on call for them for years, doing their criminal rape cases, you know, drawing suspects and bank robberies and a lot of other crime scenes. And there's a lot of crime in Fairfax. And my insurance boss was really accepting of that because he looked at it as a community service. So I was on call 24/7, and I remember one time I was in the front office, and the receptionist called me up front in my office, and she said,"There's a policeman here to see you. And when I went up front, there was a couple of other customers that somebody else was dealing with, and the policeman handed me $300, and he said,"JM, you're you're the only gal we use. Thanks for your work. And he left. And one of the customers looked at me when he left, and she she said, "I know there's got to be a good explanation for what I just saw, but for the life of me, I can't figure it out. And then I explained that they pay me out of petty cash. I'm their I'm their composite artist. So that was always I was always looking for a way to kind of use my art to make extra money and to to stay active in that craft. And drawing composite sketches from a from a witness, it it takes a lot of work, and you kind of have to really study human faces. And I learned a lot doing that. It was actually kind of fun. So that was another facet of my background.

Laura Arango Baier: 15:08

Yeah, yeah. But you know, it's it's you have to make ends meet, and you do what

JM Brodrick: 15:13

you exactly exactly.

Laura Arango Baier: 15:15

Yeah, and the fact that you were able to to put your skills to use, even though you had you know, your day job in insurance. Right, that's

JM Brodrick: 15:23

awesome. I know it was like I've never given up on this dream of mine. And now that yeah, I went full time in 2005, and I tell my friends, it's like get out of my way. I got to paint. It's like I don't have that much time left. I got to make up for lost time. So I don't have a lot of time for for family and friends. My husband's great. He's very independent. He goes on vacation. He's getting ready to go to Ecuador for a birding trip. Speaking of my references, my husband's an avid naturalist birder. So he goes all over the world birding, and he brings back. He just got back from the coast, coast of Oregon, and we'll go through the pictures this weekend. He he takes you know 1000 pictures of wildlife and coastal pictures and forest painting. Anything that he thinks that I might be interested in, he shoots. And when he goes to Eastern Oregon, he takes pictures of mustangs. He know where he knows where the herds are. He goes he sleeps in the dirt, so I don't have to. So since he's been retired. He's been really good about. He loves to travel, and he he does he does my reference photos. So, it it frees me up. But we he and I still like to get out together and get out in nature. So, but I don't I don't have to do as much work as I used to. I can stay home and paint, which is kind of nice.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:38

Yeah, that's the dream life. You even have your your personal photographer who brings pictures too, which is really awesome. And he knows what you like, which is even exactly

JM Brodrick: 16:47

exactly. Plus, he does cooking for me, so I don't have to cook either. So he loves to cook. He's like the perfect man.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:53

Yeah. So

JM Brodrick: 16:54

I I have to I have to pay him a lot of respect and a lot of kudos.

Laura Arango Baier: 16:59

Yes. Yes. For sure. Amazing. And then, since you worked in insurance, which is kind of, it feels like the total opposite to painting. It

JM Brodrick: 17:10

is. It really was. Three seven years. I worked in a long time.

Laura Arango Baier: 17:14

Amazing. What do you find that there are skills that you got from working in insurance, whether it's you know talking to people or any of that, that you feel have been useful for your career as an artist,

JM Brodrick: 17:28

absolutely. And you know, a lot of people say,"Well, do you resent that you had to do that? It's like, no, it's part of who I am, and we don't always get to pick our hand in life. So you have to do the best with your circumstances and and make the best of it, and still pursue what you want to pursue. Don't give up. And I think I learned how to work with people. I learned a lot about business. I learned how precious time was. So I have to be very disciplined with my time, and I am very disciplined with my time. And you you learn how to get a lot done because you've only got so everybody gets 24 hours. I have friends that say,"Oh, I don't know. I don't know where you find that. We all get 24 hours. Sorry, it's how you're going to spend it. And so I try to be very careful with how I spend my time. When I take my time off, when I go on vacations, I don't bring paint. I'm on holiday. You know, a lot of people say, "Are you going to paint when you go to Europe? It's like, "No, I'm on holiday. I'm not going to paint. I take reference photos, but you know that's that's my that's my downtime. And when I'm working, I'm working. And sometimes I can work for a month straight, and every day. And then when I'm done with my project, I might take a week off or two weeks off. And so I don't paint every day, but I paint a lot. So if when I do take a break, I I don't feel guilty over it.

Laura Arango Baier: 18:46

That's healthy. Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of us sometimes feel like the the guilt of like I'm not productive enough. I'm not productive enough. But I mean, I could just be very naive in thinking that yeah, you can just paint and paint and have that routine, but if your if your well is empty, you can't do anything. You know, like

JM Brodrick: 19:11

yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 19:11

you need a break too.

JM Brodrick: 19:12

And sometimes you have to take a break to come up with fresh ideas or to review what you're doing because it's really important. When I look back at my work, the work I did 10 years ago is different than the work I'm doing now. I'm a much better artist than I was 10 years ago, and I'm hoping I can say that in the next 10 years. So you just can't work at the same old, same old. You've got to push yourself, push your boundaries, and grow. And I find the best way to do that is through competition. In fact, BoldBrush was my. They weren't my first competitions, but that was my first online competition with with with the digital medium. And looking at who won, I remember reading an article about Ned Mueller, and he I think he won got in first place one of the first. And I thought, man, oh man, that. His painting was so good, and I looked at my work and I thought, I got a long ways to go. I gotta, I gotta, I gotta really improve. So you kind of have to kick yourself in the behind and say, up your game. And BoldBrush really helped me do that. You because you look at what else is out there and it's like, oh man, these people are. There's a lot of artists and they're really good. So you you gotta you gotta up your game. There's no way around it. Really, be critical of what you're doing. You don't have to be mean to yourself, but you have to say you know this painting could have been better here. I don't know about you, but when I do a painting, they never turn out the way that I planned. Never, you know. I have I have this envision of what this painting is going to be, and it's it's always a little different. It's it's not that it's a bad thing. It's just it kind of went its own way, and sometimes you have to allow it to do that, and you just have to. It's nice to be in that flow, and and that's another thing I want to bring up is when you do get a a bad one or a failure. I will take if if I can salvage my linen or salvage my surface, I'll paint over it. And there's something magical in that because you no longer are thinking, oh, this linen was$250 a yard, and it was so expensive because you you know you got to consider. You got to buy your materials, but when you when you paint over something that's that was crappy, it's like you have more freedom because it was already ruined. You're going to throw it away. So now I don't have to worry if I mess it up and ruin a piece of material. There's something magical in that because some of those are my best paintings because I I didn't feel the constraint of having to make a mistake, and you know, and and ruining that that canvas. You, it, it's magical. And so, embrace your your failures as well and turn them around. That's that's it's a good way to do it. And and you get to reuse your materials. So, but you know, I had an instructor one time, and she watercolor paper is really expensive, and so is good drawing paper. And she would crumple up the drawing paper, and she'd say, "Look, it's already ruined. Now go for it. And there's something to that where you can let go, and you're not so worried about making that first mark. You you know what I'm talking about. It's that fear. It's that fear that kind of you tense up. Oh, I got to make the first mark, and I I don't want this one to be a failure because this is an expensive surface I'm working on. It it it helps kind of get over that that point and mark. And and I think if you can free your mind up, and as you get more experience painting, you get more able and find what routine works for you. Music helps for me. It just helps you release and kind of get into the flow zone where all time disappears, you know. And then until you realize, oh, I didn't, I forgot lunch, and you know your stomach's growing. Oh, I forgot to eat lunch because I was painting. That's a good place to be, and that's a that's a great day.

Laura Arango Baier: 23:06

Yes, yes, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's it's such a delicate balance. Being an artist, you know, you're juggling all these things. You're juggling like, you know, I gotta work, and then also, how do I make sure that my work is better every time, and then how do I overcome the intimidation of being in front of, like you said, expensive materials, and allow myself to flow. In the you know, there's there's just so it's sometimes it does seem like you're just walking a very fine line. Yeah, and

JM Brodrick: 23:39

and you look around and you see all this really great art, and you think, who the heck do I think I am that I can even get into this arena? And so you have to kind of like grab yourself, slap yourself in the face, and say, stop it, put on your blinders, and not pay attention to what's going on around you, and say, I'm going to be the best that I can be. And that's what you have to kind of you have to kind of not watch what everybody else is doing because you see these great awards and they're they're really well deserved and great paintings, but you got to just focus on what I can do and get better, and every and you have to look at yourself very critically. Every painting I look at, I thought you know there's always something about it that I I think I could have done differently. Very few paintings do I have where I say, you know, I'm completely happy with it. Most of them I'm not, but they're still nice paintings. They're still good paintings, and they're done. So I'm going to improve the next one. I'm not going to make the same mistakes. I'm going to go forth and you know fix whatever went wrong. Most of it has to do with planning. If you start off with a bad plan, you're not going to have a good painting. It's going to go haywire. You've got to have a good strong composition, and you you've got to know how to mix color. When I first was starting, my first instructor, my grandmother, she would not let me use color. She says it complicates. Things stick with black and white. Well, it was charcoal, so it was black, white, and grays. And I did all my still life. I hate doing still life because I had so much of it when I was like, no, please. And so that's why I don't do still lifes. It was like, ugh, enough. But and then I think when I was about 16, I was introduced to color, and she said, "Okay, you can have two colors. Pick two. And so I picked pink and blue, and those colors still stay with me. It's like most of my work is like I still have this residue of pink and blue. But you, and then she slowly would add more color for me. But she says color complicate things. So so when you're learning, don't go there. It's it's too hard. And I think too, as a painter, you you need a good drawing foundation before. Painting adds a whole new level of complication on top of things. You got to worry about moving that paint around. And so, start with good strong drawing skills. Draw for years. Learn how to draw from life. Learn how light moves around things. You've got to have shape and balance. And if you're going to draw realistic art, it has to look real. There's no getting around it. You have to have. There are some rules that you can't break. You know the way the way reflections work, the way light works. You just can't break certain things because you see it when someone does it and doesn't really know what they're doing, it becomes very obvious, and you you do need the basics behind you, and it takes a lifetime to kind of get good at your craft. I'm still I've still got a long ways to go, so I'm still really excited about where I'm going to be in 10 years from now. So it's up to me, it's a wonderful vocation, and I look at it as a vocation, not really a job. It's it's a life's work.

Laura Arango Baier: 26:45

Yes, absolutely, it is. It's it's a it's a lifestyle. You could even say at some point. And then I also wanted to ask because you did insurance for a long while, and then you decided to become an artist. What was that jump like for you? At least to become a full-time artist. It

JM Brodrick: 27:06

was it was really scary because I had always had a paycheck. I'm a very independent woman. I'm used to taking care of myself, paying my own way. I consider myself to be a liberated woman. I don't want a man to take care of me. I want to take care of myself and contribute my portion of what needs to be done, and so when I didn't have a paycheck anymore, I was really scared. I thought, even though at that point we were financially fine, the the mortgage was paid off. My son had moved. My son was living in Japan, so he he didn't need mom anymore, and um, but it was scary. And then you know, it's the unknown, and you just have to kind of tiptoe into it. I got a couple of galleries going and started working, and then you build from that. But you, you, you just have to do it. And I knew this was time I had to do it. But it was the first two years. I think I had a lot of fear, and you and you have to kind of rein that back and beat it back, and you know get into competitions so you it it you can see exactly what what is your standing with the rest of the artists in the world because a lot of these competitions are worldwide, and that builds your confidence and it also helps you look critically at your work. Is can my work stand next to theirs? And I found out it can, and which is a really good feeling. So I'm happy.

Laura Arango Baier: 28:26

If you've been enjoying the podcast and also want to ask our guests live questions, then you might want to join our monthly webinar, the Faso Show, where our guest artists discuss marketing tips, share inspiring stories, and answer your burning questions in real time. Whether you're a seasoned painter or just starting your creative journey, this is your chance to connect, learn, and spark new ideas. And whether you're stuck on a canvas or building your creative business, this is where breakthroughs happen. Don't miss out. Ignite your passion and transform your art practice by joining us. Our next Faso Show webinar is coming up on the fifth of November with our special guests Kevin McPherson, Susan Lyon, and Scott Burdick. You can find a sign-up link in the show notes. Yeah, it's good to have goals, also, like you said, as an artist. You know, knowing

JM Brodrick: 29:11

right,

Laura Arango Baier: 29:12

and and I can imagine the panic as well. Like, oh no, it's it's all up to me now, and I don't have a you know pay pick. And then at the same time, making sure that your work is at a high level, that it's you know it's good enough for the market. Right, right. That's really rough at first, at least. But it's good when it starts building, and then you have the confidence to keep going. And it goes away exactly.

JM Brodrick: 29:39

You have to be really careful not to let those paintings that some paintings that you create never need to see the light of day. Nobody else ever needs to see them because you know they're not good for you. Get rid of them and don't put them online. But you you have to realize that pretty soon. You know, pretty pretty soon when you're done with the painting. This one didn't work. Get rid of it. Don't show it to anybody. Pain over it. Whatever you need to do, but you've got to be critical on that. And I think a lot of artists, a lot of amateur artists that will come to me for advice, their biggest fault is they're just not self-critical enough, and nobody else can tell you how you need to paint your painting. This is your job. It's like a puzzle. It's like a huge puzzle. I love the complexity of painting, and I love the challenge. It's like I have this idea. I want to pull it off. How do I do that? So you got to figure out. Nobody else can tell you how to do this because it's your work. So that's why I tell

young artists: 30:42

you you can't go to you can't always go to class. You can't go to someone and say,"What do you think I did wrong? Really, they can't tell you because it's it's something that it's your idea, it's your work. That's total freedom. I love that part about painting, but it's a double-edged sword. You've got to be really careful and realize, you know, where you're where you're going with each piece, and as you paint more and more and more. When I first went full time artist, I think my my biggest fault was I was a really slow painter. I had had the luxury of not having to support myself with my art, and I could take my time and take a month on a painting. It didn't matter. I would pick away with it after work and on weekends, that kind of thing. But when you have a commitment to a gallery and they sell things, they want more, and you've got to keep up. Probably within the first year or two, I found my find myself getting really fast. In fact, it was one of my goals to paint a lot faster. That was my my biggest fault as I had to paint faster. So I remember taking time and just forcing myself, actually setting a timer and say, "You've got to get this down, get it bulked out, quit put screwing around with it, quit quit noodling it, and get it get it kick kick it out. And you just have to force yourself, you know. Let it go, get down what you need, and then fill in the details down the road. And I, I can do. I mean, I have to say, there are some paintings that I have done. I call them one-day wonders. They just fall off your brush. Not all paintings are like that, and they're usually small. But once in a while, I get a 24 by 30, and it'll it'll be done in a day. I may have to go back in the next day and make a few tweaks, but I could have never done that before I went full time. So I think that's the

biggest thing: 32:28

is you learn to paint faster. It just happens because you have to, and I think your work gets better because of it because you're not playing around in it quite so much. You're not you're not overthinking it. You just have to you have to kick it out. I don't know of a better way to say it.

Laura Arango Baier: 32:49

I mean, yes, exactly. I mean, like I said, it's it's such a it's such a crazy sort of practice. You know, it's like you have to. It's oh, there's just so much. Like when you start out, you know, obviously you want to be like the the masters who get like the the enigmatic and mythical perfect stroke. It's like, but the only way you can get that is by practicing and practicing and practicing, and then eventually you get you get the quote unquote perfect stroke. But if you're the master. It's not a perfect stroke, anyway. I know,

JM Brodrick: 33:23

and that's what makes it so good. You know, I have a saying that if you want to believe in God, listen to Mozart. It's perfection. But if you want to believe in yourself, listen to Beethoven. He hits some pretty off notes, and he they work. And that's what makes his music so beautiful. Is that kind of a little sour note he stuck in there, and it's it's emotionally titillating, and you know that's what you have to that's what you have to do. It's those those oddities that give your work that distinction, and and they're not perfect, and that's I think it's the imperfections that really make your work stand out. One one reason why I like to work on Belgium linen is because it's a very imperfect surface, and I've had some collectors say, "Well, that you know, you got a there's a few lumps in there. That's the nature of the beast. I mean, either you like it or you don't. I don't I don't like a perfectly smooth surface. I I want those imperfections, and that's the one nice thing about painting over bad paintings too, is that they're they're lumpy and bumpy underneath, and that adds to a lot of character to what you're working on. It really does. So I think there's a lot to that. As a as a you know painter who's been doing this a long time, it's the imperfection. Sometimes they're they're not mistakes. They're just not perfect strokes. The broken line sometimes is more beautiful. I think.

Laura Arango Baier: 34:43

I am completely, and I think I had a guest a long time ago who said that style is repeating your mistakes, which I think is very compelling. Yeah,

JM Brodrick: 34:57

it's an interesting thought.

Laura Arango Baier: 34:58

Yeah. But yeah, there's so much self-discovery that happens with painting, and just with letting yourself explore and try and make mistakes and not be mean to yourself, like you said earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I love that you mentioned speed and the fact that galleries, you know, they require a constant stream of paintings. They Need inventory, so I also wanted to ask you in terms of marketing and sales. Besides painting more quickly, what are some of the the biggest things that have helped you sell more work?

JM Brodrick: 35:33

So I kind of have a a process where you look in the marketplace, and I constantly watch the marketplace, and I see what's selling, what's popular. Some of the popular stuff I don't care for, and it's like I'm never going to go there. So, but but but it's out there, and you you kind of have to blind yourself and stay true to your whatever you have to offer, and hope that that the the styles and tastes of the collectors will change to come back to more traditional work, and they are. They're coming back to more traditional work. I mean, that's where I'm at. I'm basically a traditional painter, so I don't want to go off in left field and do this, you know, some of the modern cowboy art, that kind of thing. Even though it's very popular here in the West, it's it's just not going to be me. But you have to look in the marketplace, and you have to go to a gallery that kind of understands where you're at and has the clientele that is going to appreciate your work. So I wouldn't go to a real modern gallery because I'm just not going to fit. So you have to kind of go where you're going to fit, and then the other thing that keeps your work fresh is I try to pay 80% for gallery because you've got to be commercial. You've got to sell. If you don't sell, they're not gonna they're not gonna keep you on. So you've got to look at the marketplace, look what's selling. You've got to constantly up your game because they they're bringing in these new hot shot artists that are you know 40 years younger than you. They got more energy. They're great painters. They got a lot of skill, and and then you're going up against them. So you got to realize that and up your game, and then you still have to stay adventuresome so you don't get bored with yourself and bored with your work. So then I do the other 20% for competitions, and that's where I can let my hair down and really kind of push the boundaries. And sometimes I go a little too far, and I say to myself, I like this painting, but it's never going to sell because it's it's kind of too far too far out there, and some people still like them, but that's okay because it was for competition. I'm trying to get the judge or whoever is you know the panel to notice my work. I'm just not painting you know, another landscape or another deer or another bird painting it. I want it to kind of stand out. So, and I do find that those paintings do sell at certain venues. When you're when you're in a national show, they I sell pretty well too. I'm I'm very fortunate that way, and I'm always kind of shocked that someone bought that painting because it was kind of like a a wild hair idea, but whatever.

But that's kind of my theory: 38:03

80% more conservative, tailored for gallery and gallery's needs. And it's nice to have because I like to paint big. It's nice to have nice to have a gallery that takes big work because they don't all do that. They don't have the wall space for it, and or their venue just their their collectors just don't go big. So and I love to paint big, and I've got two galleries that take really big work, and I'm so fortunate. In fact, when we finish this, I've got to start a new big forest painting for a gallery on the coast because they love my big forest painting. So it's like, and the big ones are so nice because you get so completely involved in the process, you get obsessed with them. You dream about them. You run into problems, and then you're constantly thinking. And my husband's talking to me about something, and I'm thinking about my painting, and he'll say, "You're not paying attention. It's like, "I'm sorry, I was working on a painting in my head. So he knows that about me by now, and he knows when I'm kind of off in la la land. But you get obsessed with this. It lives with you until you get it done, and I love that. It's so over. It's such an overwhelming experience, and you get so much satisfaction when you finally pull it off. There's nothing like it, and the freedom that you get from it. Nobody can tell you how to paint this. Nobody can tell you what to do. It's yours. It's your baby. I love that, especially after working 37 years commercial insurance with all their roles. It's like that. So I'm very passionate about music and painting. If you get me going, I go off on these little tangents.

Laura Arango Baier: 39:36

I love it. It's it's so encouraging and it's very inspiring. I mean, I it makes me want to get up and go obsess over one of my paintings. Know what I'm

JM Brodrick: 39:46

talking about? That feeling. Just I put it out of my mind. Yeah, you're compelled. You're absolutely compelled, and not everybody has that. And it's like I that part I don't understand, but that's that's them.

Laura Arango Baier: 40:00

Yeah, every person has their own way of of you know experiencing their creative expression. I'm certainly like you, where first thing I think about in the morning is the painting I'm working on, and oh, there's that section that was kind of bothering me, but I think I know how to fix it. I think I just have to do this one thing, and or like if I work too long, you know, in the evening on it, and I just feel like I'm pushing paint at one point. It's like, ah, I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out later, and then I get the solution in the morning. Yeah, or I'm like, just

JM Brodrick: 40:33

either you have to take a shower, a hot shower, or you got to sleep on it, and it'll it'll come to you. But you you just I've I've done that where I've been working on a painting I'm having usually it's portraiture because when you do a portrait unfortunately it kind of needs to look like the person that you're working on and you know you sometimes God I just can't get that quite right and I'll walk away from it for a couple hours come back and then it's like oh gosh I can see I'm way off here how the how the heck did I how the heck did I get way over there? What did I do? You know the ear is like what the heck? What was I thinking? You kind of wander off, especially in portraiture for me. And so you've got to give yourself a break, go do something else, come back with fresh eyes, and then you see it. And I also I read one of Leonardo da Vinci's mechanical books a number of years ago. I think I was still in high school, and he had a method of looking in a mirror at his work so he'd see the reverse. I have huge mirrors behind or behind when I when I'm painting. I'm facing my canvas, and behind me are mirrors, big big wall of mirrors, and I constantly am turning and looking in that mirror, so I see the reverse reflection. And a lot of times, you can see an imbalance very easily when you're looking at a reflection. So that's another trick. Some painters do it upside down. I I find that weird because especially if you're doing life drawing, you can't you can't you just can't do that. You've got to figure it out from life. But you can use a mirror, and a lot of times it'll show you the imbalance and the mistakes that you're making, especially in portraiture. And I'm I'm anxious to. I have another live drawing class this Saturday. I'm anxious to get there, and I I love to keep learning. I'm planning on going to the Florence Drawing Academy. I'm going to try to get in next year. I have, like I said, I have a new puppy, and I have to kind of work my schedule around my husband's. But I'm always looking to expand and challenge myself. So you know, and and live work. Anytime you can get a chance to draw live and live wherever, be it horses, people, it's it's a welcome opportunity to grow and just plain sketch and keep keep those skills going because you because you need them you need them when you paint

Laura Arango Baier: 42:53

yeah yeah drawing is the best thing to practice all the time drawing-it's the fundamentals. I mean, you-you mentioned to me last time that you did music as well. So of course, you know how important it is to practice your yeah those scales, and it's like, oh,

JM Brodrick: 43:12

you you got to be able to hit the notes, and you you got to be able to articulate, and you know, it's it's all this this preparation work that you have to do to warm up and to be proficient in an instrument. It's very similar when you paint. You have to you have to kind of do the same things, and you you got to know the rules. And then once you know the rules, you can bend a few of them. You know, people say you never put your subject matter directly in the center. I do that occasionally. It's like you just got to make it work. Like those are the kind of rules you can break, or mixing certain color combinations. Who cares? Do what you want to do. But when you have the reflections and you're trying to do realism and you're getting having to get sky right, certain things you've you've got to get right. And you know, when you're doing a portraiture, you don't have to do the whole thing. You don't have to paint every hair on the head, but you have to kind of learn. It's got to look. It's got to look real. And there comes a point in a painting when you're working on it. You know, you have that phase where it's kind of like just based out, and it doesn't look like much. And if someone were to come in on you, which I don't usually let people come in my studio when I'm in the middle of a painting because I don't like to be disturbed. My husband knows this, and he, you know, respects my space, which is really nice. But because we all kind of go through these ugly phases in our paintings, and then you you slowly learn to it comes together. And I had an instructor, Sandra Tishner, who was a wonderful instructor for me in Michigan when I was a kid, and she'd say, "You got to make it feel real. It doesn't feel real, Jam. It does not feel real, and you have to get to that point where once that painting hits a certain level, and you go, "Oh, it's feeling real. I can feel it, and then it's coming together. But you do you know what I'm talking about? The feeling where it's like it's coming alive. It's a wonderful.

Laura Arango Baier: 45:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hard to get to that point sometimes. Yeah, it can be a struggle. Yeah, totally. But it's good too that you know, it's worth it in the end. You know, like you go through this this process that sometimes feels very painful or challenging, but the important thing is you know you keep going anyway, and you know that sure maybe some paintings won't turn out at all, and and you have to abandon them, and then other ones you just got to fight a little longer. But you know even

JM Brodrick: 45:34

with the bad ones you learn what not to do again, so they're a learning experience, and you've got to go through it, and you say to say,"Well, I'm not doing that again. I'm not mixing those things together. I'm not. I'm not going to lay that on first. I did. I did one last fall, and it was like I made a mistake of laying too light of an underwash down, and then I was trying to paint over, and it just fought me the whole way. And and I'm thinking, what? Why is this taking? Why is this fighting you so much? And it was like, well, you dummy, you you put down the the lighter wash and you should have started with a more neutral background. And it was like, yeah, I know, I I I took a shortcut I shouldn't have taken. And you kind of sort of know it. And thank goodness those. And I still pulled off the painting. In fact, it was it's one of the award winning paintings they have called Little Boots. And that thing was a struggle only because I laid down too wide of a background, and I I should have made the whole thing the kind of the the raw umber kind of raw sienna painting color that was in the background and not gone with the light and added you know you say to yourself afterwards why that was but I still pulled it off but it it didn't need to be that much work. That painting should have been done in like three days, and it it took me like two weeks. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 46:50

I totally understand that though. It's like I know better. Why did I do this to myself? And I had a yeah, and I had an instructor at school. He would tell us all the time. Shortcuts make long journeys.

JM Brodrick: 47:06

A stitching time saves nine. You know all these little antidotes where you. It's like what was I? You know, but it all comes with the planning, and that's very important. And I think as you paint more, you realize that you've got to be well planned. Paintings just don't happen by magic. You you you you have to put them together. They're constructed.

Laura Arango Baier: 47:29

Totally, totally. Yeah, they're they're like a recipe sometimes, except a little bit more chaotic. I feel like it's a little bit like a you know like the typical like I just imagine like a crazy alchemist and and you know in his lair, but at the same time there are steps that he's following. He's just doing it a little bit crazy, right? So we we're kind of like that with painting. We are,

JM Brodrick: 47:54

and you know that's the nice thing when you paint for yourself, you know, and you and you know it, and you go, okay, this doesn't have to be anything because this one's not. This is for me, and then you can really let loose, and you put on some, you know, a wild opera like Elektra or Salome, where they, you know, Richard Strauss has women getting screaming. In fact, I had a neighbor one time come over and say, "Are you all right? I was like, "It's an opera. There's a woman screaming. It's, it's not me.

Unknown: 48:20

Yeah, yeah, I can imagine. I mean, you get

JM Brodrick: 48:23

wild. Yeah, you get wild and go for it.

Laura Arango Baier: 48:26

Yeah.

JM Brodrick: 48:26

If someone saw me painting, they think, "My God, this woman has lost her mind. Because I'm like dancing around. I'm going with the music. My arms are flailing. I'm bouncing around. There's a lot of activity, and I'm, you know, I'm singing with the opera. It's it's a fantastic moment, which is one reason why don't many watching my studio. They think she's gone completely mad, so. But it's fun.

Laura Arango Baier: 48:52

Yes, yeah. Never be this

JM Brodrick: 48:54

quiet little painter that you know. That's not going to be me. My my my floor is completely demolished with paint, and my walls are like splattered, and it's like, oh well, that's just that's the nature of the beast. Nobody goes in there but me. My husband will go in there, venture in there carefully sometimes, but it's it's my it's my sacred zone.

Laura Arango Baier: 49:16

Yeah, it's where you can let loose and be free, and and just let you know those many years of insurance just melt away. Exactly. Like someone get me out.

JM Brodrick: 49:27

The constraint of a of a of a of a written contract. Let me out of here.

Laura Arango Baier: 49:32

Yes, exactly. Yeah. I I also wanted to ask you if you know when do you have collectors who have bought from you more than once, and how have you maintained relationships with those collectors?

JM Brodrick: 49:47

So some of the collectors I do meet, and a lot of them do buy more than one painting. I have one right I'm working with right now. He's bought two paintings, and he's commissioned me to do another painting for him. A lot of the galleries. Don't share the sales information with you, so I don't know who my collectors are, and and that's okay. I'm I'm that's the sales end of it's their business, but the the I used to know more of my collectors when I worked when I had smaller hometown galleries. When I lived in Fairbanks, I knew all my collectors. In fact, one of them was a Roman Catholic priest, and he bought several paintings from me, but he did it on payments. So once again, he'd come into the office with his monthly payment, and and my boss would say the priest is here to make his payment to you. So it was like I I don't know I don't know what my coworkers used to think of me. I'm sure they thought, my goodness, what is going on here? But but I figured if you couldn't trust a priest, who could you trust? So, and he bought several paintings, and he bought them all on payment plans. But you know, you make friends with some of them, and they get to know you, and you do invite them in your studio, and you kind of do invite them to see part of your world, and a lot of them really like that, and you know I enjoy them, and I'm I'm often I'm always honored when someone wants to live with my art because I don't consider it just hanging it on the wall. You're going to live with something that I made, and you're going to see it. I don't usually hang any of my own paintings. I I don't want to see any of my work. I want to paint it, and then it goes wherever it needs to go. I don't I don't keep it, and but I'm really honored when they do buy, especially when they buy multiple pieces, and and a lot of them do. It's really nice. I appreciate

Laura Arango Baier: 51:33

it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is one of those things. Like sometimes your perfect buyer is the same person who was bought from you, and it's good to manage that relationship. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know that. Oh, continue.

JM Brodrick: 51:48

Well, the one thing that that collectors have told me is that they they tell me that the longer the piece hangs, the more attached they get to it, and I find that incredibly wonderful that they feel that way about my work, so it's always nice to get the feedback. Some of my collectors go back 50 years, and in fact, I had one that used to live next door to me in Fairbanks, and they contacted me a couple months ago and said, "We still have your work. We live in Texas now. We we have the J.M. Broderick Gallery, and you know, we have when we have friends over, we we take them through and show them all your work. This is work that I did like 50 years ago, and they still have it. They still love it, and it's really nice to hear from those people. So you know, it's it's an honor to me. I'm I'm I'm blessed. I really

Laura Arango Baier: 52:36

am. Yeah, yeah, because you know you touch someone's life in a way. You know, like there's a little piece of you that existed in time, right? Because we change as artists, and that's you know that's why your paintings can never really stay the same. But it's like a little piece of you that existed in the past that's you know hanging in someone's home, and

JM Brodrick: 52:57

at that moment,

Laura Arango Baier: 52:58

yeah,

JM Brodrick: 52:58

it's kind of nice because one of the reasons I think that also attracts me to painting is that you get to leave part of yourself behind. You just don't evaporate when you pass. I like the fact that that I get to leave something behind because not everybody does. Because generally they say within three generations you're completely forgotten. I hope to have you know a little a little more legacy than three generations. We'll see. You know that that's not up to me. That's up to the fate fates of the of the universe. So, but I but I'm trying, and and that's that's also important to me. Which is one reason why I use a lot of pure materials. I don't use mixed media. I don't use gold foil. Everything I have is completely acrylic paint. I don't use additives. I don't use retardants. I try to keep my work as pure as possible, and my surfaces. I try to keep them as pure as possible. I want my work to endure a long time. That's it's an investment in me 100 years from now. I hope, maybe longer.

Laura Arango Baier: 54:01

Yes. Yeah. Having archival materials is so important because I mean, I understand that like artists at the beginning, especially, it's fine to use like student grade materials just to get started. But student grade doesn't last like even 10 years, so it's also good to know.

JM Brodrick: 54:23

Yeah, the colors are fugitive, and a lot of time the binders are. I tell students if you can afford professional paint, buy it because it's actually easier to work with, especially with watercolor. If you don't buy a good grade of paper, even I even I can't paint on crappy paper. I mean, you just can't do it. It's it's crap. So you you got to buy the best that you can afford. And same with brushes. You know, I see some students and they have these. Oh my God, they're like nasty little brushes. And it's like get some good brushes and quit using paper plates as palettes. Get a regular palette. You know, and it's like. It'll make your life so much easier. Just you know, invest in yourself a little bit more. Do I understand? Do what you can, but professional grade paint is it's just so much. Same with gesso. It's so much easier when you buy a good gesso. Other stuff is milky and runny and doesn't coat well. Just some things you just can't get a get a job if you have to, like I did, and buy yourself some decent material so you at least can work on good good good foundations. Make a big difference, and and like I said, and don't be afraid of getting a job. It's it's it's part of who you're going to be. And if you have to take care of yourself, you have to take care of yourself. You can still paint. There's no law that says you can't do it both. It's it's a lot of work, but you can do it if you really want to.

Laura Arango Baier: 55:49

Yes, yeah. Well, there's a will, there's a way. Exactly. Yeah, and I know you just gave us some more advice, but what is your biggest piece of advice for someone who wants to become a full-time artist or make a living as an artist.

JM Brodrick: 56:06

Probably you have to you have to first invest in yourself. Make sure that you're ready. You before you can enter the market, you got to make sure that you've got a product that's marketable. So will this realistically look at your work and say, what do I need to do to make this so that I can actually sell it, or that a gallery can sell it, or that a gallery will be interested in me. So you you first got to have the product. If you don't keep working at it, you'll get there. Never give up on yourself. Keep at it, and constantly achieve better work. Just the next piece you do, you got to make sure that you do a better job, and you'll get faster, and you'll get better, and it'll get easier. And you got to know how to mix color too. I see a lot, especially in acrylic paint. When I go to museums, and I've been to museums all over the world, I love museums. You get you get art overload. My son lives in London, and so I go to the London museums a lot. But the one thing I noticed about the work in general that hangs in museums, I tend to avoid the religious art sections. I like more of the impressionist and more romantic period. There's a lot of gray in those paintings, so I always have this. I have

this saying on my wall: 57:18

"Use more gray, and it unifies your painting, and you don't end up with all these bright, vulgar colors that just came out of the tube. I think that's the biggest mistake that acrylic painters make: is they're they're not mixing gray. And also, I have to say one thing that I don't like about acrylic paint is the white. The white tends when you use it, it tends to look chalky, so I avoid using actual white as best as I can. When I have to lighten a color with my my chrome, I have to lighten it. I'll use a lighter color, maybe like a brilliant green or something, and I'll get these nice effects out of it, you can't avoid making color charts either. I made color charts in the '60s. It's a pain to do. You got to do it. It's one of the foundations. It's like playing scales on the piano. You got to do it. And once you learn how to mix color, you can throw your color charts away, but it takes a few years. So you got to make color charts too with with whatever you use, and you got to know what goes with what.

Laura Arango Baier: 58:25

Beautiful.

JM Brodrick: 58:26

That's about it.

Laura Arango Baier: 58:29

Yeah, and it always feels like there's more and more. Yeah, it's you could fill a whole book, and and probably still wouldn't be enough because there's just so many little things that happen in our careers as artists, whether it's the creative side or the business side or just the everyday life side, the emailing side, keeping track of inventory.

JM Brodrick: 58:50

Oh, I know, I know, I know. You've got, and I think that's where the insurance helped me. Is it helped me with the business side? It helps me be disciplined, and I know how to do Excel, and I know how to do all these other things, and you know, I I use the the the Faso website because it's easy. But before that, it was GoDaddy, and and it was like you have to kind of learn a certain amount of programming, and it's like I don't want to do this. I just want to paint, but you you gotta put on that hat, and you know, it's like I have to do my own framing too. But I have a frame guy in Eugene. He actually makes the frames. I just have to assemble the big ones. But still, when you have to assemble a big frame, it's like, oh, but it's all part of the job. And people say, well, you need to get an intern or something, or to stretch my canvases because I stretch my own linen still and prime it all. I care about my surface, and I can't really train someone to do that for me. It's just part of the. It's like painting your studio walls. You got to do it. It's the drug. It's like paying your mortgage. You just you got it. It's it's part of life. Doing laundry. It's part of life. So that's how I just accept it and try to block it all off so that I'm efficient with my time. And I think. That's all you can do.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:00:02

Yes, very well said. Beautiful. And then, do you have any upcoming events that you'd like to mention?

JM Brodrick: 1:00:11

I do. I have a painting that's going to New York to the how do you say it?

Laura Arango Baier: 1:00:17

Salmagundi.

JM Brodrick: 1:00:18

Selma Gundy, the Selma Gundy Club, and I'm very honored to be part of this group. I just joined it; it's the American Professional Artists League, and so I have that event. I'm not sure if I'm going to attend yet. I haven't made that decision. And then I have a group show at Cole Gallery. Usually the first, I haven't talked to Denise yet, but it will probably be February or March. And then I want to make some plans to go to to take the drawing course in Florence, and I've also joined a an equestrian artist guild in the UK, and I'm hoping to get more work in the UK. So I have a reason to go visit my son, and you know maybe make a business trip out of it. Kill two birds with one stone. So they love horses, and I love horses, and so maybe it'll be a good match. So I'm I'm really excited about my future, and always competitions. I'm always looking for you know what's coming up and what can I get my art in and how am I how am I going to place? I hate losing it. You know, it's like you look at what won and you think, dang, but they did a nice painting, and he's like, I got to do better. So you you always kind of look at who beat you, and you got to try to figure out why, and then you know, it's it's always up to the judge. But after a while, you can kind of you look at the judge and you kind of think, well, maybe they'll like this and this and this, and I've gotten pretty good at getting accepted. So I'm I'm doing good in competition. I'm happy. Exciting!

Laura Arango Baier: 1:01:49

Yeah, so much exciting stuff happening. Yeah, it is. It

JM Brodrick: 1:01:51

is.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:01:52

Yeah, yeah. And then if someone wants to see more of your work, where can they see it?

JM Brodrick: 1:01:58

They can see it at jmbroderick. com on the Faso website. I'm with the Laura's Gallery in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I'm at the Freed Gallery on the Coast in Oregon. I'm at the Cole Gallery in Edmonds, Washington. I'm at Mark Thomas Gallery in Park City, Utah, and Witham Arts in Witham, New York. And and hopefully next year I'd like to take on one more gallery, which means I got to paint more. So,

Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:24

yeah, you got to run these engines. I know, I got to paint faster.

JM Brodrick: 1:02:28

I got to work harder; it never ends. I'm hoping I get another 2030, years. We'll see.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:35

Yes, I'm

JM Brodrick: 1:02:35

going to be 73 soon, so it's like you're young. I got to. I got to make my my my mark before before the before the big deadline.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:50

I think you're doing amazing. Thank you. Of course, and thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast. This was my

JM Brodrick: 1:02:57

pleasure. My pleasure.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:02:58

Motivating, inspiring, encouraging. I now I want to just dance in my studio and and paint.

JM Brodrick: 1:03:05

Put on some put on some good music. You know, whatever whatever floats your boat, and just just go for it.

Laura Arango Baier: 1:03:10

Yes, totally.