Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrice Drago.
Hi Patrice, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
When I moved to Maryland in 2002, I didn’t have any idea that I would be here this long. Originally from New York, I’ve lived all up and down the East Coast and never lived in any one location for more than six years. But I fell in love with Annapolis for so many reasons that I just haven’t had the desire to leave! As an artist and a writer, I felt embraced right from the beginning by the town and the region. With its proximity to DC, Baltimore, and NY, it’s a perfect spot.
I’ve been an artist in one form or another my entire life. It never occurred to me to focus on art or music (my two enduring loves) as a vocation, because I grew up living in hotels my father managed. It was always an exciting environment and starting at age 9, I followed my father around and bugged him to let me work. He put me off as long as he could, but by age 12, it was legal to work for a parent with a permit. Knowing me well, my father put me to work in the pantry – carving radishes into tulips and tomatoes into roses.
He wanted me to use my creative skills while also really learning what it meant to work hard and be accountable. Mission accomplished! I loved it and never stopped working from that moment on. Living in the center of a vibrant social world daily is addictive for an extrovert and I realized I always wanted to do something that kept me connected with a lot of people with different experiences. I pursued Journalism in college while putting myself through school working in hotels, playing music, and making art for myself. It seemed a natural flow to move directly into hotel management after watching my father excel at it, and it was in my bones.
I was a Food and Beverage Director of a 700-room hotel almost right out of college and after a brief detour working on cruise ships for two years (floating hotels!), I came back home and went to work for Marriott International. Throughout my lengthy, varied, and exciting career with Marriott, I sketched and painted continuously, taking art courses at whatever college was near the hotel where I worked and when I landed at the Headquarters in Washington DC, I was able to work in all my spare time on classes at the Torpedo Factory and paint while on vacation.
When I moved to Annapolis in 2002, the whisper to spend more time painting and less time on an extremely demanding corporate job became too loud to ignore. By 2010, I jumped into all things art with both feet and never said no to any art opportunity, discussion, or event. I weaned myself from my Marriott family by working on an internal consultant basis and eventually said goodbye. The hospitality industry gave me valuable skills; I knew from an early age that service – doing something that makes others’ lives better – was something I loved doing and that connections with people are what life is all about.
Leaving Marriott allowed me to take my corporate skills and apply them to my new position on the Board of Directors of MFA (Maryland Federation of Art), as the Director of Programming and Public Relations. In a highly functional non-profit and exciting environment, I felt like I was serving the public while at the same time feeding my artistic soul, making connections throughout the Anne Arundel County art community, and developing relationships I will treasure forever. in 2012, I was asked if I wanted to write the Gallery Column for the Capital Gazette, which is a monthly, full-page column sponsored by the Annapolis Gallery Association (AGA).
I also blogged for Visit Annapolis and Anne Arundel County for about six years. I’ve been writing the Gallery column for almost 12 years, and am now the primary point person for the AGA, and I’m excited that we are ramping it up to get the word out about the art that is available in Annapolis. It’s not just sailboat art, and hasn’t been for a long time! Writing the column keeps me connected with what is going on in our art world, and it also provides me with the ability to connect new artists with opportunities as well. It has been gratifying to witness over the past decade the expansion of art appreciation and the quality of art that is available in galleries and museums. Many of our exhibits are on par with Baltimore and NY.
And then of course, there’s my art: I started in grade school and high school creating abstract paintings without any guidance or even having read one thing about the NY Abstract Expressionists, the group of artists I admire tremendously now, my artistic goals have always been very simple; I am so visually oriented that when I see something beautiful it sparks a vision that I want to create. No one object or scenario inspires me more than another. If anything is a driving force for my art, it is color.
One of the best experiences I’ve had was my six-year residency at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, which gave me the opportunity to work with other artists, share feedback, and meet people who were coming to the Hall for a variety of reasons. I was able to share my process and make connections with so many artists and art lovers, and also built up a clientele because of the relationships I was able to build, there’s nothing like sending a painting off with a new friend, knowing not only that it is appreciated, but how and why. Communal art environments enrich everyone.
I love the physicality of painting large and I also love the zen state I can get in when creating small post-modernist type of collage works or creating small paintings with animals that I hope hint at the humor I see that is the fundamental aspect of relationships between people and our dear animal world. And that’s all about painting for me. To show and to sell my art, my hope is always that someone will experience a sense of joy by viewing or owning one of my paintings; that when they pass by it or look at it every day in their home it makes them smile. My work changes and evolves because that is the nature of my life, I am always seeking a new adventure, both inward and out and my art is a reflection of my current state, as well as my hopes and dreams.
Today, I sell my work through. my website and through local galleries, such as Jo Fleming Contemporary Art. I’m working on my next adventure with art connections by developing my podcast series that will hopefully create a healthy dialogue between artists galleries and art lovers.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
So glad you asked that question! Telling the story makes it sound so easy and seamless, but oh so many struggles along the way. Self-doubt – Asking myself: Am I crazy for leaving this high-paying corporate job to be a full-time artist while I have a mortgage and car payment etc.?!?
I was on an incredible high during my art residency at Maryland Hall, writing the column, blogging about art, selling and showing my art while at the same time trying to quell the anxiety of not having a reliable source of income that I had come to rely on since the age of 12. One month could be great and the next month – nothing. My business mind just couldn’t calm down about it and it was starting to affect my art production. Producing art to have to live is an entirely different experience than producing art because you love it.
The anxiety was so intense that I ended up 2016 taking a job as a Chief of Staff for a Maryland legislator. Truth be told, I also felt the need to put my college education to good use after all this time since I had studied to become a political journalist, and it seemed the country was starting to lose its collective mind. So it made sense for me to do this kind of work while putting my anxiety to rest and get some steady income.
Rejection is something every artist – every creative- has to deal with, and I think my experience in the business world has helped me to look at things less personally. It doesn’t make it any less real though, especially when, circling back to finances, rejection can mean making a lot less money.
I think my biggest challenge has been working out of my studio at home now that my residency is over. Both writing and art are introverted activities and I struggle tremendously with the lack of interaction that feeds my excitement and ultimately inspires me. Since I left my legislative job at the end of 2022, it has been a huge struggle to get my bearings and create a structured work week, and also because I’m going through a transition in how I want to approach my work.
That always requires time, and I was at loose ends, struggling with depression, 2023 was tough. VERY tough. Knowing my work was changing, I took too long of a break from social media (never a good idea) and also spent more than 4 months with family up north, which delayed the whole transition process. I’m starting to re-find my footing and looking forward to establishing a new direction for 2024.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a true abstract expressionist in that the majority of my work is non-objective and never done from a study. While I can do commissions based on previous paintings, I can never replicate them. I work in themes rather than series. Artists who work in series often create the paintings at the same time and with the same execution.
An example of my themed work is my “Coastal” series, which all relate to each other but were done individually and with no thought of the previous painting. They are mostly themed by color and movement which happens to be where I am in my head at that time. My large works are created mostly with painting knives and extra-long handled brushes for less control. Even though they are non-objective, composition is very critical for me and my work always has to identify lines or shapes.
I am proud of the commissioned work I created for the University of Maryland’s James A Clark School of Engineering 125th Anniversary Gala. I created a 60″ x 48″ painting live at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC: during the cocktail hour of the celebratory event. The painting was to commemorate some of the notable accomplishments of the school’s professors and graduates. The event was magical – a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I loved participating in a tactical urbanism project in the Annapolis Arts District by creating a 10′ diameter sidewalk circle that has now lasted for 5 years! I am most proud of the community work that I have done and continue to do, to help foster an embracing environment for artists of all levels and for art appreciators to learn more and ask more questions.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I think that the fact that I grew up living in hotels is uncommon – and that I loved it.
From age 5 through high school, I was a dancer (tap, ballet, jazz), and I also used to play guitar, piano, and sing. I think if you asked my high school friends what path they thought I would take it would have been music. It is still my great love. That and food. LOVE the creativity of cooking!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.patricedrago.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PatriceRDrago/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatriceDrago
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrice-drago-b796a713/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PatriceDrago/videos
- Other: https://www.threads.net/@patricerdrago
