More About Trish

 

I started my art career in the late 80s when I entered college with an art major already declared. After three semesters of critiques I didn't understand, and a growing feeling of imposter syndrome, I dropped the major, believing I had no artistic ability. Or more accurately, believing I was not an "artist" -  whatever that meant. Throughout my adult life I dabbled in visual arts, music, and writing but never applied consistent effort, my internal self-critic ever present just beneath the conscious surface, always pushing me into what others expected of me. 

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I started my first business (web design company) in my late 20s and then went on to obtain an MBA and Ph.D. in Strategic Management, served as a professor of Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy, and ran a multimillion dollar construction fastener company for the better part of a decade. ​Then, in my early 50s, I was presented with a rare opportunity to step back from my life as in the business world and invest a few years in something I really wanted. That something was art and I have been dedicated to it since 2020. While I went into this time with a strong desire and focus to "be an artist" and "make great art," through the process I have learned that making art is so much more for me. The work has become a kind of therapeutic identity development and deep dive into self-understanding. 

 

Broadly speaking, my “subject matter” is about how we come to develop and understand our place in the world by stringing together, layering, or stacking up the salient moments of our lives. In many ways, I am attempting to create a kind of unique visual syntax suggesting a complex and disorganized unity of self that still holds together as a sort of gestalt in any one moment, developed by cobbling together life experiences. In addition, I see my art as a catalyst to spark change in and for others, and each piece carries with it a message of movement toward authenticity, whatever that means for the viewer. ​

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My so-called day job is still in the business world, where I run Sanders & Boyles, a business management services company. There I help small businesses organize and report accounting and financial information as well as gleen strategic analysis from the data to inform decision making for enhanced performance. And I continue to work on my art, living out multiple purposes, and feeding all the sides of my brain and heart.