CASE STUDY: TRUST IN COLLABORATION

I recently delivered a commission to a dear friend from college Irene Song and her husband Stefan Sharkansky. The process and experience was fascinating for me as it demonstrated the important role trust plays in a collaboration – trust among those involved in the collaboration and trust in oneself. It was a wholly virtual collaboration, since I live in Seattle and Irene divides time between a midwest urban home and a new mountain home, where the artwork now lives. I dusted off my presentation deck techniques from my agency days, logged into Zooms, and texted status videos where I talked through progress. It was my largest installation to date so I was heavily invested in doing everything I could for a successful outcome! I’m happy to say that was achieved, along with all sorts of good learnings and deepened friendships.

Cordillera, triptych, 70” x 33” x 1.5”, handmade acrylic monoprint collage on three custom basswood/plywood panels.

Cordillera is defined as “a system or group of parallel mountain ranges together with the intervening plateaus and other features,” especially in ranges like the Rockies where my client lives. My client’s inspiration for this triptych was Asian screens, made modern with bold graphics. While the finished work is not an intentional representation of a mountain range, I found the end result of large scale abstract shapes to be suggestive of a cordillera.

Importance of Process

In my art, I approach projects as professionally as possible – and especially if it’s for a friend. I would never want to be too casual or relaxed to the point of overlooking professional courtesy or skipping steps. My desire is to make the process understandable for my clients, to ensure their needs are met, their questions are answered and they are excited by the work we do together. The beginning of this project involved processing more tangible details like constraints of the location, desired color palette, and inspiration from among my portfolio. The trust that was developed, by listening and sharing, and getting on the same page, paved the way for more independence during the less tangible work of creative development and production.

Pages from a concept review deck.

Nuts + Bolts of Cross-Country Collaboration

Our commission team included another college classmate and interior designer Howard Stolar, whose astute observations and input in our design reviews were invaluable to my creative process. Howard had guided Irene to a custom work for the heart of their home, for the ability to be specific with dimensions. We worked with photographs of the tricky setting, did math and used best practices to helping guide scale, proportion and orientation – because I did not want to make a mistake in sizing the beautiful hardwood panels that would become the focus of the room. To boost my confidence and gain client buy-in, I shipped my client several Kraft paper sizing templates to hang in place, then photograph from several places in the room. As you can see from this photo, yes, my friend is petite, but I would not have been able to guess how substantial the hearth and mantel were in this room! Safely shipping the weighty panels from Seattle was both a learning experience and a team effort, navigating crating, shipping, and “unboxing” at their destination.

Irene for scale!

Trust for myself

Once we had established all project parameters, we moved to fewer status check-ins and more independent creation back on my coast. There’s nothing that an artist likes better to hear than “you decide – I trust you!” But more important here was for me to trust myself, especially when it came to production methods: I had to be assured that my custom-created monoprints would adhere properly to the panels. I decided to do a smaller proof of concept piece with all the same materials as well as a panel created by the same maker, Bara Woodshaping of Eugene, OR . Once satisfied, I gave myself a personal green light to proceed with the triptych.

“The Fullness of Life,” 24x24, handprinted acrylic monoprint collage on hardwood panel. Proof of production concept for "Cordillera.”

Commission Completed

I’m so pleased that my client is happy with the triptych and valued our collaborative process. I haven’t done many commissions, but interestingly, they have all been for friends from important times in my life. Summer camp. Choral singing. College. In all instances, the process of developing a new level of trust through artistic collaboration has deepened the friendships. I learn more about my friends as clients as I learn more about myself as an artist. I am so grateful for the opportunity Irene and Stefan gave me in creating Cordillera. I am looking forward to seeing it in situ, in its new mountain home.