Q and A with Hamlett Dobbins.

After Hamlett Dobbins spoke with my professional practices class I was very interested in his home life, seeing as he lives in is gallery space with his children. These are the questions that I posed for him, and that he was awesome enough to answer!

Questions:
1.How do your kids interact with the space?
2.How do they feel when you have openings, are they invited?
3.Are they interested in the arts, even at such a young age?
4.Would you want your children to become artists if they show the interest in the subject? Why, Why not

Here are his Answers:
1. my kids interact with Material all the time, it's where we store our bikes, it's where they build their forts, if they have big projects they need to work on (how to build a monster out of spare pieces of pink insulative foam) they do it there in the gallery. From a very early age they know not to mess with the art or the walls of the gallery. It's just another room in our house. A room where other people show their art to other people. They walk through the space all the time to get from our living space to my studio.

2. they like the openings particularly if the artists are serving cookies for the refreshments. They sneak downstairs and grab one or two during the festivities. They usually just like to chill out upstairs during the openings, they know that when I'm down there I'm at work, making sure no homeless people or meth-heads come in and mess with anything, or if someone spills some wine I wipe it up before anyone slips and falls. I am also there to make sure the guests know who the artist is. Sometimes if a bunch of their friends are there at the opening, they'll come down and hang out. But usually they prefer to be in their part of the house. We do shut the openings down promptly at 8:15 so they can have some quiet as they go to sleep upstairs (their rooms are directly above the gallery.)

3. They are interested in looking at art and thinking about it. My son is very physical, he likes to build stuff and my little girl likes to read and is more cerebral. They both like to draw and they have sketchbooks scattered around the house. Usually drawing is the way we pass the time when we're at restaurants waiting on our food. When I was a kid my parents had friends who were potters (my godfather is a potter). And it was important for me to be around all those people. My sister is a poet and I guess the same goes for her.

4. I want them to do whatever makes them happy. They understand that the life of someone in the arts isn't always easy and it's always a challenge but I'm never bored and I always have something to do that I don't know how to do. I'm always figuring something out. I hope they see that. My wife and I always joke that the way they'll rebel against us is that they'll both be corporate lawyers.


Also here is a plug for the show at Rhodes this Friday!!

You should come to see the show at rhodes that opens on friday, it's a great painting show. really great stuff (www.caratomlinson.com).