Marina © Nene Thomas (Image provided courtesy of the artist.) .

…they're expensive. Now I'm beginning to see -- I don't use them live, though. I'll do a photo shoot. If you go to something like the Festival of Chosen, you'll find people who are in great shape. Whether they're intelligent or not is not important. It's what they look like and what I'm looking for. So I'm getting rolls and rolls of reference film.

One of the angels I have in the Dealer's Room [Vox Fini](image 2)-- that's a man. That's a real person. That's how I painted him. I did not paint him realistically to look exactly like him. I painted him with my style in mind.

But I'm finding… say you're trying to paint a piece of armor or a shield. How in the heck does sunlight on a shield end up looking when it's 45 degrees and there's a tree falling over it. Well, if you have a picture, you know that it's going to look correct. So, photographic reference is something you can pull from for anything.

It would be nice to have a live model. I use my husband. All my hands and feet -- those are Todd's. I take out my little Polaroid® and say, "Do this with your hands." Click. Then I've got this perfect hand, right there. I know exactly what it's got to look like.

Crescent Blues: What was the genesis of your collaboration on "Shieldmates?"(image 1)

Nene Thomas: It was Ruth's idea.

Ruth Thompson: I said, "I really want to do a piece together. Why don't we do a piece together?"

Nene Thomas: You told me pretty much what you wanted, so I went and I…

Ruth Thompson: You did the whole first sketch.

Nene Thomas: I found the pose out of one of the Playboy newsstand specials. It was a little, bitty picture, an inch wide and an inch and a half tall. It was really hard to draw from, actually. So I did the sketch, and you transferred off your girl.

Ruth Thompson: I transferred off mine, then I sent it to you, because we were together over Thanksgiving [1999]. That's when we get together to do the pencil.

I did my girl and gave it to Tina so she could take it back. Tina did her girl and knocked in the sky -- how the sky was going to look. The arch was already done, and I added ivy. And I began with the face for my woman.

Crescent Blues: Which woman was whose?

Ruth Thompson: Oh the red-haired woman's mine.

Nene Thomas: The dark-haired woman's mine.

Ruth Thompson: My woman's kind of chesty and pretty large. Most of my women look kind of large. Not that there's anything wrong with anything small and waif-like. I just like to paint that way. And I did the background sky, then the arch and detailed in the ivy. Then Tina went back and did her woman.

When Tina got done with her woman, I went back and changed mine to alter some colors. I wanted the colors to fit better together.

Crescent Blues: Were you physically in the same spot when you painted the picture.

Nene Thomas: No.

Ruth Thompson: We did the pencil together. Tina went through all my photographic references of skies. That's how we did the background, but for the actual painting, I sent it to her. It's not very large. The original is 14-by-21. If it was a big piece, I could see two people working on it at once, but with this picture, no way.

Nene Thomas: Our elbows would be in the way.

Ruth Thompson: Yeah, they'd be pushing.

Crescent Blues: Are you planning to paint another picture together?

Ruth Thompson: I don't know. Weren't we talking about a tarot idea?

Nene Thomas: I was thinking with the tarot idea -- if we did companion pieces, you could do the guy, and I'd do the girl.

Ruth Thompson: Now I'm really enjoying painting men. Not that I'd rather not paint women, but I can feel my style changing. It varies. With the angel series, it's going through something, and I like it. I just hope that other people do too. But I think that's what we'd like to do together. I'd do the guy, and she'll do the woman, and we'd try to make a set. Get it from me. Get it from her. Get it together.

Nene Thomas: I like the wildlife triptych art where there have three pieces, and there's a continuing background. It's really beautiful.

Crescent Blues: Some tarot decks use continuing backgrounds for each suit.

Nene Thomas: The King of Swords, the Queen of Swords… That would be awesome.

Crescent Blues: There you go.

Ruth Thompson: We'll make it so it's actually broken up. What we might do if we do that -- although there's nothing wrong with the traditional way of doing the same background for every card. I just don't paint traditionally. I'll use anything: coffee, cat hair…

Nene Thomas: That'll work fine.

Ruth Thompson: When I hear the comment, "Oh, you work in acrylics," I'm always surprised. But I guess I shouldn't be, because I don't use any paint traditionally. I don't use oils traditionally; you don't see big swatches of blending. I don't use watercolors traditionally; I use them really heavy.

And when we do this, we'll probably do it on one big board, draw it all together, then chop it in half. So the drawing will be done together.

Nene Thomas: That's a cool idea.

Ruth Thompson: OK, that's our January work.

Crescent Blues: What about your work styles -- are you messy when you paint or neat? And are your styles compatible?

Ruth Thompson: My studio is half very organized and half a big, sloppy mess. I can be very organized in the beginning [of a painting]. I have little Post-It(r) notes on what the piece is I want to do, and the books are arranged in a certain order. By the end of a painting, it's all over the place. There are references on the floor. There are places where our kitties have slid all over everything. There's a blob of oil paint over there -- which is why I like a mat underneath my paintings, because I get messy when I paint. Are you messy or clean?

Nene Thomas: When I'm in the middle of painting it looks like chaos in there. The cats drink the watercolor water, lay on the paintings.

Ruth Thompson: There's something special about watercolor water. They'll wait. They'll see you open the white, and all three of them will sit down, waiting for me to get it in the water.

Nene Thomas: They probably think there's some vital mineral in the paint.

Ruth Thompson: They're trying to evolve to the next level, and they think if they get enough watercolor in their bodies…

Crescent Blues: Isn't there a book called Why Cats Paint?

Ruth Thompson: That is the coolest book! And there's a new one out where they have people dancing with them. The cats dance, and the people dance with them, and they leap in the air. I wish my cats would do that. Most of the time they just blot out.

Nene Thomas: Mine too.

Ruth Thompson: On your paintings.

Crescent Blues: Nene, you were an Air Force spouse for many years. Given your work style, how difficult was it to box everything up and move it every few years?

Nene Thomas: It was terrible. He got out of the Air Force. He works for me full-time, and we moved back to Oklahoma. We bought an old -- it's not a Victorian home. It was built in 1912, but it's old and big and wood and pipes that smell and dry rot. Old homes are beautiful, and they have so much atmosphere, but they're money pits. But all houses are money pits. Cars too.

Crescent Blues: Did you find the mobility of military life made it difficult to make connections, or were the connections at the shows unaffected where you were starting from?

Nene Thomas: The networking was pretty much unaffected by constantly moving. What was affected by constantly moving was the time and the concentration to paint. That was truly affected by the moving.

Crescent Blues: How did you find a man who did custom mats, or did you train him?

Nene Thomas: He trained himself, actually. I only framed double- and triple-mats, occasionally with a small, fancy cut. I asked him for some help one night, and he did the simple mats. Then he got a ruler and a mechanical pencil, and started mapping out this very elaborate grid, and he just taught himself.

Then I married him quickly so he wouldn't escape. That's the key: having a spouse who helps.

Ruth Thompson: I couldn't be where I am if I didn't have Todd Jordan. We've been together now for 16 years, and the bottom line is I wouldn't have employees or businesses or the shops or the Renaissance festivals if he hadn't been willing to sacrifice his dreams for about eight years.

It's his time now. I've hired another person, and I'm going to get one more person in about a year or so to do Todd's work. So I have one lady who does the paperwork, and another person who handles framing and matting. I do the shows, and he only does the shows that he has to.

That's pretty rare. Tina and I discussed this. It's pretty rare to find a man who's able to say, "You know what, we're going to try to rely on your talents and abilities and your decisions." It's a different kind of supporting. We're intimately tied together, not just in business, but as partners. I think a lot of artists don't have that. I feel bad that they don't have that. It's a pretty rare thing to find.

Crescent Blues: I think more for women artists than male artists. Women tend to approach these things differently.

Ruth Thompson: You feel guilty if you don't get everything done. You feel, "Oh God, I'm not getting everything done. I'm not doing this. I'm not doing that. I didn't make sure somebody's birthday card got out on time." You can't handle everything at once. And you're right, it has something more to do with females than it does with males. Male artists, you know, they don't have a problem. They just sit and paint. They don't keep the house clean.

Nene Thomas: The woman takes care of the house, the kids, the yard…

Crescent Blues: What advice would you offer to an aspiring artist?

Nene Thomas: Draw all the time, every day. Hold down a full-time job and draw when you get home at night and before you go to work in the morning. Love it enough to work around your full-time job until it gets big enough to start generating money. Then you'll have the love to put into it when it just becomes a job, and it will. Eventually, even if you do something you truly, truly love, it will become a job. It will become work.

Crescent Blues: Following that theme, how has painting changed for you since you got your first contract? Has your style changed? Has your outlook changed?

Nene Thomas: Yes. The style has changed. I'd like to think it's grown. My outlook has changed, because it used to be the money from the artwork was just extra. Now we plan around it -- we will do X amount at X show. OK, we can put this into the house to do this, we can put this into the vehicle to do this. I guess the outlook has changed, because the money is being applied to very practical things instead of: "I sold a $150 painting. Woo Hoo! Let's go out to eat."

Crescent Blues: What about you, Ruth? What advice would you offer?

Ruth Thompson: I was noticing this coming back to conventions as opposed to Renaissance festivals. I love the atmosphere at Renaissance festivals. I really do. It's more like a theater production. The cannon goes off and boom! I'm a stage player. I really am. I love talking to people.

But when I'm at a convention, I can really be me. I don't have to speak a certain way. I don't have to be in "garb." If I feel like going to a panel or whatever, it's: "Somebody watch the booth. I'm going to do this."

I've noticed with this show that there's a lot of beginning artists -- and a lot of [artists working in three-dimensional media] -- who are so promising. My best advice would have to be: do what you want. There is no formula. Just because this artist did it this way does not mean you'll succeed doing it this way. Another artist was a contract artist for ten years, then decided to be a freelancer. That's not the way I went. I was only a contract artist for a year, then said, "I'm done! I'll do my own thing."

If you do love it, you'll find a way to make it work. If this is what you want to do, look for venues that it will sell in. There are conventions all over the country. If it's science fiction and fantasy -- even if it's not -- there's so many places where it will appeal.

And it's going to hurt when people say, "No." It's OK. Just realize that and don't ever apologize for yourself being a beginner. Don't let that stop you.

Crescent Blues: So you would encourage fledgling artists to enter the amateur shows…

Ruth Thompson: Yes! And that gets back to your question about how things have changed. Beginning as an amateur, you're going to have this freshness and innocence. It's going to be the best you've ever felt before, because it's not going to be like working for anybody else. Even if you get paid well, it's the difference between your ideas and someone else's. It's my idea that someone else is purchasing. Oh my God! I love this. When you first have it, at the very beginning, you'll never lose it. It's like your first love.

The first person you're in love with -- that will never go away. You'll always remember it -- even if the memories are bittersweet, because you're not with that person. It's the same way with art. Start at the beginning and enjoy it, because the innocence will leave.

Look at it this way, the innocence is there, but you have a lot of fear. The fear will fade, but so will the innocence. You have to accept it and go: "Sometimes, this is a job. Sometimes, I really don't want to get up and go to work." And the nice thing is, if I'm not doing a show, I can. I can stay in bed all day. Which is why I set it up so half the year I'm doing shows -- and my painting is at a minimum -- and half the year, I'm painting full-time.

I might change it. I might shift the way it is to get more balance. But I kind of like it the way it is, because trying to paint eight hours is like trying to balance a pin between your two fingers and balancing a piece of paper, flat, on top of that for eight hours. It's not a concentration like it is when you're doing math problems for eight hours. It's focus. You have to be focused -- cutting out all that extraneous stuff in your head -- because the thinking in your head has to be clear and precise, or it will come out on the board.

Doing it can be wild. It really is. Honestly, my advice for everybody would be why not? And don't ever quit. Don't quit. That's the hard thing. You see people from year to year, at different shows, who are amazing and wonderful, and then you'll see them five years later and ask, "Are you still doing it?"

"Oh, no, I'm not."

I don't know if it's about the money -- because they aren't making any money -- or because it is hard work once you get into it.

Jean Marie Ward

Click here to learn more about Ruth Thompson.

Click here to learn more about Nene Thomas.