"Well, it kind of just happened organically I guess I'd say. I ran the Boston Marathon 2013, the year of the bombing. And after that, I just did some personal kind of self-expression paintings about the Boston Marathon. And continued to paint the scenes for the Boston Marathon that year and decided to do a little show at marathon sports in Boston, just to raise some money for the One Fund, which is the Boston Marathon Bombing charity. And people just really responded well to those paintings and so I continued to make Boston Marathon paintings and it just kind of took off from there. And AT&T found me online and it became a little niche that I had and so I just continued doing that ever since.” This episode of the Smart Athlete Podcast is brought to you by Solpri, Skincare for Athletes. Whether you're in the gym, on the mats, on the road or in the pool, we protect your skin so you're more comfortable in your own body. To learn more, go to Solpri.com. JESSE: Welcome to the Smart Athlete Podcast. I'm your host, Jesse Funk. My guest today is an artist and runner. She won the Brooklyn Marathon in 2015. If you ran Boston in 2016, you may have seen some of her artwork because she did the artwork that AT&T displayed at the Boston Marathon then. She's also a steeplechase national club champion. Welcome to the show, Hope Phelan. HOPE: Thank you. Nice to be here. JESSE: Now, we obviously we got-- So, if you are listening on iTunes, you're missing out on the visuals especially since hope is an artist. So, you've got I assume a piece of work that you've done behind you there. HOPE: Yes, yep. This is one of the paintings I did for AT&T in 2016, one of my Boston Marathon works. JESSE: So, how does that gig come about? Because I mean, I am not a working artist by any stretch of the imagination, but I do things from time to time. So, I have friends who would like to be working artists, and I know that it can be difficult getting paid work. How do you get to the point that you're working for AT&T of all people to do a commission to work? HOPE: Well, it kind of just happened organically I guess I'd say. I ran the Boston Marathon 2013, the year of the bombing. And after that, I just did some personal kind of self-expression paintings about the Boston Marathon. And continued to paint the scenes for the Boston Marathon that year and decided to do a little show at marathon sports in Boston, just to raise some money for the One Fund, which is the Boston Marathon Bombing charity. And people just really responded well to those paintings and so I continued to make Boston Marathon paintings and it just kind of took off from there. And AT&T found me online and it became a little niche that I had and so I just continued doing that ever since. JESSE: So, I guess we'll go back to Boston with the bombing. I mean, were you still on course at that point in time, had you already finished? HOPE: I was really lucky I’d already finished about an hour before the bomb went off. I was one street over on Newbury Street, if you're familiar with Boston, waiting for some friends, you know, to gathering and trying to find everybody and heard the bombs go off. But I didn't see them and just saw people running and screaming and we were just kind confused like what had happened. I just thought a car had backfired or something, you know, nothing-- I didn't assume the worse, obviously. But then people were saying that there's like a lot of blood, we have to evacuate the area. And the cell service was down too so we really didn't know what had happened. So, I just started walking back to my apartment because I didn't know what else to do. And then eventually, an hour or so later, I found out the whole story. So, yeah, it was a very scary time in Boston. JESSE: Yeah, does that-- I mean, so you're almost-- So, like, I understand-- You're saying you didn't think it was a bomb obviously, and I think that’s something that maybe sometimes we as Americans forget, like we're engaged as a country in like all these wars, but like we don't live in a country where wars are being engaged. Like we don't have to think about You know, soldiers coming into our towns and blowing things up or occupying areas. So, it's not even in our consciousness that like things like that can happen. HOPE: Yeah, no, I didn't think there was anything like that had happened. No. Yeah, it seemed very surreal, even when people were saying it, I was like, no, it couldn't be that bad. But, yeah. JESSE: Does that like wash, like after you got back to your apartment, and then the, not proceeding, the weeks later, does that reality wash over you? Or how does that, does it even affect you moving forward from there? HOPE: Oh, yes. That was kind of why I started doing the paintings because I was just kind of trying to make sense out of the whole thing. It was kind of some like new territory. I guess you've never experienced it before. We were for, I'd say maybe 48 hours after the bombing, we were supposed to stay inside because they were doing the manhunt trying to find the bombers too, and I had some friends in Watertown where they ended up finding him who were caught in like, crossfires and hiding under the cars and sending videos. And it was just like, so strange because you're just not used to that. Like you said, we're not living in a war-torn area. And it's just like, what's going on here? Where are we living? And so that's when I was stuck in my apartment for a couple days and making these paintings and it kind of just came, yeah, came out of me. JESSE: Yeah. So, you continued to do it now so I would assume that your paintings of other years are not just centered around, like, the thoughts and emotions around the bombing but other aspects of the race? HOPE: Yeah, the year after that I made a couple right then that were mostly just emotional, like abstract expressionists a little with runners in them. But then after that I didn't want to highlight anything bad about the marathon. I want to bring the joy back into the race and you know, move away from that. So, the rest of my paintings, the ones I made for AT&T and beyond are all happy and centered around how amazing the Boston Marathon is, the joy, the support and how Boston rally came back and the race continues to be awesome today and yeah. JESSE: Yeah. Do you-- I think I read something about that you donate proceeds from selling the paintings to the fund for the families affected by the bombing, or was that just initially? HOPE: It was just that show that I did the next year. Yeah, donated some of those proceeds to the One Fund. JESSE: Okay. So, is this-- Since, as Joe kind of gave me your bio, you being an artist and runner, do you work full time as an artist? HOPE: I work part-time as an elementary school art teacher, and then the other part of the time as a working artist. JESSE: I would still consider that, I know people give teachers a hard time, but like, especially like, I'll say art teachers or music teachers where it’s like obviously, everybody has a saying of if you can't do teach. But it's like, the best people that teach are the ones that also do. HOPE: Yeah, right. JESSE: So, I wouldn't be like, oh, no, I’m not a-- Yeah, I would consider you a working artist if you're getting paid to do works, but you also teach like that's, I think that's perfectly acceptable at least in my book. HOPE: It's kind of the best of both worlds also, because for a while, right after college, I was exclusively freelancing. And it's just, it's so stressful and I'm not getting a steady paycheck first of all, and then health insurance and all that stuff. So, I work-- I teach three days a week and the rest of the time I can work on my artwork. And I think it's a good balance and it's also nice to get out and talk to people. And you know, it gets a little lonely if you're in your studio all day, every day with your own thoughts. JESSE: Like all the painting starts certainly turning to like, somber hues, and slowly you’re like, I’m gonna do a whole scheme in gray. HOPE: Yeah, yeah. And children are so inspirational too, like the artwork they make, it's uninhibited and just lovely, full of joy and that, sometimes I bring that inspiration back to my studio with me. JESSE: Yeah, it is like, do you have to get into a state where it's like you-- So, for racing, so this makes sense too. I mean you probably have a routine, your warm up routine before you go run. Do you have like a similar kind of, I'll call it a warm up routine, but to paint where it's like like I get out the paints, lay them out in a certain pattern, I get my brushes out, there's like a certain kind of methodology you get to get in the zone for painting? HOPE: Yeah. I mean, it’s not as routine as running, you know running I'm like, I need to eat four hours beforehand ?? 10:24> exact about that painting. It's kind of when the mood strikes you I feel like you're, sometimes you're just in the right headspace and it comes out and it's just flowing just right, you know. And I do paint very gesturally, so I would say I do kind of do a little warm up, just kind of some gestural marks, kind of doodles I guess, on a separate piece of paper, and then start on whatever I'm working on. And I start very loosely usually. I do mostly watercolors or like the work behind me, right now is wet on wet acrylic. So, the beginning layer is just very loose and almost abstract, you're just kind of getting, blocking in the colors. And then you start to build it up layer by layer and then work on the details later in the painting. So, that's kind of like a warm up within a painting, I guess. JESSE: Yeah. So, you do like the kind of classic method, are you doing like an underpainting and then painting over and... HOPE: Yeah, exactly. JESSE: Okay. Okay. I'm just curious. That's the art background coming out. I was glad you said acrylics, I was curious because it looks like acrylics. I liked working with oils. I don't remember why I preferred oils but, and I don't really paint much anymore. If I draw it's like, it's gonna be graphite or I'm gonna get-- I like charcoals. I like working with charcoals because I don't have to worry about the colored aspect. Yeah. It’s just all, since I do it so, so infrequently. For me, I almost find talking about like kind of getting in the mood or like finding your own inspiration for a work. I almost find I’ll draw, I'll find I'll have a period of maybe a month, every year where I draw and it's often this like weird still almost depressive time in the middle of winter, where my mind kind of, I'll say calms down, but like, there's a very specific time when I'm like, I feel like I need to draw something or do something and it's this just very interesting mood and I don't know how to get into it other than it just happens in the wintertime. So, I'm always curious to see like how you stay productive or like the artists I work with that I hire for projects, you know how they just continue to output creative things all the time. HOPE: I think the winter is definitely a great time, especially I'm in rural Vermont and snowed in a lot and you're inside more so you're just there with your paints and it's a nice time to create artwork for sure. But I also love working outside and plein-air, I do love like outdoor painting. Especially with watercolors, I can take them around, they're portable. The different seasons here are all inspirational in their own way you know the fall, the beautiful--
Smart Athlete Podcast Ep. 45 - Hope Phelan - Paint the Miles - Part 1 of 3
Well, it kind of just happened organically I guess I'd say. I ran the Boston Marathon 2013, the year of the bombing. And after that, I just did some personal kind of self-expression paintings about the Boston Marathon.
