RS Attorney James Radford interviews painter Peter Roux about his work, “Suspension (Level) Number 2,” as well as the impact of Hurricane Helene on the River Arts District in Asheville, NC. They also discuss the business of art, the artist-as-employee, and the importance of legal representation for the professional artist. This interview took place in the Decatur, Georgia, offices of Radford Scott LLP on November 13, 2024.
A transcript of the full interview is below:
James Radford: Welcome everyone. My name is James Radford and we’re here in the law offices of Radford Scott LLP in Decatur, Georgia. I’m here with Peter Roux who is an artist based in Asheville, North Carolina, and Peter has brought this lovely painting to us today for our lobby. I wanted to take the opportunity to talk to Peter a bit about his work, the business of art, and about the experience of himself and other artists in Asheville who are recovering from the recent storm there. Peter, thanks for being here today.
Peter Roux: Thank you.
JR: Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is actually one of the few pieces that survived the storm.
PR: You’re absolutely right. It’s one of the few that survived. So my studio, most everything, got destroyed or not salvageable, really, is the best way to describe it. And there were a couple of exceptions, and this was one of them. It was up on the wall, and it was high enough on the wall, that it managed to avoid the water and I was able to salvage it by taking it off the stretcher bars that rolled it up carefully and brought it home. And it was the first thing that I did when I finally got back to work. If you look closely, there are some battle scars. I won’t point them out, But they do exist, which I actually think is kind of cool about that piece. I’ll always kind of think about that piece this way.
JR: That makes the piece really special to us, and we’re really grateful to have it.
PR: I appreciate that.
JR: One thing that struck me about your cloud pieces that I liked is, from a distance, it almost looks photorealistic to me. But then when you get up close to it, you can really see the paint. And then I also like the way you incorporate sort of more abstract elements into the piece where you can really see that it is a painting.
PR: I’m glad that you respond that because that’s an important kind of element for me in it. It is sort of reminding that it is a painting, is very much part of what drives that.
JR: I know that your studio space was in what’s called the River Arts District there in Asheville. Was anyone expecting that it would cause that kind of damage?
PR: It was a complete surprise. No one was expecting the level of damage and destruction that ended up occurring.
JR: Do you remember the moment in time when you learned that the River Arts District was overwhelmed the way that it was?
PR: It was a drone shot that somebody had taken on Friday, still in the middle of the last part of the storm. And it was a drone shot in the air of my building of River Arts and the surrounding buildings. There were about four or five, six buildings. And they were all under water. And I saw that photo and I said, “Well, it’s done. It’s done.”
JR: How did you feel in that moment?
PR: I was numb. It took me a while for it to process. So, I was shocked.
JR: I picked my son up from Camp Ridgecrest this last summer, and we went to the River Arts District. I actually went to look at some of your pieces and some others. We spent the day just very surprised at how many artist spaces were in the district and the various buildings. Thinking about that and all we saw and the sheer volume of work that was likely destroyed. . .
PR: About 80% of them were partially or completely had their studios destroyed.
JR: Is there any kind of insurance claim process going on right now?
PR: Very few people had flood insurance. In fact, most of the artists did not. I did not. It was not offered, wasn’t available. In addition to insurance, FEMA has been another potential source of monies for people in different ways. And then grants. There’s been a lot of emergency grant programs that have come out.
JR: Are people talking about trying to reestablish what had been there in the River Arts District? Are people moving on to other locales?
PR: I’m not sure what the future holds. They’re doing such a great job of the community, artists working with each other, to try people who still have studio space and show space, trying to reach out to others who don’t, to help them at least temporarily in whatever way they can.
JR: So obviously we are in the business of employment law, and I’m always interested to learn about the types of jobs that people do and to support themselves and their family. So I understand you’ve been working full time as an artist for about 10 years, but there was plenty of time before that when you had to work other types of jobs in order to support yourself and your family. Would you be willing to talk to us about some of the types of jobs that you held in those years before you were able to work full-time as an artist?
PR: Sure. When I was in school, I waited tables. I was a server and did that. Even after I finished school continued to do that. At first I was full-time and I was just sort of trying to get myself started as a painter and as a fine artist. And I did that until I started actually picking up some teaching, higher education. So I became an adjunct professor and that’s just a fancy name for part-time. I did that for about another three years, four years or so.
JR: When you were working the restaurant job, what kind of hours were you working during the week?
PR: I was working mostly nights. When I was doing it at full time, I was working all nights, actually, and this was a restaurant that would be open until about 10, sometimes 11, on the weekends.
JR: When did you sleep?
PR: Probably not enough, not enough. But it is hard, I remember it well. It was very, very difficult to be able to balance all of that. You know, I think I always felt like I want to put more time into the studio and more time into the work because I need to create the work in order to be able to get the work out. But I’m exhausted. I think I learned at that point a little bit about, without realizing, that I was teaching myself at the time about discipline, about trying to get into patterns of working that I’d kind of push myself to do. When I still do that now, when I go to the studio or when I go into my studio to work, there are days I don’t want to go—because it is work. But I will force myself to, as if I try and imagine that I have a boss that I’m employed by someone who’s watching me and watching when I’m here and when I’m in the office and what I’m done.
JR: What are some of the lessons you learned about the business of art and how to do this type of work and be able to support yourself and a family financially?
PR: I found out really quickly that I had no idea what I was doing on that side, the business side. And I also found out really quickly, the business side is a necessary side, it’s critical. So, I feel like I wear two hats. I wear a creative hat when I’m working and then I wear a hat that’s all about everything from inventorying the work and archiving it to marketing it to, you know, to invoicing and dealing with taxes and dealing with knowing what is deductible.
JR: Have you had relationships with any lawyers in your business?
PR: A friend of mine and I, and one other artist, we developed this relationship with the owners of this beautiful boutique hotel. They wanted to rent original work, and they wanted to do it directly from the artist. We went into an agreement with them, so what happened was we installed work, got an initial payment, and they never made a second payment or a third payment or a fourth payment. We were lucky because we ended up finding an attorney who was also an art collector who was willing to do partial payment in barter. And that was wonderful. And I did end up using him again for a couple of things that were kind of softer versions of those. It happens. It’s important. It’s important to know your rights.
JR: Peter, thank you again for the painting and thank you for talking to me today, and we’re just really grateful to have the piece, and it was really nice to meet you.
PR: I appreciate it, and I appreciate the opportunity, and thank you for sitting down, but mostly thanks for giving this a really good home. I appreciate that.
