Living Legend Liz Gribin Keeps the Hamptons in Her Heart
Acclaimed artist Liz Gribin is no stranger to honors, whether it was during her years living and painting in Manhattan, Bridgehampton, or now in Massachusetts. But being part of the Dan’s Papers Cover Artist Show & Cocktail Party on Saturday, August 20 still sparks a special feeling inside, one that taps into a part of the East End of Long Island she carries with her.
“When I moved out there in 1994 with my husband, we built a house in Bridgehampton and I was thrilled to be part of the art community out there,” Gribin says. “I love to see what other artists are doing, they like to see what I’m doing; it’s just inspiring. We speak the same language. It was very exciting out there because it has a lot of history.” [expand]
If inspiring and history are to be uttered in the same breath, then Gribin herself must be part of that conversation. She has received a nomination for a National Medal of Arts—the highest honor given by the U.S. Government to artists—and in 2000 was named a Living Legend during the United States Library of Congress Bicentennial.
Her paintings have sold for as much at $45,000, and she had works selected to be part of a Banana Republic campaign blending fashion and art in stores from Canada to Saudi Arabia. But for all that, Gribin refuses to rest on her laurels. “I think that a lot of artists are never really happy. The thing that interests me most is the one that’s on the easel now. The one that I’m struggling with now. All the other things are history. They’re all very nice, but it’s what can I do today.”
She says this with a laugh, her light nature at the fore even when talking about personal and professional struggles. And yes, even an artist of Gribin’s prize-winning pedigree has her fights with that aforementioned easel in front of her. “It’s a struggle every time,” she says. “It never comes easy. I think that’s because as you progress in the career of art, you want more from it, you set your goals a little higher with each painting. Sometimes it’s magic, sometimes it’s not.” Mostly, it’s magic.
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