Artist Interview: Erika Stearly
We are so excited to have Erika and her work as a part of our directory! From the first time of seeing her work we fell in love with the way she depicted interiors. After getting to know her via social media we fell in love with Erika herself. She is the epitome of creating your own definition of what it’s like to be an artist and not allowing the society to dictate your footsteps. We chat about regrouping during the pandemic, aiming for 100 rejections a year, and the importance of keeping your day job.
Can you tell us a little bit about how you got your first interest in art?
I have no recollection of ever NOT having an interest in art. There are endless photos of me, even as a small child, joyfully and contentedly coloring things. There have been periods of my life where I've devoted more or less time to it, but it's always been there.
What drew you to the interiors?
It’s not so much about interiors as it is about the endless possibilities that it presents. In a domestic space, there are geometric and organic shapes, there is an opportunity for pattern in fabrics. There’s an opportunity to paint different types of surfaces, like wood or carpet. There are contemporary spaces, and old photos from vintage home remodeling magazines - there’s a lot to work with. Also, casual viewers are willing to accept exaggerations in color, shape, scale, etc, if they're able to recognize an architectural component like a staircase of a window and make sense of an abstracted scene.
How have you adapted to art making during the pandemic? How has it affected your practice?
My circumstances are different from many other artists because I've been planning for the last nine months to take maternity leave in May. I've already been anticipating a significant disruption to my studio practice, and this quarantine down time has given me a chance to be more deliberate about my strategies for upheaval in my home and in the broader economy.
For instance, I made a big deal on social media that all orders for custom paintings needed to be placed by Feb. 14, so that they would be completed by the beginning of April (in case the baby comes early), but I ended up relaxing that on a case by case basis because 40 hours of my week opened up. I spent all of January telling people, "If you don't do it now, I might not get back to commissions until 2021," but if I can't go back to work in the summer, maybe I'll start advertising again in July.
I saw a significant increase in sales of my work when the quarantine went into effect, and I'm grateful for that because I'm not working at my day job. My problem has not been access to the supplies to paint - I was able to purchase things to tide me over when it became clear this was going to get real - but in being able to keep up with demand for producing matted prints and supplies for shipping.
I've always salvaged boxes and bubble wrap from work to package my shipments (I work for an independent bookstore, and I love it and miss it so much), but they're not receiving as much inventory now. And they're using their boxes and bubble wrap to ship things to their customers now that they're suddenly an online business. I had developed a system, I had found a stable source of supplies, I had carefully considered how I wanted the packaging to look when my clients opened up their brand new painting, and now.... now my goal is for things to arrive intact with the supplies that I'm able to scrounge around for. I know there are a zillion other things that are far more important than having to re-purpose Amazon boxes, but I don't want my clients to doubt the quality of my work or the level of professionalism that I strive for.
And I can't use the professional scanner in my library anymore to scan paintings. All the work I'm making now gets internally labeled with "covid" because the home / office scanner at my house doesn't provide the image size that I need for licensing my work. If I still have these pieces when campus opens back up, I can scan them - as well as the 2 dozen paintings that are too big to scan. So there is a bunch of things on hold right now.
We are strong believers that the more people discuss failure, the less significant the possibility of it becomes. In our society, we are so terrified of possibility of something not working out, that it halts all our efforts to begin with. We ask all of our interviewees if they can share a time where something (a project or opportunity) did not work out and how did you move forward?
Right around the time I was finishing up my MFA, when I was trying to establish a career in higher ed, I read an article that told me to aim for 100 rejection letters a year. University professors don't just teach, they're writing books and articles, moving from campus to campus for new jobs, working on various research projects - they're constantly under pressure to produce and showcase innovative work.
100 rejection letters a year means you have to apply to MORE than 100 things a year - surely, you'll get accepted to something - but I tried it for two years straight. I kept a list of every grant proposal, job application, exhibition proposal, residencies, etc., that I submitted, and only ever got to 85 or so applications submitted each year. And most of them were rejections. But the applications that didn't end in rejection were providing new opportunities for me that helped me adjust my career goals and grow as an artist. By the time the third and fourth year rolled around, I had dropped the practice completely, because I was able to create opportunities for myself and for others. Plenty of things still don't work out for me, but it's easier to take them in stride.
Also, I applied to a lot of exhibitions at colleges and universities, because they typically don't charge submission fees.
We wanted to follow up on the aspect of stepping away from the traditional path and creating your own, like working in a bookstore and being the happiest of all times. We know it can be hard to come to terms with the fact that you might be different from the rest of the society, and many artists are dealing with this conundrum as well. Any words of encouragement or thoughts on the process of landing with your decision?
The thing about artists is that every single one has a different career path that they make up. You get a medical degree and you go work in a hospital; you get your CDL and find a job driving
trucks. There’s no playbook for being an artist.
I keep a day job with an independent bookstore, and I heard the owner remark that owning a
bookstore has challenged him to use every skill set he’s ever acquired and forced him to
acquire new ones, too. And if you’re going to be a successful artist, the discipline to achieve
THAT - a set of skills and a game plan for how to achieve more throughout your life - is what
you should be taking out of school.
I’d also like to take a minute and emphasize the phrase “keep a day job.” I love working for that
bookstore, I look forward to going to work everyday, I miss my customers and my coworkers. I
have deliberately chosen to keep that job because it provides me with things my personal studio
practice cannot - access to books, interaction with curious people in my community, face time
with small business owners I admire, all the free, fresh roasted, organic coffee I could drink. I
have proven to myself that I could make up the income if I left the bookstore and painted full
time - and the day may come where I leave or scale down my hours at the bookstore in order to
devote more time to my own ventures. The point is that the idea that you can only be a “real”
artist if you don’t have a day job is baloney. You only lose if your day job robs you of your
creative energy and leaves you unhappy.
Any events, projects, or exhibits you'd like to share with the audience? Has any of them cancelled due to COVID?
Not really. For better or worse, I rely heavily on social media and the internet to connect with my viewers, and I was already planning to have a low key summer. Looking out over the next 12 months, I can see some events that may be adapted, adjusted, or cancelled, but we'll have to see how things shake out.
And because Erika is so amazing, she is offering you an exclusive access to her July print release with portion of the funds going to the Brooklyn Art Library / Sketchbook Project. Erika would like to support that project because it is accessible to anyone who wants to participate and that sketchbooks can be viewed by other people, forming a creative community.
View prints available exclusively to All SHE Makes readers here:
Find Erika on her website www.erikastearly.com or IG @erika_stearly
View more limited edition prints here
