We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily May. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily , appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned how to screenprint in 2010. I graduated from college with a degree in Environmental Studies in 2008, and moved to Portland, Oregon. I had always taken art classes, and when I got out of college all I wanted to do was make art. I was doing a lot of painting and collaging, and in Portland, there was a lot of screenprinting happening. I had the sense that if I wanted to be able to expand my skills and make a greater variety of pieces, I should learn how to screenprint. I moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2010, and began taking a screenprinting class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. I fell in love with it right away.
I think the skill that was most essential was not being afraid to mess up, having the time and space to experiment and make mistakes, and to keep learning the process in order to truly understand it, and make it my own.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began Decadent West in 2012 as a multi-disciplinary, ever-expanding project. It’s a manifestation of an innate need to process my experience of living in the world through visual and written work.
Decadent West is made from of paper goods, textiles and text. I am a life-long print media and fabric collector with a strong conservationist ethic: most of what I make is sourced from re-purposed materials. Almost all of the garments I print on are sourced second-hand, and each piece is completely unique. I print, draw, paint, collage, embroider, sew and dream up new ideas in my home studio in Austin. People who follow and purchase my art are investing in hand-made art from an independent artist whose vision is never diluted to appeal to a mass audience.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Any artist working is a testament to resilience. Nam Jun Paik said “I am fighting a war of perseverance,” as he worked in unheated apartments, making art no one understood. That really resonated with me. I’ve moved a lot, and dragged my screenprinting supplies across the country, to hang my exposure light in another closet and hoping my system still works. As an artist, you constantly have to pick yourself up and be impervious to the whims of your audience, and not let a bad day or month derail you. I read “Our Band Could Be Your Life” when I was twenty-three, and I cannot overstate the influence that had on me and how I approach what I’m doing. The book chronicles bands who no one cared about at first, but were devoted to their vision, and doing it their own way. The slept on floors and played to five people, but were uncompromising. I don’t sleep on floors, and I have a day job, but I really try to retain that spirit. When I do markets and have a slow day, or feel like I’m in the wrong place trying to sell my art to the wrong audience, I feel like quitting for a little while after. But I always come back to it. Not because I imagine a different or more responsive audience next time, but because I have new ideas that I get excited about, and that’s the entire point.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

We all want to live in vibrant communities, and it takes all of us to create that community. It’s very popular to complain about how bad our society is, but less popular to take action in small ways to improve it. I believe that people can get off Amazon and fast fashion sites and support the venues in your community. I went to college in Burlington, Vermont and was able to attend all ages shows at various venues around town because the city had made youth programming and outlets a priority (led by Bernie Sanders as Mayor). If we’re talking about society at large supporting creatives, we need to take back money from billionaires and allocate our cash toward publicly funded spaces and other resources for creativity. While I’m dreaming, also instate a four day work week so everyone’s not so exhausted trying to survive all the time, and higher wages so people can breathe and imagine creating. At an individual level, cancel your Prime subscription. Support your local, independently run movie theater. Get to know your local music scene and go see local bands, not just national tours. Get to know the handmade world near you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hausofdecadent.com
• Instagram: hausofdecadent

Image Credits

All photos taken by me!