We were lucky to catch up with Alicia Knight recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alicia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 am a self-taught painter. Well, sort of. I learned by observation of the greats. When I decided I wanted to paint, I didn’t want to take classes. I felt that teachers would teach you from there viewpoint of what art was and I wanted my art to come completely from me.

So, I went to every art gallery in Los Angeles I could find and I would look, look, look at all the art there was to been seen. I started to gravitate towards certain types of art. My favorite period being the late 1800’s. I surrounded myself in creative spaces, and I would paint. I would look at lines or the environment around me and practice till I got it right. I painted in such quantity that I started to get better and quicker at what I wanted to accomplish.

The best advice I feel I could give anyone starting out a career as a creative is practice. Take the time to observe and formulate what you want to do. Then do it. Over and over till you feel it’s right. Continue to learn by observation and don’t think too much!

Alicia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in Los Angeles. A true Angeleno and proud of it.

I started painting in my late teens. It wasn’t something I always knew that I wanted to do. I tried several different creative pursuits.

I fell in love with painting because I found it a very freeing art form. There were no “rules” per say. I could freely create without anyone telling me what was right or wrong. Without any one criticizing my work or what I wanted to say.

In my work I found that I wanted to express moments in time. A snapshot of a feeling or an emotion that would resonate with all of us on a level that sometimes we cannot express with our busy everyday lives. I wanted others to know that they are not alone, that I am out here and I feel all these things too.

I painted for years. I never showed anyone. I didn’t believe it was something I could actually be successful at.

I slowly started showing my best friend my work and she was so wonderful, never said a disparaging word and always encouraged me to get out there and show my paintings and that I really had something to say.

I finally decided that I wanted to do this for a living. I took all the paintings I had and got them professionally photographed and just started selling prints. First to friends, then to strangers. And let me tell you that first sale to a stranger was something I will never forget. To know that I reached someone who never met me and they liked my art enough to purchase it. That was a true accomplishment for me.

I put in a lot of hard work. Being a full-time artist is more work than having a normal job. I would start working on things the moment I woke up and I would usually end at 3 o’clock in the morning.

I find that it is a constant task of recommitting to your goal. There is a lot of hard work and heartbreak that can happen. You have to constantly recommit. I don’t believe there is such a thing as failure. I believe it is a process of recommitting again and again and never losing sight of what you want to do and say.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson that I had to unlearn is: It is good for people to critique your work, to tell you what is wrong with what you are creating as an artist.

There are technical things about painting. But creativity and the message you want to give are senior to that.

I’ve had a full-time job since I was 16. I’ve done all sorts of jobs where you had to do what was required of you technically and if you didn’t there was going to be a problem. That was what I knew.

With painting I found that if I started to let people tell me what they think is wrong with my work, (even under the guise of being a friend) I would simply stop painting and I would feel bad or not interested and not know why. When I realized it was because of this I stopped letting people tell me these things. I then had no problem with creativity and didn’t feel bad or uninterested any more.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s two-fold.

There’s something so rewarding about being able to create something out of nothing. To be able to have a thought and translate it on a canvas in an uninhibited and free space.

The other aspect which is the most rewarding is that I am able to make someone’s life better. Whether it’s as simple as making their home more beautiful or its touching their life so deeply that it changes their entire outlook on life and they are happier or able to decide to do something that is important to them. In the end it’s about helping other people live better in this crazy journey we call “life”.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aliciaknightart.net
• Instagram: @aliciaknightart
• Facebook: facebook.com/aliciaknightart
• Youtube: @aliciaknight-art
• Other: aliciaknightart.etsy.com