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

Allison, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

As a figurative sculptor, my language is the human face and figure. Drawing and sculpting from live models, studying anatomy and proportion are crucial practices, but learning from my mistakes is probably the most important skill.

I have a strong perfectionist streak, and while it motivated me to work hard to improve my skills, it also made it difficult for me to assess what real success might look like. My college sculpture professor and mentor once told my parents that I worked like someone was chasing me. At the time I thought that description was strange, but looking back I can see that I was so frantic to show that I had the talent to be a “real artist,” and I wasn’t willing to take the risks and make the mistakes I needed to in order to really progress. I thought I needed to win awards and grants in order to validate my work and justify the time and resources I invested in making it. The mental shift of taking my focus away from outside validation is a constant process.

Allison, 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 am a figurative sculptor. My sculptures are usually narrative in that they tell stories of actual or imagined people. One of my goals is for my work to help us make space for contemplation and conversation about the difficult and joyful parts of human experience, and to encourage empathy for people who are different. To my mind, art that fails to tell the truth about the world forsakes its potential to facilitate healing. Because of this, many of my sculptures show the experiences of people who suffer loss because of war, disease, and injustice. Frequently I have told these stories from the perspective of the most vulnerable, women and children. Because I am usually telling the story from the outside, as someone who has not had these difficult experiences, it’s important for me that I develop my ideas in conversation with people who do have firsthand experience, to help me approach the stories with understanding and respect.

Another branch of my work is portrait sculpture. I create life size bronze portraits, as well as relief sculptures that hang on the wall. Relief portraits are a wonderful way to commission a portrait, because even in bronze they are much more affordable and they are easy to display in a client’s home. When I undertake to create a portrait, I always try to get to know the subject so I can infuse the likeness with their unique personality.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have been sculpting now for about twenty-four years, and nineteen years ago I became a mother for the first time. I have six children, ages nineteen to eight, and maintaining a consistent studio practice has sometimes been a major challenge. From the beginning it has been important to me that my children, sons and daughters both, understand that I am a complete person with goals and talents that reach beyond mothering. My wonderful mother put her ambitions and gifts aside while raising my siblings and I, so I was thirty years old when I learned that she is a poet. She lovingly sacrificed pursuing her gift in order to put all her energy into her family, but as a result I had to figure out how to cultivate myself as an artist and a mother without an example. I want our children, especially our four daughters, to have a nuanced understanding of themselves that makes room for them to pursue their unique gifts as well as family and career. I hope that investing in myself as a professional artist throughout their childhood will help them to see the importance of investing in themselves as well.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My primary goal is to make art that has a real impact on the people who experience it. Even if that group of people is relatively small, if I can say things with my work that cause people to grow in empathy for themselves and others my time and energy will be well spent. Awards, shows, grants, and commissions are wonderful, and they make it possible for me to continue to produce new work, but when someone is moved by a sculpture that I have made, and they share what it means to them or they but it and bring it into their own home, that is the best validation for me as a maker.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allisonstreettstudios.com
• Instagram: @streettstudios

Image Credits
Renee Streett, Domus Aurea Photography (portrait of the artist only)