Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amy Erickson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amy, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My mom was a public school teacher, but she studied classical piano very seriously as a child and on through college. She understood what it means to be devoted to an art form and she taught me how to be disciplined about practicing my craft on my own– because that’s what musicians do. You have to sit down and practice your instrument every day or you get rusty. She would always ask me. “Have you practiced drawing today?” I think having that encouragement to think of drawing as a daily routine rather than a special moment of inspiration has given me a real strength to get through hard periods of self-doubt and depression. She also understood that art was a deeply important friend to me, not just a hobby. She definitely encouraged me to pursue a more financially dependable profession growing up, but at the end of the day she could see how devoted I was to art and supported my choice to go to art school.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a painter based in Seattle, WA. I grew up in Oklahoma, went to art college in Missouri. I moved out to Seattle to get more technical training at Gage Academy of Art. I have been using paint for a long time, some of my earliest memories are painting. I really decided to commit to painting as a life path during high school when I discovered observational drawing through a book. I did all the exercises out of that book multiple times. The process of looking abstractly at the world and responding/composing through mark completely drew me in. I also attended a summer figure painting program for teenagers at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where we just did 45 minute paintings from a live model all day. I had never been happier.

I am a visual artist. I use mostly oil and acrylic paint, but I also make a lot of drawings, collages, and I’m starting to get into sculpture. I would describe myself as a “figurative” painter, which means I make art that looks like recognizable forms. I work primarily from observation, either directly from a live subject or from a drawing or collage I have made from a subject. I’m firstly drawn to painting the human body and exploring narratives related to that, but during the lockdown I discovered the joy of painting from still objects and painting outdoors.

I think of my practice as having two modes: research and invention. Research involves making smaller images directly from life or some artifact in my imagination, “primary documents” of observation. I use these smaller works to help me create paintings in my studio that explore a larger idea that I’m excited about, and the translation requires me to invent a lot of elements in the picture.

Right now I’m working on a series of paintings of girls I know. I have the individual come to my studio, pose for an hour or two while I make a small painting and some drawings, take photographs, and then I use all of that to create a larger painting. I want the paintings to feel like expansive sensory experiences, specific to the moment I had with them modeling in my studio, but that are also tied to a story and larger archetypal symbol that reveals itself as I work on the painting. I’m always trying to challenge what I think is my perception of what I’m looking at, and not follow a linear progression of “general to specific” aka just copying what I see. I want the images to be a fight between illusion and materiality, with flat spots of color blooming together and somehow coalescing into a discernible body in space.
Sometimes there is an area in the painting that does not have enough information in it to activate the space, and I need to find a way to push it further. I don’t think the abstractions that my mind invents are very interesting and I need the aid of a perceptual element to make painting choices that I find interesting. I’ll make a setup that resembles the painting I’m making. Also, I draw from my paintings, and then paint from the drawings, which are physically very different in mark and texture and provide me with another layer of information to incorporate. My process of invention is a feedback loop that develops itself, based on true observation and not just “making stuff up”.

I feel very connected to the lineage of “perceptual painting” which in a literal sense just means “painting masses of colors and edge qualities as they appear to the eye”. I think of perceptual painting in a broader sense too, as an approach that places the artist in a role of the observer of their own experience, be it visual, emotional, sensational, etc. Trying to find new ways to abstract your optical vantage point, find new and surprising relationships between elements in your perception (ie, how dark the vase is compared to the table it sits on) . And then develop those relationships through structures like color theory, atmospheric perspective, or anatomy into something that feels very specific to what you are seeing and experiencing. In my own work, the end result can end up looking very “realistic”, but ultimately I’m trying to push for any result that feels true to my experience and rigorously examined.

I teach a lot of classes related to oil and acrylic painting techniques and color theory. I teach mostly online. I love sharing the craft of painting with others, anyone can learn to paint and reap the rewards of this practice at any skill level. Painting is such a wonderful thing to learn to do, you can treat it like a craft or a hobby, or as a deep spiritual practice. I think painting IS a practice like meditation, except that it directly engages the ego and intellect in a way that requests the practitioner to take an active role in the process, which can be equal parts frustrating and pleasurable, dull and fascinating. Learning to be present with all of this has led me to deep and extremely meaningful discoveries about the world and myself. Learn to paint!!

I am most proud of the fact that I have continued painting and drawing my entire life, surviving a number of personal setbacks and periods of time where I felt the work I was making was not interesting and I had little prospects for financial success as a painter. I am also proud of the friendships I’ve made with other painters, and how meaningful these have been. I used to think being a painter was a lonely, indulgent life, but it actually places you in a community of people that are learning about themselves and growing, and you can all witness each other grow and teach each other things about life and painting.
Engaging with any physical artwork is a rewarding process, and though it is slower than what we are getting accustomed to on Tick Tock, I think it asks us to understand deeper things in ourselves and others. A painting is not just something that looks pretty, but it’s also an object completely saturated in the artist’s wisdom, presence, and inspiration. It’s charged with life. It will teach you things and give you pleasure. It’s a magic object that will fill your room with a presence. Taking the time to unfold the layers of meaning in a work of art is well worth the time and money, and I want people with the means to support independent artists to understand how important it is to do so.

Is there a mission driving your creative journey?

I think a painting is like a poem. I like poetry because it can compress so many dimensions of experience into one “object”, and that is ultimately what I want to achieve with painting someday. Layers of time, emotion, narrative, sensation, image, wisdom, intention. Painting may not have the same ability as poetry to do that, but I want to get close.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Ha- I really don’t think anyone is a “non-creative!” Some people (like myself) get obsessed with a creative discipline and need to design their life around it as much as possible. Others don’t, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a deeply creative being. Being human is so powerful and creative, and not recognizing that is how you allow other people to control you from the inside. It is a choice to look within and try to accept what you see, it is a choice to work with uncomfortable things inside yourself (like resistance to making, guilt, fear of being mediocre) and it is a choice to learn how to hone your creativity in whatever way it is applicable to your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amyericksonstudio.com
• Instagram: @amyericksn