Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Stone.
Hi Amy, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I have a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Colorado and a Masters in Art Education from Hofstra University, but found myself doing everything but creating and teaching in my 20’s and much of my 30’s. It wasn’t until my family and I relocated to Seattle in 2014 that I began to create on a daily basis, and not until 2016 that I began painting again after an almost 15 year hiatus. I left my job in the wine industry in 2016 to focus on art full time, and haven’t looked back. Social media helped propel my career forward, but really it’s the support of my husband and kids that make it all possible.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest obstacles and challenges I have found is life post-Covid and trying to navigate raising my kids as they get older while still finding the time and energy to focus on my business. I can make the art and then not have time to market it, or market the art and not have time to make it. It’s the balance of everything that I am always striving for.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an abstract painter/ mixed media artist with a focus on abstract expressionism and the abstracted female form. Color is my love language and music is my muse. I do my best work intuitively, when I get lost in the process and something visceral takes over. Less thinking, more feeling = better painting.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
The only way to improve and move forward is to take risks. In art, in life. Joan Rivers once said, “I was smart enough to go through every door that opened.” Since I read this I have always taken it to heart. When I first started showing my work I would hang it anywhere anyone let me. Coffee shops, stores, wineries. Eventually I secured representation by a few galleries. How? By asking. Sometimes the biggest risks are ones you take by just asking. The worst thing someone can say is no. In this industry, no is something you learn to hear a lot of. But then when you hear a yes — whether it’s for a show, award, representation, selling a piece, we all do a little happy dance and the reward outweighs the risk.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.amystoneart.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/amystoneart
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/amystoneart
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-stone-ba57431/
Image Credits
Jennifer Markovitz