We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amy Stoner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew that I wanted to work in a creative field since I was a young child. My parents were both creative and they let me play creatively throughout my childhood. I was constantly drawing or painting, singing in choirs, acting in plays; if it was creative, I wanted to do it!

Though I focused more on music and theatre in my younger years, I switched towards visual arts once I was in college and have not looked back since.

Amy, 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?

Hi! My name is Amy Stoner and I am a fine artist and educator living in the Pacific Northwest! I work primarily in mixed media, combining collage, printmaking and encaustic painting. If you are not familiar with the term encaustic, it is painting with pigmented, molten beeswax. It’s one of the earliest forms of art mediums that fell out of favor for many centuries, but is now making a comeback.

I have been a professional artist since 2000 and have been incredibly grateful to have had some of my work published in several magazines and books, as well as an instructional dvd on Encaustic Collage.

I like to think of my art as creating visual joy. I live in a beautiful part of the world, but it is often grey. And so much of our day to day lives are also filled with neutral shades of grey, beige and white. I see my work as a break in that monotony for joy and color and happiness. I want to bring color and feelings of hope and joy to those who view my work.

I work out of my studio in my home. I create original pieces, reproductions, as well as gift items such as cards and magnets. You can find my work on my website, www,amystoner.com as well as two galleries in Oregon.

When I am not in my studio, I work part-time for a local non-profit organization whose mission is bringing free art literacy and instruction to elementary aged students.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In 2019, I was working full-time in the marketing and hospitality field. I enjoyed my work and the people I worked with, but job responsibilities kept piling up and time for creating art kept declining. My mental health is directly tied to how much time I get to create and “play”, so I was becoming increasingly frustrated.

Then, just like that, the pandemic started, and as someone in the hospitality field, we were part of the first big wave of lay offs. Instantly, like thousands of others, I was now unemployed amidst the pandemic and trying to figure out how to navigate all of these changes that kept coming.

It was during this time, that I also was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and my mother fell ill and passed. I am incredibly close with my family, so this was just devastating and really gave me pause to rethink so much of my life, my goals, responsibilities, and values.

I had always worked full-time and tried to fit my art career in around my “adult responsibilities”. Now, I decided that I have wasted enough of my life with this model. I am now focusing more on my creative talents in order to pay the bills, while also working part-time in a position that is both creative AND feeds my soul. It’s sometimes scary to think about the downside to this new adventure, but I have had SEVERAL reminders these past few years that life is sacred and short and we need to LIVE and not just survive.

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

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that I can create something in complete solitude in my studio; pulling something out of my heart and soul and putting it on paper. And then, thanks to the internet, social media and shows, I can share this work with the world. It’s such a vulnerable and empowering act. And when someone buys my work? Well, regardless of the money, it brings my heart great joy that someone wants to spend their life surrounded by something I made. I think of my work overlooking families eating meals together, or welcoming someone to their home or office. The fact that I get to share my life with others, and they share their lives with my work; well, it’s the greatest gift I could receive as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amystoner.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amystoner/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmyStonerFineArt/