We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Angela Pitts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Angela below.
Alright, Angela thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
In 2019, I had spent nine years growing a family portrait photography business that saw some success while allowing me to stay at home with my young children. This was something I had been working towards for a long time, however upon arriving at the goal line I found myself approaching burn out. It took a few months to figure out why, with each photo shoot, I was less and less interested. I would enjoy the sessions, but then dread the time in front of the computer editing. I missed the use of film and the darkroom, I missed creating images that had a message. Sure, I was making beautiful images for families, and that brought me joy, but the time in between when I would get stuck in the details of editing. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I was at a crossroads. It gave me a gift of time to truly consider what a shift would look like, and how I could possibly step away from the portrait business. I started painting and making work in my home, and I knew I needed to start to transition my business away from photography. This was really scary because photography was my strength, it was what I knew I could do well, everything else seemed unreachable for me. I didn’t know where it would lead if I tried to move to a different medium; would people respond to the work at all? Or would they just say it was nice to my face and then not really care? I, also as many mothers do, contemplated how it would affect my children, and how I might work without too much time away from them. I started by painting some murals in my own home, so I could be near the kids if they needed me. In 2021, I took a risk and applied for a mural in downtown McKinney, a pretty massive one, totally out of my league hard but decided to go for it. I had a colleague from Art House Dallas join me in applying, and an amazing thing happened, we got chosen! That was a huge milestone for me, and when it came to the execution of the project, I had so many people step in and help me with the details. My supportive husband took on the work at home, along with neighbors and friends filling in the gaps when I needed to be away. One moment I will never forget is when my friend brought my kids to the job site, and they saw me on the 40 ft lift, painting the mural. Their little faces of surprise will be burned in my memory forever. They got to see me not only reach a goal but surpass a dream that I pursued without knowing where it would lead. It was a special moment for me to show them what I’m trying to teach them, which is to step into the unknown with faith, that what is meant for you is out there but you have to take some steps forward first. Since that opportunity, I’ve been through some highs and lows but having that experience does keep reminding me to look for new opportunities and to keep trying each day.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up in the hill country in a little town called Boerne, outside of San Antonio. I picked up my first camera at the age of sixteen, and really enjoyed making images. In college, I found the arts as a new form of expression for myself, and explored not only photography but textiles, drawing and painting. I focused on photography as I studied in college at Baylor University and graduate school and the University of North Texas, each body of work dealing with different forms of nostalgia and grief. I try to make work that has a narrative component but also has a universal meaning for the larger audiences. We as humans experience all kinds of nostalgia that are specific to our own upbringing, but there is a broader sense of time passing, time lost, and memories that affect us all, and I’m very interested in how individuals process these moments in life. My two main interests are changing environments for people with murals, creating spaces that bring peace and moments of rest as well as making work that reminds the viewer of home. I don’t mean just where you grew up, but the feeling of safety, beauty, peace and love. I know with a home life comes many complex experiences, and not all are traditional, my own story has much grief enveloped in it, yet when I think of the feeling of “home” there is peace and love there. Especially now, as a parent, we are constantly working towards offering love, wisdom and peace for our kids in an ever increasingly anxious world. I hope that my art making can bring some light to the life of anyone who sees it. My hope is that even if my work is an expression of grief, that it is seen within the context of faith and love, not just pain but the beauty that can come from hard things.
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?
I think for me in particular, and I think this might be true for many other creatives, is that we have more than one pursuit. In this society it seems that you have to narrow your focus into one niche goal, and sometimes that can be a hindrance on a creative. I love learning, so my artistic process isn’t going to involve just one medium or one specific routine in order to accomplish my work. I do believe in systems and routines, and I have some in place, however within those systems there is room to explore. I have to build that into my routines in order to keep myself interested in the process and to challenge myself to breakthrough the normal into the unique. For a non-creative, you might see a pause on one particular body of work or a pause on social media, this doesn’t mean the creative has stopped working. This means they, or in this case, I’ve taken some time to pause, to reflect, to think and possibly marinate a new idea for only my eyes to see. There have been times where I had to take a few months to just read, or learn, or play with a new tool. This is all part of the process, and because we are not just the total of our production, this allows for deeper meaning and more significant strides when producing begins. I like to think of it as in the natural world. Plants need the winter to extend their roots under the surface, in the same way, creatives need pauses in their process to do the necessary internal work so that when they do start making again, it can come back in a stronger way. In this rhythm, the creative might switch mediums, add a new layer to something or completely redo a previous project under a new lens. I hope that non-creatives would have more understanding in this process and not be quick to make assumptions about work ethic. It takes all kinds of discipline to accomplish the end goal, and the journey will definitely not be a straight line.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Looking back over the course of my art making, there is something that I tend to work into everything I do and that’s imperfection. I know that might sound strange, but even in photography, I was drawn to the cameras that had built in imperfections like the Holga with a plastic lens, or the large format cameras that were bound to have dust or so many variables it was impossible to get a great exposure. Through my textile and collage work, there are rough edges left untied, scratches or not perfect angles in the cuts of paper, these are all more interesting to me then the perfection of straight lines and angles. I realize this might turn off some viewers who enjoy the larger than life perfection of different mediums, but I like to leave hints of my own humanity within the work. I do try to elevate my level of craft, I’m not making work with imperfection in mind, but the inevitability of it doesn’t bother me, I don’t want that to get in the way of my creating process. I embrace it, and accept it. I have a goal to encourage other artists to not get hung up so much in the tedious nature of perfection but to enjoy the process of making and accepting when a work is finished. My role within Art House Dallas, leading the visual art programming, is about encouraging artists to seek community as well as encouraging them with their own goals. So that drives my own creative journey to be a peer who is right along side of them, running the race set before us. Encouragement is such a quick seed that can grow into full bodies of work for the artist. So, what I’m saying is my particular mission is to encourage others and accept my own imperfections along the way. I think one message I keep saying to younger artists is just keep going, you don’t have to move fast, just keep taking small steps forward, that is where the true success is, in each day you decide to take one step.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.angelacristonpitts.com
- Instagram: @angelacristonpitts
- Facebook: @angelacristonpitts
Image Credits
Personal Photo was taken by Natalie Pitts