We were lucky to catch up with Christy Nelson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Christy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I graduated from Mississippi State University in 2007 with a painting degree. Since then, technology has staggeringly changed what it looks like to be a full-time artist. For my senior thesis work, I had to make slides—not PowerPoint slides—but actual mounted individual transparency slides used in old-school slide projectors. My university at that time presented two paths for an art career: 1. get a teaching certificate to teach K-12 art, or 2. go to graduate school and pursue a “fine art career” with the perk of being able to teach at the university level. I do not fault them for teaching these as the only options, because historically, particularly in my state (Mississippi) those were THE options. However, the game was actively changing for artists. Instagram launched in 2010. Etsy started in 2005 just 2 years before I graduated. Digital representation, access to work, and calls for entry were dramatically changing. Cafe Call for Entry also started in 2005. I regret not paying attention to these avenues earlier in my career. I took pathway number two offered from my school and in 2019 I graduated with my MFA in painting. I have no regrets about that! But I did miss out on a lot of initial momentum offered through the internet’s growth. We are seeing these platforms’ oversaturation roughly 15 years later. Even as clearly as I can look back and wish I had told younger Christy how to access and use these spaces, I spent those years on other investments. I moved to Colorado in 2008, where I met my husband and we married in 2010. Establishing that relationship was/is the more valuable life investment for me. However, I still wish I had been paying some attention to how the art world and art engagement were shifting because I did not learn about Cafe or other online submission portals until I started my graduate program. I was only using Instagram to keep up with friends and family and I was out of touch with how maker-supported platforms could establish a lucrative income stream.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have always been an artist—as a child I was crafting mouse houses out of moss and acorn cups and cutting paper shapes for hours. Making things is integral to who I am. But I don’t think I became a painter until my last year of college. There is some magic involved with oil paints—but I did not start to feel it until that last semester when I began to invest in what I wanted to express with the paint. I started that body of work by painting images of birds and the soundwaves of their calls. But the more I used the paint, the more I just wanted to celebrate the collaboration with the material and the pure excitement and expression of creating. This led me to paint over the birds with non-representational palette knife marks—and that upset several people! I knew then, it was the right choice. I enjoyed playing in my studio for almost a decade without tackling some of the harder issues in my past. They say some of the best authors write about what they know, and I think that is often true of painters too. I knew I wanted to express some of my story and the resulting emotions in my work, but I also wanted guidance because it is not an easy story and they are not small emotions. That is what led me to graduate school. I am very thankful for the professors at Colorado State University who took the time and the care to help me rewalk through some hard things and transform them into evocative and expressive art. It is very empowering to take ugliness—honor the truth of it—and recreate it into a form of beauty.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
In graduate school, there was insane pressure to be constantly applying to shows, to be in your studio all day every day and to be radically changing your process. We were told to quit our jobs and paint! Honestly, for those few years, with those resources/professors at our disposal, that makes sense. But trying to get that urgency out of my system and remember how to restore balance and the ability to relax, took/is taking some time. I had my first child in 2022 and I am soaking in the time with my family. I know I will not regret the time lavished on these early years of my son’s life; however, I still wrestle with anxiety over the time that is not being spent in my studio. The lesson of “GO HARD” is difficult to unlearn for a season of “PAUSE,” but I am working on it. It is helpful to remember, this is my whole life. “Artist” is not a job, or a career (though it can be both), it is a large part of who I am, and the season of early motherhood will pass and I will still be me. I will take my studio time again and my practice and work will be richer for this time spent creating and investing in a very small, very darling human.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Sometimes it feels like there are so many artists, art, and now even AI art, that it is almost hard to justify making more. But I have tried my hand at “day jobs” in several fields and felt I was trading my time for money. There was always a void or emptiness in what I was doing, even if it was something I supported and valued. Time in my studio or out researching for my practice is empowering and life-giving. Because I know creating brings me joy, continuing to pursue my art and share the outcomes is my goal.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://christynelsonart.com
- Instagram: christyneslonart
