We recently connected with Cristi Frye and have shared our conversation below.

Cristi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

If given the chance to begin my art career sooner, I would probably choose to do it exactly the same. I did not begin my career as a professional artist until I was in my forties. I had been a stay-at-home-mom for about 17 years when I decided to find a way to make a little extra income for our family. I had always been crafty, so I thought I could make some Christmas ornaments out of polymer clay to sell. I didn’t really have a plan on how to sell them or who would buy them, but I started making them anyway. I was making a Santa Claus ornament, and it just looked more like an old woman to me. So the next thing I know, I’m just creating this small woman out of clay. After the face and hair were done, I added a torso, arms, and hands. Then I made a tiny coffee cup for her to hold. And that is how I created my first small sculpture.

With the encouragement of a very good friend, I put the ornaments aside and began making more small figurative sculptures. Everything began moving quickly from there. I was sculpting, creating social media accounts, and creating my own website. I launched my website and social media sites in March 2019. I began making commission portrait sculptures, adding some mixed media to my sculptures, and applying to art shows. I was accepted to my first juried art exhibition in June 2020. Since then, several of my sculptures have been in shows around the country and online. I continue to manage my art career and my family life. It is a juggling act, but I would not change a thing.

I don’t know what life would have been like if I would have started creating art when my kids were younger. I imagine it would have been difficult to manage. I know there are lots of working moms out there, some of them artists, and I applaud them for what they do. But I wouldn’t want to go back in time and make any changes. I feel like this is the right season for me to begin this journey as a professional artist. My age is not a deterrent to trying new things, as long as I’m physically able to do them. Maybe my age even makes me less afraid to try new things than I would have been when I was younger. I like learning and challenging myself, and I get to do that every time I create a new work of art.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a polymer clay and mixed media sculpture artist specializing in figurative sculptures. With no formal training in art or sculpting, this long-time stay-at-home-mom began sculpting in 2019 using only polymer clay at my kitchen table. At that time, I was only sculpting small pieces. As I began to develop my sculpting skills, I wanted to create larger pieces. Because I am limited to the size of my oven when I use polymer clay, I began using found objects to add to my sculptures. I spend a lot of time searching for the perfect objects at antique stores, flea markets, and junk sales. It is like a scavenger hunt to find the right piece. I enjoy the contrast of sculpting a very realistic face and/or hands and combining it with random items to create what looks like a person.

I am still fairly new to this journey as a professional artist. I work very hard to develop my craft, and I really enjoy pushing the boundaries of the clay that I use. I don’t really worry too much about creating art that is “pretty”. My main goal is to create art that makes you feel something. Emotions are the most important part of my art. Every piece that I create is meant to convey an emotion or a feeling.

With a lot of hard work, I feel like I have come a long way in a short time. I’ve gone from sculpting at my kitchen table to creating an art business – Cristi Frye Art. I have created a website where most of my work can be viewed and purchased. I have also had several original sculptures accepted into art exhibitions at galleries across the US and online. Although I am really focusing on building up my portfolio of original artwork, I also accept commissions for portrait sculptures. Most of the portrait sculptures that I have created are memorial pieces that are created using reference photos. It is a very special process creating these sculptures, and I am very honored when someone entrusts me to sculpted a loved one. I can be contacted about commission pieces and original artwork through my website.

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

Although I never intended to step foot on this path to become a professional artist, but I am so glad that I did. Sculpting has taught me so much about myself and challenged me in ways that I didn’t expect. I am learning something new every day. I am still working hard to build an audience and to find the right path for my art career, and it is not easy. But creating this art business has given me a new attitude about what I can accomplish. My new motto is: I may not know how to do it right now, but I can figure it out.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am constantly making adjustments to my career path and my art. I think flexibility in a business plan is important. I feel like I am trying new things all of the time. But the most significant change that I made in my art was adding found objects and mixed media to my sculptures. I was strictly making small polymer clay sculptures, most of them about 4 inches tall. I felt like my small sculptures were good, but I just wanted to try something bigger. So I began adding a few other types of media to my sculptures. I was adding clay to canvas, and using wood and metal. Then one day, I was at an antique store and I saw an old bed spring. As soon as I saw it, I thought I could add clay people to it. So I did. And then I found more items and added clay people to them too. And then, I got the idea that I could create larger pieces if I actually used found objects as part of a figurative sculpture. So now I am able to create much larger sculptures. Although the larger sculptures really challenge me sometimes, I have learned a lot. The larger pieces allow me to really focus on creating very detailed faces and hands with the clay, and I think it has made me a better sculptor overall.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cristifryeart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cristifryeart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cristifryeart
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cristifryeart