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

Emily, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Yes, at this time I am very happy as an artist. There are difficulties and anxieties that come with being self-employed, but I feel incredibly grateful and lucky to be able to make art full-time, and to have this passion. It has taken decades to get to this place and along the way I had many types of regular day jobs while I worked always on my art career in my spare time. So I do very much know what that feels like, and there is a lot of security that comes with a typical job. Earlier in life I often wished that I was most passionate about something in a field that would provide me with a stable path. But there was never another line of work that came close to my interest, drive, and excitement that I have with art. I feel that I was born to do this, to make things.

I recently found old pieces of artwork that my mom had saved from when I was in preschool. It was funny and sort of amazing how there are aesthetic themes that I can see going all the way back to age three! Some of the collages of Halloween pumpkins looked remarkably similar to a few current sculptures. I was fascinated with drawing at a very early age, and the desire to create images and objects has never faded. To make my visions and ideas tangible is so satisfying, it keeps me motivated and excited about life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a sculptor working primarily with ceramics but incorporating various other materials like wood, glass, fabric, and plexiglass. Often, I am also including electrical components and internal illumination. My recent bodies of work have consisted of surreal depictions of powerful female figures and nature-based objects, exploring themes of memory, transformation, and magic. Over my last several solo exhibitions I have been expanding my practice with large-scale sculptures and installation, creating spaces for emotionally evocative storytelling.

I was born in Seattle and currently live and work in Tacoma, WA. I received my bachelor’s degree from the California College of the Arts with a focus in painting. As my early painting practice evolved and took on increasingly experimental forms, I found myself more curious about objects and spatial relationships. I had taken many ceramics classes as a child and teenager, and when I started experimenting again with it as an adult, I remembered that I was very comfortable with this medium. Building things with my hands comes naturally to me and this ability to transform a sketch into a three-dimensional object is something that I am proud of. My work developed into a sculptural practice with a focus on ceramics, but still retains many of the formal considerations and habits developed as a painter.

The enduring qualities of clay and glazes are very appealing to me, and I love to think about the connections that my practice may have to objects created thousands of years ago. I am inspired as well by futuristic aesthetics and aim to create a visual union of the past with the futuristic. Oftentimes as I work and develop ideas I am sorting through and examining my own memories, but I hope my sculptures also provide a prompt or framework for the ideas and dreams of others. When my work is shared publicly, I see it as a collaborative, shared dream between myself and the viewer.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There were many instances throughout my earlier career where I spent very long periods of time working on an exhibition, really putting so much effort and hope into each show, and afterwards I would feel a little deflated or even dramatically heartbroken. I was expending so much effort and at the time not seeing movement forward in terms of a career or recognition (despite the significance of being given places to exhibit in the first place). I think at the time I could be very hard on myself. But I always would continue to move forward, and that work was important for my evolution as an artist regardless of the outcome. I saw that I have a drive to make the work to satisfy myself and a need to see these things take shape. Each step was necessary. Getting to the point where I have support from wonderful collectors and especially from the galleries that represent me (studio e gallery in Seattle, WA, and Nationale in Portland, OR) has been so life changing.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

From my perspective in the visual arts community- we can be supported by involvement and participation in terms of people going out to see exhibitions, talking about work and with the artists, recommending shows to others. When people are able to purchase/collect work, that is always so incredibly valued by the artist and affirming. Art sales allow them to continue to do their work. But not everyone can afford to buy art and not every artist is making sellable work, so grants, fellowships, financial awards, and free artists residencies are all needed. Also, having publications and media outlets that feature and employ arts writers is so important.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://emilycounts.com
• Instagram: @emilyraecounts

Image Credits
Ryan Warner,  Rafael Soldi,  Zack Bent