We recently connected with Emily Lange and have shared our conversation below.
Emily, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
Prior to working full time as an artist, I spent over twelve years working professionally as a geologist. Even though the transition to art has been an exciting one, I didn’t want to completely abandon my academic roots entirely. I started a series called “Mineralogy” that blends the firm, rigid beauty of some of my favorite minerals with the soft curves of human portraiture. I created portraits that visually represent the mineral to me, and what’s been so fun is how people react so differently to the series. I’ve had some people know immediately what they’re looking at (and have even learned new facts about the minerals) and I’ve had others ask if they’re visual representations of medical ailments.
It’s so fulfilling to be able to blend two of my passions and have the ability to create something that others can enjoy.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am an artist and writer, but I didn’t start working on these pursuits full time until a year ago. It was after working over a decade as a professional geologist that I was finally lucky enough to be able to jump into my creative pursuits. Like many other artists I’ve met, covid lockdown was a major impetus for the advancement of my art. I finally went online with my work on Instagram and learned an incredible amount from other people working to hone their portrait and landscape painting craft.
For years, I focused solely on portraiture, learning how to tell the stories of someone’s life through the expression on their face. More recently, I decided to take a character I had created, and painted years ago, and develop her world into a fully realized, full-length, science-fiction novel. Over the course of two months this winter, I wrote the first draft of my manuscript and am now working on the many, many steps it will take to get it published. In the meantime, I am busy creating other artwork to accompany the story and get potential readers interested in the world of fiction I’m creating.
When I’m not working on my novel, or art related to the novel, I’m busy painting more faces or landscapes that feature some of my favorite geological points of interest. It might be that I’ve taken on too many different subject matters, but when you’re a geologist/artist/writer, it feels a shame to abandon the interests that make me, and my art, unique.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
The main thing I want to tell new users on social media (specifically Instagram) is that “likes” are absolutely not correlative to the quality of the work, especially these days. When I started my account in 2020, there was an argument that social media engagement could be tied to the general appeal of an art piece, however that is definitely no longer the case.
I don’t pretend to be an expert on how Instagram’s algorithms work, but what’s clear to me is that the app focuses less on showing an individual post/reel/etc. to a moderate number of people each time, and more on showing 1/10 posts to a lot of people and 9/10 to virtually no one. How a post’s reach is determined is a mystery, but I just feel so bad when I see new artists disheartened by low engagement when they post something they poured their heart into. They think the low engagement means their art is terrible.
The only thing fewer likes means is that the app didn’t show the post to that many people. That’s it. I just want to tell people to keep this in mind when growing their account because the way it’s set up now requires a lot of persistence and grit. You have to watch most of your work languish in the void and wait for that one post to go, what I call, “mini-viral”, i.e. when Instagram actually shows the post to a significant number of people.
I’m sure there are others that have advice on the type of content to post to garner the most attention. I’m sure there are tips and tricks that work, but the only thing that I’ve seen work for me is genuine expression of my art, and genuine engagement with other accounts that are like mine. Despite the fact that social media is often a faceless interaction, what really matters at the end of the day is making real human connection to other artists, or to people that enjoy art. Be yourself, not some version of yourself you think the internet wants. Be a force for good on a platform that often encourages negativity as a form of engagement. Be the reason another artist smiles one day. Maybe you’ll make a meaningful connection that will lead to the next step in your social media presence. Who knows!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is that when I think of a story I want to tell, whether that’s through a painting or written work, I can sit myself down and actually do it! I can translate a vision in my mind and take it from my head and into the physical world for people to enjoy. It’s like being able to speak two languages. There are so many creative-minded people that don’t have the tools and abilities to be able to express what they’re thinking, and I am just grateful that when I think of something I want to paint, or something I want to write, I can execute on those ideas.
In this light, the most enjoyment I get from being a creative is definitely when I am able to gift something I’ve made. People love gifts because it means that someone was thinking of them, but when you can gift someone an art piece of, say, their wedding, it’s extra special. When I gift a painting, it’s my way of telling someone that I not only thought of them, but I spent hours of my time trying to paint the perfect image that reflects their love and spirit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.elangeart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/e.lange.art/
Image Credits
Emily Lange