We were lucky to catch up with Erin Friedman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Erin , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I got my BFA in painting and design and always knew I wanted to be a creative. When I graduated college I had such a love for painting but followed a path in graphic illustration because it felt more financially secure as a full time career. After a decade in the industry, the pandemic flipped my world around. Overnight, my 3 children (at the time all under age 5) stopped attending school, and I needed to be home, supporting them. I did a lot of self reflection about what I wanted to focus on in my life and what was most important, which brought me back to painting. I started producing art and sharing it as my own personal therapy. This quickly turned into friends and family asking for paintings and word of mouth spread. Each month I started receiving commissions and I haven’t looked back since. Its been a life-changing period of time for me.

Erin , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an abstract artist and currently I am mainly painting custom commissions for collectors’ homes and businesses. I really enjoy the process of getting to know each collector and their stories as I make their pieces unique to them. I build my compositions through methods of abstraction to create a final image that is free from formal structure and is open to interpretation.

My method involves pouring layers of mixed paint onto a raw cotton canvas. Then I apply thick paint with a palette knife and I also make marks with wax pastel and charcoal. each piece is different. I am constantly exploring with new methods and learning from the prior work I have created.

Inspiration for my work comes from moments and reactions to everyday life and experiences. Emotions have a great impact in my work and at times, my paintings feel chaotic. I will make marks, alter my ideas, add layers and change directions. We all experience conflict, change, joy and sadness. I do my best to embrace this process and allow those feelings to be revealed throughout my work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

My art studio is in my home. We turned a barely used guest bedroom into my studio when I went full time. So I weave my work in throughout the day and night. And my three boys see all of it. They help me gesso my pieces and critique my work after dinner or when we come home from the park. Sometimes they watch me paint and we have art sessions together. I love that they see the ups and downs of me building this business and that they are seeing first hand that anyone can turn a passion into their full time work. It’s a beautiful thing to see them light up when I finish a piece. We all huddle around the art and talk about our favorite parts. My littlest just turned 3, and when he gets home from preschool with artwork he runs down to the studio so he can tape up his latest masterpiece on the wall next to my art.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is truly how I built this business. I just started sharing my work constantly, not for the likes, but for people to see my art. I shared the final pieces but I also shared the work in progress, the frustrations and the exciting moments when I received a new commission or an award. I think ignoring all the hype around the algorithm – do this and do that helped. It’s important to be authentic and show exactly who you are. Your audience is smart and they can tell when you are posting to post and not because you really want to share something. I’d advise to be consistent and treat social media like a diary of your work and feelings.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.erinfriedmanart.com
• Instagram: @erinfriedmanart