We recently connected with Erin Hughes and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Erin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I love it when I can take something I’m learning in one area of my life and put it to work in my art. This happened after reading St. Teresa of Avila’s “The Interior Castle”. I knew I wanted to try and interpret what she taught as an abstract encaustic series. It was a huge move forward in my own deconstruction of past beliefs so it held a lot of meaning for me spiritually. I am proud of the work and it was very rewarding to connect two of the most important areas of my life in a tangible way.

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 self taught artist who has hacked her own art education. I began working with film photography in high school when a family member gave me the equipment needed to set up a basement darkroom. I loved the time I spent working on images and learning how to develop a beautiful print. After college and grad school (Masters of Arts in Teaching), I was teaching middle school across the hall from the art teacher. She became a wonderful mentor for me and demonstrated the beauty of living a creative life. From that point forward, I was always learning in a variety of mediums. I found the work I liked and began to find the artists that taught in that medium/style. I started shooting film professionally in 2011 and that grew beyond the paid family sessions to creating photo encaustic paintings. As soon as I started working with my hands again (after not having access to a darkroom for quite some time), I just kept reaching for new challenges and now I work with mixed media encaustic, oils, and cold wax. It has taken a long time for me to call myself a painter, but I think I can now with confidence.

Many might say that I am finding my rhythm in the middle of life – in my late forties with three teenage daughters I can see the quiet days ahead of me. Continuing to learn and apply the experience I’ve gained thus far keeps me motivated to do the work. I simply always want to get better. I love the challenge of applying a new technique and even though it can be frustrating in the moment, it is so nice to look back and see how I have grown. My art helps me process what is going on in my life as well. It gives me the time to create space between myself and my mind…a meditation that brings a lot of peace. I’m proud of my journey. It would have been easier to keep my work hidden thus avoiding the risk of failure. But I’m glad that I haven’t taken that path. I keep putting myself out there in the hopes of connecting with our shared humanity. After all, this is really the goal for me. I like to think that we all here trying to be better – to love, connect, and grow.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

This is kind of a trick question/answer. I wish I had started hacking my own education EARLIER. However, I’m not sure the avenues were available when I was in my twenties. I didn’t grow up with the internet and I distinctly remember the amount of time the “dial-up” connection took to access this new World Wide Web. If I were a young artist now, I would use everything available to me to learn and grow. It doesn’t have to be art school or anything official…just identify something that interests you and find ways to learn about it without the weight of a performance at the end. Just learn for the sake of learning.

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

I got a “2” (out of 5) on my AP art portfolio. I can look back at what I submitted and honestly say that it really was terrible, They weren’t wrong to give me that score. While I was getting awards in photography at the time, the rejection really hurt. It still stings if I think about it…I felt like the “official experts” had told me to stop being trying because I was obviously in the wrong field. It kept me from attempting to paint for twenty years. I just wasn’t qualified to be a painter. In my thirties I began to see that painting is a skill. A skill that takes a lot of hard work and practice. It doesn’t just land in your lap. So I finally ignored that message from my past and picked up a brush. Of course there will always be better painters, but that’s true across the board. “There’s always a bigger boat” is a phrase we say in our house a lot when the kids compare themselves to someone that seems to be “ahead” of them. The reward is in the actual process, not the perceived destination.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.erin-hughes.com
• Instagram: @erin_c_hughes