We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Evee Erb. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Evee below.

Evee, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Art-making is all about taking risks. Whether you are just beginning your artistic path or diving in toward a career as a full time professional artist, risk is a natural part of living a creative life. Being an artist opens you up to the possibility of mistakes, failures, rejection, and struggle just as much as it allows you an opportunity for stability, success, and meaning in your work.

I believe all artists are required to take risks, particularly in a world so driven by technological advancement and STEM education. The widespread underfunding and lack of arts education programs in America places the next generation of creative minds at a disadvantage. However, growing up I was fortunate enough to have an incredible high school art teacher who inspired me to go to art school.

The decision to attend the Maryland Institute College of Art in pursuit of my BFA was not an easy one to make. Alongside my love of art, I had a deep passion for biology, ecology, and geology. From assisting an entomologist in the Peruvian Amazon, to researching endangered lemur species in an internship at the Duke Lemur Center, I grew up with a wild fascination of our natural world. I even participated in a study that yielded findings that were presented at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference sponsored by NASA. Needless to say, my passion for scientific study was far removed from my passion for art, and a choice stood before me of which path to take. I was lucky enough to have an incredibly supportive family who were excited and encouraged me when I chose to study art in college. The decision to embark upon a career as an artist was a difficult one—and required some sacrifice and lots of hard work along the way—but it is a choice that I have never once regretted making.

Evee, 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?

My name is Evee Erb, and I am a professional artist and contemporary realist painter with a background in interdisciplinary media. Centering around themes of identity, feminism, trauma, and healing, my work explores personal narratives and sociopolitical themes through a lens of metaphor, myth, and archetype. I live and work in North Carolina and am a resident artist at East Oaks Studio, and have been working with my mentor, realist painter Louis Carr, for almost a year now.

While completing my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, I studied ceramic sculpture, drawing, illustration, and textile design. This allowed me to develop a fluidity and expertise in a diverse set of media, which taught me many important lessons of resilience and persistence at the start of my career. I carry these lessons with me in my practice as a figurative oil painter, and approach every day in the studio as a new opportunity for discovery.

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

I think resilience and time are the two most important tools that an artist has to work with. After college, I worked as an independent textile designer in my free time from my internship at the North Carolina Museum of Art. After completing several freelance gigs and designing a cohesive design inventory, I launched an independent label in 2016 called Threadbarren which featured hand-sewn garments and home goods made from my own handwoven textiles. As excited and proud as I was to own a small business that I built from scratch, the daily operation of Threadbarren quickly left me with a feeling in the pit of my stomach. As happy as I was to create every day, I felt unfulfilled by designing products rather than making art— as was always my ambition.

I remember very clearly one night having a full on panic attack at this realization, that somewhere along the way I had taken a wrong turn into a creative sphere that was solely centered around design and consumerism rather than artistic intent. Through determination, resilience, and surely my own stubbornness, I resolved to shift gears and worked hard to support myself creatively. I dove in head first to the deep end, quit my day job and built my career as a full time professional artist. By 2019 I’d had my first solo show, won Best In Show at my first National Juried Competition, and even had my work published in an internationally distributed hardcover book. I now work at East Oaks Studio alongside accomplished artists Louis Carr, Alex Venezia, Divya Melaluca, Erica Arcudi, and Tina Figarelli. My path as an artist has been windy, bumpy, and has had some forks in the road—but a strong creative passion, determination, incredible teachers and hunger to learn has led me to be the artist I am today.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We live in a society that all too often stomps the creativity out of us for the sake of the cubicle-capitalist machine. When I was younger, I felt embarrassed to tell people that I was an artist whenever someone asked me what my job was. Our society had conditioned me to think that I would be looked down upon as a creative professional, and I had to do a lot of mental gymnastics to unlearn this toxic message.

Being an artist means you not only foster your skill and talent through countless hours of hard work, but also requires you to have the tenacity and ingenuity to run your own profitable business, work with curators and galleries, establish and manage a client base, and create a sustainable daily work practice. In this way, artists have to wear many hats in maintaining their own professional development. While the trope of the starving artist is emblematic of where many artists begin, it fails to address the fruitful possibilities of a creative career and contains a damaging message toward the value of creativity and art. In truth, being an artist is the most rewarding career I ever could have imagined for myself. Art is one of the singular aspects of humanity that makes us truly human, and I hope to inspire others to question the messages they’ve received in pursuit of a more meaningful creative life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://eveeerb.com/
• Instagram: @eveeerb