We recently connected with Sean Stronger and have shared our conversation below.

Sean, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We believe kindness is contagious and so we’d love for you to share with us and our audience about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?

I was working on a set design for Pop Sugar with UnderNewMgmt in December of 2020. This was during Covid regulations so they only allowed a few people on set during the shoot. The photographer, Grace Bukunmi, really owned the set, so kind, had such vision, a rock star. The entire day was kind of magical because I had never been a part of a build this immersive. Grace ended up following me on Instagram and I didn’t realize at the time how big of an impact she would have on my creative career. A few months later Grace messaged me on Instagram asking if she could call me. I gave her my number and she called me immediately. She said she was working on a secret project and that she had been mood boarding and looking at paintings I had posted on my Instagram and wanted to rent some of my pieces. It was a closed set so I wasn’t able to go but I loaned some pieces to her. When the images dropped online I couldn’t believe it. Three of my paintings were sitting all around Selena Gomez. The entire vision of what my artistic career could be totally changed that day all because a photographer I had met on set saw something in my work. I am forever grateful to Grace for showing me what could be. I haven’t stopped dreaming bigger since.

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

I’m an expressionist artist in Brooklyn working in floral architecture and mixed media. I took to painting texture and that opened into floral and production design. To me, expression of the natural world is how and where you can draw out the beauty, and I challenge myself to give that a shape and a feeling that’s more than it once was.
In the studio I move in moods between painting, testing materials, and examining a form until there’s a read I like or maybe don’t quite recognize but leaves me with a curiosity. It’s somehow a calming, and a frenetic tension at the same time. Colors laid down, edges raised higher and higher, stems wired to hold a silhouette, a surface that catches its light. I just follow it.
I do a mix of things because ideas live in different places. One day I’m designing a floral bouquet that can be a bride’s sculpture bag for a City Hall wedding. The next I am finishing a large painting commission. Then I am in SoHo redesigning a beauty space for a brand activation.
I am proud that the work keeps learning. New materials, new challenges, new collaborators. I like when a project asks me to push myself, because something new springs from it. Tell me you have an idea that’s been dancing around in your head, and the next moment we can make it real.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

It was a self-made pivot. Los Angeles is where I reclaimed my creative spirit, and where Sean Stronger Studio started to lay its foundations. New York was always on my mind. It was the planned pivot, the should I, could I, would I? but the timing never felt right. In 2023, three years into my creative practice, I was in New York with UnderNewMgmt and we began taking on projects there. Over that year of expanding into the east coast, I fell more in love with the city. Then in early 2024, I made the move. I was absolutely nervous, not knowing if I could carry or properly sustain my creative work in a new coast. But I’m glad I jumped. I gained a new confidence in my work, another invaluable perspective, and found myself being welcomed into and flourishing inside a new artist community.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I’m fully self-funded. I still work a day job in digital media. I carve out hours before and after my 9 to 5, on weekends, any free moment I can find. For the work to grow and maintain integrity, the business that surrounds the studio has to be cared for and supported. I respect that process, so I see it as part of the work now.
Art is where I feel most free and I want that to always remain a constant. In the early days that meant long afternoons outside over a big canvas, sharing how a piece is progressing with friends and family. I can only speak to my experience. It did not begin with profit in mind. I wanted to share and show a piece of myself. It was a window to the next place, another expression of who I am.

Even when I am not in the studio, I am thinking about what is next. Submitting proposals, meeting people, brainstorming, talking through the business, dreaming bigger. So the return has been growth and a community that I am proud to belong to. I am grateful to everyone who took a chance on me and shared the work.

Contact Info:

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

Image Credits

Roman Shasha
Sam Keeler
Kindred
Kirra Cheers
Maria Sakr