Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shana Blakley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Shana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

My art business, Figure Form, was born out of an intense journey of grief and loss. My background is actually in social work, and I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). I practiced therapy with children and families for 10 years before stepping away when my firstborn son died. It completely altered the course of my life.

In 2017, my husband Matt and I became pregnant after moving to a new city (Richmond, VA), buying a house, and beginning to set down roots. We were elated to be parents and did all the first-time parent things to prepare–read the books, researched the products, prepared the nursery, and celebrated with friends and family. We had a textbook healthy pregnancy. All scans were normal, our baby was measuring on course, and my body felt energized and strong. We couldn’t wait to meet our baby.

But, when I was just one week from our due date, our son inexplicably died. He was stillborn and it was completely unexplained. He was perfect. Having to deliver and hold our precious baby, and then leave him behind and return home to a house equipped for a newborn was an unbearable type of pain.

Afterwards, I didn’t have the emotional capacity to return to my social work career, so I started a mindless position working at home and holed myself in our office. I didn’t leave the house much that year, but I began watercoloring with my morning coffee as a way to silence my mind and process my grief. I was fixated on painting the body, perhaps because I felt mine had failed me and my baby.

From there, friends and family began to take interest in my artwork. What began as therapy for me at a very dark time, turned into connection and beauty for others. I continued honing my artistic abilities and experimenting with different styles until I felt I found my voice as an artist. During this time, I gave birth to my second son (Hue) and daughter (Elm), and Figure Form has allowed me to be home with my children while generating an income for my family.

The loss of October has given my family so much. I am so grateful for all that I have now, -and- something will always be missing. October taught me I can hold both joy and sorrow as close companions.

Shana, 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 a self-taught artist who began developing my creative voice during a time of intense mourning. I used art as a way to re-discover myself after my worldview was completely blackened. My son passed away five years ago this October, and my art business Figure Form began organically shortly after. I started my journey with watercolor, but now I primarily work in acrylic, textured collage, and block printing.

My hope is that my artwork provides a sense of joy and fulfillment to peoples spaces. My current works, titled Still Shapes, are large-scale, textured, geometric musings that play with light and shadow. I also recently began experimenting with block printing after searching for a way to provide more affordable original art offerings.

My most important work yet is titled the October Print, and depicts the journey of pregnancy and loss as landscape. My husband and I collaborated on the design as a way to commemorate the month of October, which is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month, and also the five year anniversary of our son. We hope the art piece provides comfort and connection to those who have experienced child and/or parenthood loss in its many forms (miscarriage, stillbirth, infant loss, and infertility). We donate a portion of the sale of each piece to Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, a non profit who provides the gift of remembrance through photography. They were there for our son in ways we could not be.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me, the most rewarding part of being an artist is seeing something so personal that you created touch others. Each time someone buys one of my pieces, shares a photo of my work in their space, or reaches out with their own story I am incredibly humbled and overcome with fulfillment.

Recently, I’ve been more vulnerable than ever in sharing my personal story and what led me to Figure Form. I’ve been hesitant in the past, because Figure Form is not a silver lining in the loss of my son and I never want it be be construed that way. I am at peace in my life now, but I am forever missing my son.

My story went viral on Tik Tok and Instagram (nearly 1 million views!) and the way the community has positively responded has been overwhelming. What more could I ask for than to be a bridge providing comfort and hope to others? That is the best part of being a creative.

How did you build your audience on social media?

My audience has grown slowly but steadily. When I first began creating, I was very present in my physical community and connected with other artists at workshops and markets in my city. This allowed me to make many genuine connections with people and brought a lot of interest in my art. Word of mouth helped to spread my reach, but Instagram has really been the great vessel in Figure Form’s growth. Content creation has become a huge piece of my plate lately with social media shifting to favor video, and it’s really helped to up-level my business through curating my style and honing my audience. I’ve also been more vulnerable personally, which has drawn a new vein of people to my work who are genuine supporters.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopfigureform.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/fgrfrm
• Other: Tik Tok: @fgrfrm