We recently connected with Stacey Malasky and have shared our conversation below.

Stacey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I started drawing as a little kid. My Mom always encouraged us to pursue and practice art, and being an artist was the only career that I ever wanted since I was about 4 years old. I went to college for graphic design, as I knew that I would need to support myself once out of school and after college worked for a year at a newspaper doing ad corrections for 10 hours a day. At that point I realized that I hated graphic design but I had become pretty adept at using design programs and proof reading. The following years I mainly did freelance illustration work while working various non-profit jobs in the urban agriculture field and being a professional beekeeper. All the while still drawing a lot. In 2009 I was offered a job as an artist assistant to a local print maker and book artist. I worked for her for two years and learned letterpress printing, etching, lithography and some book binding and a lot about the business of being a working artist. I learned so much from her and she really started me down the pathway to becoming an independent artist and print maker and helped me gain confidence in my work. In 2011 I started working with a few friends to open a community print shop. My initial vision was for a letterpress shop, but my friends were both screen printers with years and years of experience. We spent a year and a half developing what would become our community print shop and they taught me how to screen print. I co-owned that print shop for 7 years and in that time I worked at the shop as a commercial screen printer. We did commercial work to help fund the community aspect of the shop. I also taught many adult screen printing workshops and started turning my illustrations into screen prints. I did all of this while in addition to giving birth to a baby boy in 2013 and bringing him to the shop with me full time for 2 years. He was the print shop baby. In 2019 I felt ready for a change and started working on my transition out of ownership of the print shop to pursue my own art making full time. My partner and I built a little print shop in our basement and luckily we did that the summer before the pandemic hit. Then I spent the next year trying to keep my business going and creativity flowing while virtual schooling a young child. It wasn’t pretty but we somehow made it work. I don’t think I really could have done anything to speed up my learning process, I feel like every failure and step of the way has helped inform what I do and how I do it. I think the skills that were the most essential were learning about business and learning to center my creative practice. I don’t need to be taught to be creative, but the business part was not so intuitive for me and I stumbled a lot and took a lot of classes and courses and made a lot of mistakes. The biggest obstacles of learning more for me are having a child and not having any family close by to help with childcare. I choose to put my child, my health and my family before success and work so in some ways I feel like I have struck a good balance of being able to take one day workshops and online courses as a way to grow and learn without sacrificing the things that make me happy.

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

My name is Stacey Malasky and I got into print making through owning a community screen printing shop for 7 years and working there as a commercial screen printer. Many years of pulling squeegees and troubleshooting print problems helped me to become an efficient printer. I have always loved drawing and dreamed of being an artist and illustrator since I was a small child. I make hand screen printed paper goods and textiles from my original illustrations. I also do some relief printing with hand craved linoleum blocks on letterpress presses at a community letterpress shop. Most of my imagery is botanical, nature based or imaginative. I have a very large garden that I draw inspiration from as well as reference materials. I mainly make and sell art prints, tea towels and notebooks and stickers. I am committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible. I use eco-friendly water based inks and try to source paper and towels from local manufacturers. I reuse packaging for shipping as much as possible and avoid single use plastics whenever I can. I hand make all of my notebooks from misprints and test prints to avoid paper going into the recycling or trash. I also do custom commission illustration and print projects and teach screen printing as well. One thing that sets me apart is that I really like to draw and create prints that I love and want to hang in my own home. I have a strong attention to detail and like developing a relationship with my stockists and customers, because we are partners in what I do. One thing I am very proud of is teaching my son about running a business. He has been a part of what I do since he was born. He creates drawings that I turn into stickers and sell, and then he gets to keep all the money from them and decide what to do with it. I feel passionate that anyone can learn to make art and become an artist, and the path does not have to be a conventional college pathway to that. There are so many ways to learn that can be accessible to anyone and practicing your craft is really what will set you apart and speed up that learning process.

Have you ever had to pivot?

In early 2020 I had just left the community screen printing shop I co-owned for seven years and was embarking on my full time art business. I had lots of events and shows lined up for the year already and felt really optimistic about starting this venture full time. I was teaching screen printing at a local art college and my son was in first grade. Then the pandemic hit. I am not sure that the word pivot even begins to describe that time in my business or life. I went from optimism and excitement to full time virtual schooling a first grader with undiagnosed learning disabilities. My partner was working full time outside of the house and in grad school (taking two classes that semester). I had to put a complete halt of growing my business to take care of my son full time and help him navigate virtual school. I deal with chronic illness so it is important that I have health insurance and therefore we need my partner to work full time so we can have health insurance. All of the stress of the early pandemic and school put me in a flare up that meant I was in pain all the time and very fatigued, but I still had a kid to take care of and a business to run. I decided that I needed to put my son and my health first. I would keep up with existing stockists and current business but would not try and grow. I managed this tenuous holding pattern for a year and a half. Then my partner finished grad school and my son went back to school in person and got his learning disability diagnosis and accommodations to help him learn better and feel less stressed about school. I was finally able to start growing my business again. It has been a slow organic process as we are still navigating covid precautions and I need to be flexible for my child, my health and life circumstances but I feel optimistic once again, but also have a healthy dose of realizing what is really important in life and it has nothing to do with making money.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is getting to constantly create new things. I love making things and I love that I get to make artwork that brings other people joy and makes their homes restful and pleasant places to abide. Sometimes I still sit back and reflect on how amazing it is that people pay me to draw, which is what I love to do. It fulfills something deep inside of me to be able to create new work and visually problem solve, to be able to create things to help visual learners understand things. I also love that my path of being an artist and learning wasn’t always conventional and being an example that learning doesn’t have to happen solely in an academic setting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://staceymalasky.com/
• Instagram: @staceymalasky
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/staceymalaskyartist/

Image Credits
Headshot: Beth and Eggert Photography