Austin Studio Tour x Contracommon

Meet your freaaakin member of Contracommon, a gallery, workshop & studios, led by local artists like myself!

My first show with Contracommon took place during Austin Studio Tour at Ani’s Day n Night. Seeing us all come together with our work is super cute :)

After my year off of selling artwork, I didn’t think that I would be looking for a new space, but my closest, underneath my bed, “my garage”… which is just my laundry closest… we don’t talk about it… & my living room slowly starting to fill up with cardboard boxes full of inventory… i thought maybe just maybe I should look for a new studio

I’ve tried a lot different spaces, from being in someone’s actual garage, second bedrooms to public facing gallery and studios alike, I decided to give it another shot… and I love it here. It is everything I’ve ever wanted out of a studio space and more. The amenities are amazing, like a woodshop, photography room, large computer & printers and just a huge amount of space to explore and practice everything that it takes to be an artist

There are so many unspoken skills that it takes to support a career, and one of them being space. Over the years it becomes apparent that documenting your work almost seems more important than the work itself, as well as the space one needs to make it and a supportive community it takes to be confident in sharing it :)

Besides testing out the waters with spaces, I’ve taken on a lot of different paths to be an artist from school to art assisting and to where I’m at now, an independent art maker and seller. I’m so happy to be a part of a non profit organization that supports emerging, but also contribute my skills… organizing lol and volunteer in ways that mutually benefits my community… pretty much just organizing… and I mean things, a bitch loves to clean… maybe not sanitize but clean :)

Before contracommon, I was inbetween studios working from home, and took the time off to explore sculpture making and going on vacations with my partner john. I finally got a part time job that supported me enough to not have to pimp out my artwork once a month to make rent & was able to take a break from pumping out boobie boards like a machine and step back, plus reconsider the ways I make art and why ~ because my worst fear was becoming too reliant on my work to be financial sustainable to a point where I am losing my artistic voice by just making art to sell. In turn, I actually developed a lot discipline and understood why I was so attracted to making artistic products like prints, incense burners and kitschy work like my boobie boards that are more easily consumable than my large original artwork. It made more passionate to continue work and officially break up with painting… for a while.

My oil paintings take a very long time, at least a month to make start to finish and they are so emotionally taxing. They tell a part of my story that i couldn’t use words to describe or even understand, and put the words together to properly share my past. I became a self portrait artist to replace the need for words to help face myself head on and grow a relationship with myself away from outside influences. Now that I’m into my career, actually selling work and talking to people about my journey it’s healed soooo so much to the point where I feel the need to tell that part of my story anymore… and in turn I lost an art practice. So used to dealing with my pain through painting, that when it was gone… I had nothing.

Pivoting to making art, in production style way, really helped me mindlessly make art and find joy in the act rather than constantly giving a piece of myself away in my work. Which worked out great, like I no longer have to store my trauma in my body, it’s physically kept on the canvas instead and a way for me to connect with people through sharing it and selling it off… trauma bonding style lol

I’m happy this marks a new journey of having the space to grow my practice as a joyful production artist and maybe make friends with painting again, in a new light.

Happy to be accepted by a new community of artists and can’t wait to share more!