Today we’d like to introduce you to Sydney Croskery.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Although my Mom is not an artist, she is a lover of art and a very visual and aesthetic person, so it comes as no surprise that my brother and I both became artists. I came to art in the beginning of high school and was lucky to go to a progressive liberal school where you could major in art, film, theater, or music. I started with ceramics and was lucky to start oil painting in tenth or eleventh grade, which I fell in love with immediately. Although I had talents, I wasn’t one of those “born with it” naturals, so I took every class I could to develop deep skills. Post high school I carved an educational path for myself combining liberal arts education, a quasi-art trade school, and city college until I arrived at the San Francisco Art Institute and graduated with a BFA in Painting, A few years later I attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and received an MFA in Painting.
Those art school experiences were vital in my artistic growth as well as introducing me to many of my community of artists, and have served and continued to this day to serve as my teachers, motivators, and inspirers.
Please tell us about your art.
I’m an artist that starts first with ideas and actualizes the work in the medium that best fits the meaning, My primary mediums are painting and drawing, but I have worked extensively in performance, photography, and video. I like to combine offbeat ideas with beauty, craft, spontaneity, and humor to make compelling works that inform while still leaving room for the viewer to draw their own connections and conclusions.
I tend to work in parameterized environments because I like how restrictions are conducive to creating weird and funny results.
My work often speaks to the contemporary overwhelm we wade through on a daily basis, and the way that technology is augmenting our minds, bodies, and emotions. For the last five years, I have been making work derived in image and content from artifacts collected into a digital archive, which at this point includes over 3500 unique objects. My digital archive acts not only as a collection tool but with the power of search functions. I also use it also as a tool with which to create content.
What do you think about the conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I think it’s really hard for artists today, but the truth is it’s really hard for EVERYONE. The amount of people I know in many levels of income who work multiple jobs, or work all hours of the day, is astonishing. As artists, I think we are lucky to do what we love at whatever level we are at professionally; if you also make money from it well, then that’s truly a beautiful thing. Some of us like myself are not that great at the business side of art, but the most important thing is the quality of the work. The business side can catch up.
Trying to balance work with studio time and still have the time to go to the market, do laundry, exercise, sleep and see other humans you love, well that’s the biggest challenge of all. It’s taken me many years to augment my life to be able to have a lifestyle where I have enough time for all these priorities. I have to raise my hat to all my artist mother friends, all who work, have children and all the obligations that go with that, and still are able to make kick-ass strong art.
As far as what can cities do to help artists thrive, well, it’s a sad state of affairs. Real estate in Los Angeles is so valuable it prices out regular working families to rent an apartment, let alone give affordable studio space for artists. I think cities like ours can focus on affordable housing, rent control and not letting the developers run this city and then maybe the citizens of this city (including the artists) can have a fighting chance.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Most of my work is online at my website, SydneyCroskery.com, as well as on Instagram at @sydneycroskery. I’m excited to be included in a number of exhibitions this summer and leading into the fall that I will be posting information closer to the dates.
Contact Info:
- Address: West Adams, Los Angeles, CA
- Website: www.SydneyCroskery.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/sydneycroskery
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/SydneyCroskery
Image Credit:
Sydney Croskery
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