Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Stalker.
Hi Angie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My early years in college is where I first felt truly connected with a way of making and listening to my inner artist voice. But I have always been making and playing with materials. I grew up in a creative household with creative parents and siblings where I was encouraged to explore artistic ideas. I grew up in a small town in Wyoming and went to college in South Dakota where I studied Fine Art. I moved to California after graduating and then went to graduate school for Design at CCA in San Francisco. I have been in rooted in Southern California for 15 years where I have learned to stretch and grow my practice. I have been a teacher, graphic designer, surface pattern designer, design director, illustrator, and practicing artist while also being a mother to three bright young boys.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
With each new season comes struggles. My current season is mothering young kids. Becoming a parent is life-changing and adapting to the role while also trying to establish and grow a career as a creative has not always felt smooth. I had my first kid seven years ago and I am still constantly learning how to fold myself as an artist, designer, and mother. It’s a constant struggle to push my practice and mother my kids.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My practice multifaceted and rooted in play, curiosity, and experimentation. I create vibrant, process based visual constructions that are notations on the everyday, memory, and habit. Sometimes my work is a painting or a drawing; sometimes my work is a lesson or calls to wonder; sometimes it’s hand-painted fabric, sometimes it’s a sewn garment; and sometimes it’s a surface pattern design, product, or book illustration. Whatever the form, I want my work to shape daily experiences and spaces that bring out the best in people and a brightness in every day. I also want to acknowledge that each day is a part of a bigger whole and process. There are many challenges every day, and rather than glossing over the problems with optimistic blinders, I hope my work encourages sitting in discomfort in a playful way as a means to activate goodness. At heart I’m a painter, even when the materials are not directly a paintbrush and paint. What I enjoy the most is bending and blending processes into one another. Like folding a 2D painting on paper into a 3D wall sculpture, painting on fabric and transforming it into a garment, collaging a drawing and turning it into a repeat for a surface pattern. I feel like there is magic when the name for something becomes a little bit complicated. Is it a painting or sculpture? Is it a photograph or drawing? Is it Art or Craft or Design?
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
This strange year has strengthened my desire to seek and install more delightful moments throughout my every day. Each day brings challenges with deep seeded histories and the pandemic has magnified those. Rather than glossing over the problems with optimistic blinders, I hope my work encourages sitting in discomfort in a playful way as a means to activate goodness. I have found that when I’m sitting in the discomfort, recognizing what is delightful has made the discomfort not only tolerable but a place where I can learn and grow from. I smell the flowers, let the sun kiss my skin, I enjoy fresh citrus, and love floating weightless in pools of water. I have learned that when I dress myself in bold, colorful clothes and hang bright and vibrant works of art in my home and at my studio, I create moments of delight that carry me through the day.
Contact Info:
- Email: angie@everydayisok.com
- Website: https://everydayisok.com
- Instagram: @ok.by.angie
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ok.by.angie
Image Credits
Angie Stalker
