Today we’d like to introduce you to Emerson Niemchick.
Emerson, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
If I had to summarize my life and art thus far with one word, it would be “unorthodox”. I know as artists, we are taught to go outside the box, but I don’t know if I ever found the box to begin with. I grew up right outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. This small, Midwest city was an ocean of exploration for all things creative, done safely. I’ve always been acting, writing, and creating, and always energetically grateful to do it. This ranged from 2nd grade puppet shows (thank you all who sat through those as well as Mrs. Wakeman) to shooting iPhone films with a michigan film community that would premiere in local cinemas. It’s always fresh and feels like it has its own method of completion. I was just “trying”, just seeing what worked or what sparked. I still do that to this day… I never feel like I finish what I set out to do, it always sort of evolves into something else. I always feel like I am constantly trying.
I had never painted until I moved here, and I took a lot of emotional baggage with me from my old tribe in the Midwest. Somehow a lot of that emotion came out in painting. Painting was an authentic surprise of myself, for myself if that makes sense. Thoughts, feelings, and parts of me needed out, and the canvas was a haven for that. There’s a lot more that went into this journey but that’s for a later conversation, perhaps over coffee.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I consider myself a visual artist, so painting with acrylics, oil, charcoal, crayon, marker, mixed media, digital art, filmmaking, sound design, you name it… its all part of me. I love getting my hands dirty with it. Sometimes brushes can’t compete with the feeling of cold pudgy liquid being smeared by your own fingers. I strive to make things that people feel and experience but don’t necessarily understand. David Lynch is probably the chieftain of this in my book.
With painting or drawing specifically, I would say 71% of the time I have no idea what it’s going to be when I start. I feel something and it starts forming. Paintings are safe spaces for chaos, so many times anxiety or sadness or joy or just peculiar thoughts can form and take on textures or colors and it just happens, all without judgment or real-world damage. I’ve heard art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. I like that.
Some of my pieces are specific or related to an idea. (Examples of gun control, nationalism, social anxiety, even Covid). Other pieces of mine tend to lean into “dark, weird, grotesque, human, and beauty.” (Similar words the doctor muttered when I emerged from the womb.) I’m okay with that, but I love textures also. A mouth with fungus, spit and decay oozing out of it? Sold.
If people do take away anything, I
1.) Hope they feel or experience something and that the feeling is different for everyone, and…
2.) If anything is taken away, its for other artists or people to create in the same manner. This is your diary. It’s never done until you say it’s done.
Do current events, local or global, affect your work and what you are focused on?
Artists will change the world.
Please read that again, I really believe that. That’s not to say they are the only ones that will, but so much art reflects where that culture has BEEN and where it is GOING.
Grand Rapids, Michigan was birthplace to ArtPrize, which at one point in time, was the world’s largest art festival. It ran three weeks, and the entire city was a living breathing collection of so much art, it was impossible to see it all. You’d walk through galleries and the city and look at some of the pieces and works and these are stories from all over the planet. So the experience becomes transformative and transportive. Art is almost the OG of virtual reality (VR as the cool kids say) where it lets you experience the feelings, sights, tastes, and most important, the reality of the person or group who is presenting it. What better way to aid someone in understanding your beliefs and voice than allowing them to melt into your work. No lecture, no pamphlet, or snarky memes needed.
Strong beliefs and values I hold do leak into the art, sometimes accidentally, and sometimes 100% intentional (I’ve done maybe 3-4 gun control-related pieces alone). My experience in the world lives in the art, and onlookers, if willing, can hopefully transport into my world and experience.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I’m a tad red in the face… I have not been in any galleries or shows, festivals, etc. thus far. Not even a garage sale, but maybe that’s for the best. Are garage sales a thing in California? Or is that a Michigan thing?
I have sold pieces and done private commissions, all of which has been done through word of mouth, social media, and other artists looking to support. But a public gallery or art show is still unexplored territory for me. I humbly like to think I’m a dedicated artist with terrible marketing skills.
A lot of my work is on my website as well as Instagram.
Though truthfully, I never set out or started doing this for dollars in the first place. This was, after all, a colorful diary that hangs on a wall… cryptic to some, but an exhale for me.
On the film side however, my most recent short film ‘roach’ was made during quarantine as a pandemic film and was actually acquired for international distribution. It is now part of the feature film ‘The Pandemic Anthology’, and was presented at the Cannes Film Market. I love directing and there will be more of these surrealist short films. Stay tuned please.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.emersonniemchick.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/derokkrs
- Facebook: Facebook.com/Derek.niemchick
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/emerson_niemchick_art
Image Credit:
All photos and art taken / created by me (Emerson Niemchick)
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