Check Out Summer Voelker’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Summer Voelker.

Hi Summer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
As a fine artist, the path is never truly linear. It’s a meandering trail of chaos and delight that somehow takes several side quests and pastes them into a living, breathing career.

At first I wanted to do fashion design. So I did. I moved to LA and went to Otis College of Art and Design. I got a BFA with an emphasis in fashion design, and it was fun! But not that fun. There just wasn’t enough creativity in it for me. I was getting a taste then that I’m less designer and more artist. I’d committed to fashion though, and didn’t want to let that go yet. So looking in my industry, I saw this other, greener pasture – textile design. It felt like exactly what I wanted. Painting flowers, and paisleys, and beautiful things, and thats THE JOB – and making them into repeats for clothing! Still fashion, more art.

I became a textile designer. I worked in basically every category doing this – mens, womens, kids, swim, even lingerie. And if that wasn’t enough art, I started attending drawing workshops in LA because I missed figure drawing. I’d learned it in art college, and it was one of my favorite things. I started taking my watercolors to the workshops and taught myself watercolor by painting live models. Things were going great! Then I got laid off. At a workshop where I was learning from another artist, I talked to a woman there who said she was a full-time artist. She was younger than me, confident, with beautiful art that I’d never seen before. Although I loved her art, I couldn’t understand how she was paying the bills. These weren’t large pieces she was showing me. I got nosy. Was she going to markets? Was she in a gallery? No. She was broadcasting her art on Twitch. This was over 5 years ago, and although big for gaming, it wasn’t nearly as popular for art as today. I hadn’t heard of it. But, I thought, if she was already doing it, maybe she could teach me. She did! She showed me how, introduced me to her audience, and helped me begin.

I started broadcasting on Twitch. At first, there’s no money in it, and it takes a lot of time and effort. I was still freelancing textile design work as much as I could to pay my rent. I was living on Red Bull and desperation, streaming at night and going into an office during the day. And then, things started to change. I started making a full time income on Twitch. I somehow got partnered in less than a year. I kept at it for a few years and made a good living. I made A LOT of art. I also got extremely burnt out. The pressure to be online and streaming constantly was too much. I needed a change.

I went back to textile design. I worked at Guess, Inc as a Senior Color and Print Designer for two of their womens lines for almost 5 years, all through Covid and a few years after. I got to work with some incredible people and my skillset grew. Corporate life is its own challenge. There’s not room for much else when you have a 9-5. I missed my art. I missed drawing and painting people, I missed being my own boss. I realized I was in my 40’s, and I needed to do the art thing. I needed to be a full-time artist again. That’s who I was, who I am.

Now, I’m a full-time fine artist with a textile design line of my own.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No road is smooth with art! It was a rough road, financially and stylistically. You’re looking for ways to pay your rent at the same time you’re looking for ways to stay true to yourself and find your voice. It’s tough. The whole time, people say things like, “You have a real job too, though, right?” and, “It must be nice, just getting to do art all day.” They say this wistfully, as if anyone gets to do the fun part of their job all day, or like art isn’t a real job with incredible tangible value for society, corporations, and individuals that deserves respect and a livable income. Also art is really hard. It’s fun, but it’s not always easy.

It’s tough to wrap your head around as an artist, too. If you take a “real job,” are you selling out? Are you still an artist? It’s a constant struggle until you realize that Artist isn’t a term that is defined by commodification. It’s defined (by me) as a human being creating art. That’s an Artist.

But we all need to make money. So I definitely looked to other artists. Come to find out, it’s almost impossible to find a path to follow from another artist. Nine times out of ten you hear, “I got here by way of this or that, but you can’t do that anymore,” or “I lucked out by doing this at just the right time.” There’s no one path. It can be disheartening if you let it be. You can spin that though. If there’s not one path, there are infinite paths, and instead of trying to follow someone else verbatim, you can create your own. That’s what I’ve done.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a fine artist who specializes in figurative work. I am known for my watercolors, mostly drippy, beautiful women and pretty flowers. I’m currently working in oils though. It’s a crazy change in scale and medium, going from small notebook sized watercolor art to large, 3×4 ft oil paintings.

I’m most proud of my current series, “Owning the Means of (Re)production.” It’s a self-portrait series focusing on the rights of women as people and as artists. I’m really proud of finally finding my voice and being able to express it in a very vulnerable and bold way. These paintings have come out so beautiful. It feels like a breakthrough into truly high-end, professional work, which is wild for a person to say who’s been a professional artist most of my life. It feels like another level though, in scale, skill, and theme.

What sets me apart is my skill level, use of color, and experimentation.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
AI is the elephant in the room in fine art, and especially textile design. The industry is going to shift and change in varying ways. My prediction is digital art, which has only just found footing in the fine art space, will not be valued anymore. AI will be too prominent. Tangible, analog art – that is, oil paintings, pastels, drawings, watercolors – that are done by a person, will still be valued by collectors and people who want to support humans making art.

The largest problem I see (that is already a problem) is nowhere for artists to cut their teeth. Right now, there’s a market for artists in the beginning and even middle of their careers. Textile art is a great medium for this, graphic design, commercial art, concept art, video games, licensed art. All of these offer ways for people to make money with art that is, you know, maybe not going to set the world on fire, but can pay your rent and offer value to other people while refining and expanding your skill set. With AI, that will all be replaced. It will be even HARDER for people to get into, level up, and master art while adding value to the economy. And once you level up, it will all be fodder for the machine.

I’d love to see a basic income put in place for artists like Ireland did to help combat this change.

Depressing, yes? Let’s make art about it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://slowburnstudio.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/slowburnstudio
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/summervoelker/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@slowburnstudio-q5p
• Other: https://www.artworkarchive.com/profile/summer-44f6654a-c307-48c4-90d2-6eef1caf5c37

Image Credits
Working photos by @moonrabbitphotography