Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin McAllister.
Hi Erin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I went to the Kansas City Art Institute from 2002-2006 and have a BFA in Fiber art and Textiles. The program was fantastic and we were taught a hands-on curriculum of how to weave, print, dye, and manipulate yarn and fabric. After graduating, I worked for a commercial textile company in sales and learned the ins and outs of the industry. Over the past 15 years, I have represented and sold some of the most prestigious Textile, Wallcovering, Furniture, and Lighting lines for Commercial, Hospitality and High-End Residential projects throughout the world and I currently work as Regional Sales Manager for a “to the trade” Residential Lifestyle Line called Thibaut.
Working in a creative, design-centered field is satisfying, but never 100% fulfilled my creative needs. With the encouragement of my friends and family, I have been consistently creating new fiber focused abstract art since 2016 and finally jumped into a formal art studio in December of 2020.
When colleagues in my professional life learn of my artistic practice, they say it all makes sense. Same goes for my artistic colleagues learning of my career. These two parts often intertwine and many of my materials come from discarded and discontinued interior design samples. I have developed a well-rounded, textile and fabric obsessed life.
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?
Growth is hard – it hurts. It’s called growing pain for a reason. When we are growing, it is uncomfortable and this is how we learn. Embrace change because change equals growth. I learned, often the hard way, that the journey will always be the reward. Be authentic, genuine, and true to your heart, beliefs, and path. Focus on how to make a difference or help those who are stuck along the way. Love hard, have gratitude and compassion for others – we can only control ourselves in this crazy universe. We are all struggling with something and the grass is not always greener. It’s also important to remember that the line of life is not straight. There are exciting, new opportunities on my horizon and I am excited to show up with more understanding and knowledge from my life journey.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
While in art school, I heard a statistic that 5% of students with fine art degrees continued to make art after graduating. I am proud to be part of this small number and to have built a creative art practice along a creative career.
My art work is influenced by the unpredictability of relationships between people and our environment. Organic, static, or everlasting, it’s all by chance. Colors and patterns overlap, like shared experiences and memories. The materials are often remnants and discarded fabric scraps and are cut down to the smallest detail, reinventing their original purpose. I combine bold cotton, silk, wool, used clothing, textured leathers, and iridescent sheer synthetic to represent individuals grouped into various scenarios. With these arrangements, the connectivity between color, space, and negative space becomes something that I study. The arrangements are then bonded with black and colored threads for function and for line, rhythm, and conflict. The result becomes a bird’s eye view of visual theater where shapes dance, compete and tell their story for the viewer to decipher.
I am also very excited to be showing at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival this 4th of July weekend!! Please come say hi!!!
We’d love to hear about what you think about risk-taking?
The risk of being rejected can hold people back from what they truly want out of life.
I had a great opportunity to take a Creative Capital course that taught me the rule of rejection.
Rejection is not personal; it is only information.
If you are not being rejected – you are not trying hard enough. With rejection comes growth and opportunity to try again, learn to be better or greater. It can also be a blessing in disguise. Try. Fail. Fail again. Fall. Try again. It’s not personal, it’s information. Keep going!
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: erinkmcallister_art
Image Credits
Erin McAllister
