Today, we’d like to introduce you to Emma Childs.
Hi Emma, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My name is Emma Childs, and I am a Baltimore-based artist. I have been drawn to making art my whole life. However, my time at Maryland Institute College of Art is when I would say I developed my voice and started to make work that felt original and my own. I became excited about painting and how to manipulate that specific medium during my time there. That body of work has evolved since I graduated with my BFA in 2018.
As soon as I graduated, I was invigorated by the work I had been making for my thesis and aggressively threw myself into continuing to make paintings. Tapping into the arts communities in Baltimore, DC, and beyond (thanks to the ability to share my work on social media) allowed me to commit to this as my full-time career. I have found that with every show or project I am a part of, the next thing organically finds me, like the energy exerted returns in time. The way my career has worked has started to feel like a self-sufficient ecosystem in a way, and I am proud of that.
Working for myself has taught me to trust that what I put out into the world can and will come back to me in some form or another, sometimes in ways I couldn’t imagine myself. I love more than anything sharing the things I make with the world and knowing that my paintings play a role in people’s lives. After being a full-time painter for about five years now, I feel like I have a good handle on doing my own thing, going with the tides, putting my head down, and just getting to the studio and painting.
I’ve come to love working hard and giving something my all.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Being a self-employed artist is so vague in terms of knowing the steps to be “successful.” In the beginning, especially, I struggled with the anxieties of not knowing what would come next. I still don’t know what is “coming next.” That was a huge challenge for me to come to terms with. I am 28 now, and thinking back to being 23 and doing this is crazy.
I have learned so much between then and now. I have become much more comfortable with the unknown, and I feel I have leaned more into an excited/positive attitude about it rather than letting it be a burden on me. Not knowing what my next big project will be is so exciting. I have started to let myself sit back and let the world respond to me. I think the biggest challenge so far has really been becoming mentally comfortable with relying on supporting myself. Having two parents who are self-employed has been a huge privilege.
Neither of them are artists, but they could empathize and advise on that very unknown feeling and have helped me understand how to run my own business. Of course, I experience challenges and will continue to, but being comfortable with uncomfortable moments and learning to move through them is so important. I am and probably always will be working on that on some level.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar with what you do, what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a painter. I make abstract paintings with acrylic on canvas. I would say I am probably known for my shaped canvases. Most of my work is visual, hard edge, color field paintings. I find big, flat areas of color intoxicating, and I am interested in how paintings can feel simultaneously like images and objects/sculptures.
The work is all metaphorical to me, like creating a minimalistic image of a feeling or experience. The final work appears to be executed with precision and planning, but my process is really intuitive. There is minimal planning involved (unless it is a specific commissioned project); I make the canvas stretchers into shapes I find interesting or inspiring and respond on the surface accordingly. I am also interested in the materiality of paint/color itself. Manipulating color is very exciting to me.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think that artists are really taking advantage of the opportunities that social media provides to share their work and reach their audience. I think this trend is going to continue. I don’t see a need for the gallery model to not exist.
I feel like now it is more of a collaboration between artists and galleries because although we can share images of work, it is still so imperative to see art in person. I feel like galleries are slowly becoming less intimidating to both artists and art lovers, and the overall vibe is becoming more inviting.
Contact Info:
- Email: emmachildsart@gmail.com
- Website: www.emmachildsart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmechilds/
