Hi, I'm Edith! I moonlight as a visual artist when I'm not surrounding myself with other peoples' creations at the gallery where I work (MiXX projects + atelier). I love oil painting and every form of drawing, but I've dipped my toe in everything from fiber art to large-scale installation pieces. I (usually) love the act of making things, but my favorite thing about being an artist is being able to connect with other people. I like to make things that are funny, especially with the aim of lightening the impact of some of the heavy or shitty things I (and lots of others) sometimes deal with. If my work can make you laugh - or at least make a weird face - I feel like I've succeeded.
What is your chosen artistic medium?
I've done a little bit of everything, and I like to stay open to experimenting with new things, but oil painting and drawing are the two big ones I always come back to. Even when I do work with other media, my projects almost always begin with drawing. It's a great creative exercise to revisit a medium you've worked with for years and years and continually try to pull something new and exciting from it.
If you could have a conversation with one artist, alive or deceased, who would it be and why?
I don't know, one of the really rich ones? That's the kind of scam I need to get in on.
What are your prep or practice rituals to get you into the artistic headspace?
More often than not, I don't have a super hard time finding inspiration, but the process of actually starting something new usually feels a little daunting to me. I find it really helpful to break down the task ahead of me before getting started, and then identify whatever the easiest first steps are. Then if I know that all I have to do to get going is google reference images, or clear off my workspace, or nail down the palette I want to work with, it's not so overwhelming to ease myself into the process, and before I know it I've already made it to the third step.
What is your secret talent?
I'm really good at crossword puzzles. It's not a cool one. I have to work very hard to remember things like my family's birthdays or when I need to renew my car registration, but my brain is like flypaper for random, generally useless trivia.
What is your favorite quote or saying?
I don't have an all-time favorite, but I've been spending a lot of time this year with the Joan Didion quote "We tell ourselves stories in order to live." It's about the human impulse to create narratives about the world around us - and especially its harsher, more difficult aspects - in order to try to draw meaning from an existence that can easily slip into feeling chaotic and senseless. It's been really good food for thought during a difficult moment in my life. It also has a very fun second life on the internet as a straightforward, loving send-up of books and fiction, which I love. I don't know that Didion would have found this as charming and funny as I do, but I also don't think she spent a lot of time on Pinterest, so she probably had no idea anyway.