FAQ
Who am I?
Howdy! My artist name is ESS22 and I paint moody, emotionally charged alternative-style artwork on paper and wood using ink or acrylic paint.
What type of artwork do you make?
I love to paint on paper with a brush (using a spit shading * technique) and sometimes wood. When I choose to create artwork on paper, I usually use ink. However, it’s not unusual for me to reach for acrylic or watercolor paint to make my artwork pack a punch.
*Don't worry, I don't spit shade my artwork too much anymore after 2021. Thanks, Covid-19! However, I did it to authenticate my work with my DNA, since I've had my artwork credit stolen in the past.
Most of my artwork is miniature size because I like to focus on creating ACEOs. However, I do make slightly larger artwork that is 5x7-inches or 11x15-inches.
My art collectors can choose from my tiny original art cards and 5x7 paintings, as available on eBay, or find prints of my work here or here for purchase.
Why do you make the work that you do?
I’m compelled to create imagery on paper and wood for cathartic reasons, to express myself, and to continue to remind myself to live. I have value.
The voices of (unapologetically alternative) marginalized women and their vision, ideas, and desire matter. And real recognizes real. Enough of the superficial artwork, readily accepted by the vox populi, where it's all about skin deep aesthetic and has no heart or teeth.
Ever since I was little, I dreamed of working with my hands in a creative field, and I can’t see myself doing anything else.
Plus, I hate being around other people and find them draining. Years of being smeared, gaslit, robbed, and mistreated will do that. My best life is spent cozying up in my workspace with my materials for hours, creating artwork as long as I can get away with it.
What influences your aesthetic?
The aesthetics in my artwork is a mash up of influences from alternative culture, tattooing, German expressionism, surrealism, and my mood or emotions at the time. Reaching into my personal trauma, dreams, nightmares, and ideas about society help me achieve my goals.
Sometimes, I create artwork for the pure sake of exploring an aesthetic or concept, with no major purpose in mind, other than the joy of immersing myself in the moment, painting.
How long have you been making your work?
I have been painting officially since 2008, when I first had the opportunity to hang up my artwork in a public space, a popular local coffee shop (now closed).
I do not romanticize experiencing an uphill struggle to continue to make my work despite the constant obstacles, theft, defamation, slander, and other malicious interruptions I have been experiencing for years. It is not a catalyst for my art, and it still scars and haunts me because I love to create my work to give to others, not to take or for a perceived status.
Where can I find your work?
You can find my work for sale online here, here, and here. Other places you can find my work include ArtaVita, DoodleAddicts, WWAB, mail art submissions, sticker art, and exhibited in galleries.
Art Exhibitions
December Holiday Show, Laguna Art, CA, December 2022
The Holy Art, Art on Loop, UK, December 2022
"The Business Card Art Show," JKR Gallery, UT, September 2022, Group Show
Las Laguna Art Gallery, CA, "Women in Art," July 7 - July 30, 2022
HelvetArt, SWEDEN, Online, July 2022 Group Show
Rochester Contemporary Art Center, NY, "ROCO 6x6," 2022, June 3 - July 17, 2022
"11th All Women Art Exhibition," January 2022, Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery - Special Recognition
Surface Art Gallery, UK, International Postcard Show, January 2022
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, "10th All Women Art Exhibition," January 2021
Contemporary Art Gallery Online, "All Colors," December 2020
Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, "Black and White," July 2020
Las Laguna Art Gallery, CA, "Monochrome," April 2020
Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, "Red," February 2020
Sticker You Presents "Repeeled Art of the Sticker Show," Toronto, CANADA, January 2020
Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery, "9th All Women Art Exhibition," January 2020
Red Studio Garage, MN, "Slideshow Sideshow," September 2019
Las Laguna Gallery, CA, "Comics, Anime, Cartoons & Fantasy," April 2018
Publication/MediaCurrent Masters Vol. 6, WWAB
Artist Closeup Magazine, October 2023
CAP Magazine Summer 2022
Art Hole UK Magazine No. 3, August 2020
The Artblog, Artists In The Time Of Coronavirus, Spring 2020
