Today we’d like to introduce you to Alison Erazmus.
Hi Alison, 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?
I guess I got started when I proved to be a less than exceptional musician, at least compared to my siblings growing up. But I had a knack for visual art. I remember in high school preparing for the college entrance exams. I had to pick a major in college that I wanted to pursue and out of nowhere I selected visual art/painting, even though I had taken only a handful of art courses in high school given all the other requirements (math, choir, foreign language, etc.). So in that moment I picked becoming an artist and I wasn’t even sure what that could look like besides being a painter. When I arrived at college, I selected ‘painting’ as my major until I heard the photography professor speak and show his work. He took black and white photographs of brutalist architecture (he had worked with the old greats like Ansel Adams) and I realized the love I had for photography. I loved painting but I really loved photography. I had never shot a camera on manual before this moment, mind you. Yet I still know this was an authentic response given the subject matter and the lecture itself. All the students wanted to major in Graphic Design because it was an applied art practice (presuming there would be employment with it), but I didn’t like sitting in front of a computer screen, even then. So I switched to photography on the cusp of the digital photography era. That’s how old I am. I learned film photography in a darkroom initially and then digital photography. I persisted with an art practice after all the years of school – I have my Master of Fine Arts in photography. To do that, I bring my creativity to what I do most days in my job and my little fine art business.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It hasn’t been a smooth road creating a business. Being an artist is the easy part. But thinking like a business owner is uncomfortable for me. Telling myself, first, that I could sell my work and, second, finding people who would purchase my work was a huge obstacle I obviously needed to overcome. Art fairs used to be the way to meet people but they are too exhausting for me to do now that I work full-time. I realize now how I wanted to do a little bit of everything when I sold my work at art fairs. My internal challenge is I’m all over the place. I want to do prints and interior design, and surface pattern work, and wall paper designs, etc. I see it now in hindsight that I made my life a little more challenging preparing for art fairs. I’ve resisted marketing my work and that has been another challenge-getting over the fear of being seen. Anyway, I am still in the deep end of trying to make my art business work so I could probably go on and on but I’ll stop there.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m a fine art photographer and visual artist originally from the flat agricultural landscape of northern Illinois, currently living in Saint Louis, Missouri. I am probably known for my botanical cyanotypes. I also create home décor items such as pillows, lampshades, and textile wall hangings. I always explain this but here we go – A cyanotype is a camera-less photographic print. It’s an integral part of my photographic and darkroom practice now. Sir John Herschel invented the process in 1842. To make a cyanotype, I paint the cyanotype chemistry onto a surface, usually watercolor paper or cloth. After it dries in a darkroom, I expose the surface to sunlight. Whatever is on the treated surface, in my case a plant specimen or a negative, which blocks the light and creates a silhouette of the plant (a photogram) or a positive print. Because of the iron in the chemistry, the prints result in an unmistakable prussian blue color. I learned this process in photography school as an ‘alternative’ darkroom process in one of my classes. I’ve been making them for decades now.
I think it’s my dedication to exploring the medium and using it to design that sets me apart but a lot of folks make cyanotypes. They’re fun to make! William Morris, a proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement, is a big influence on me, specifically this concept of bringing the outdoors in and seeing the hand of the artist and the artisan in the objects that surround you in your home. He did it in response to rapid industrialization in the 19th century and I guess its my way of connecting to the natural world around me as well. It’s definitely a way for me to be in my garden, a place rich in all the leaves and patterns I want to design and create with.
Another factor that I think sets me apart is ever since I moved to St. Louis, I started a creative practice centered on making cyanotypes and walking! Yes, walking. I think all creativity and health likely starts with a walk to the park, in my case Tower Grove Park. There I notice the light, the changing seasons, etc. I get to see how plants grow, listening to owls hoot, and watching branches sway in the wind. It feels like peace in a world of chaos. Rebecca Solnit writes about finding your place. There are places you can return to again and again when you need them – a tree that reliably blooms every spring. A creek that always shows off its biodiversity midsummer. A field where you can stand tall among the ocean of grasses as they whip and wave in the wind. Cyanotypes are my way to deeply love a place, in my case the neighborhood where I live in St. Louis – my chosen home.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
I think having summers off to play every day was my favorite childhood memory by far. For some reason hosting garage sales in the summer was the best time. My aunt and uncle and cousins would stay with us and sell their wares. It felt like one big party.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alisonartcyanotypes.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonartcyanotypes/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alisonartcyanotypes
