What is your background? (Location wise, but also belief, upbringing, and relationship to your art practice)

I grew up in a super small town in Sudbury Ontario called Beaver Lake and I had a pretty normal childhood for the most part. I had three brothers, a mom, and a dad, and overall just a fun time growing up! I became Christian when I was six and that’s what faith I follow, so I work using those subjects quite a bit. 

Growing up nothing special really happened, but in fifth grade my mother got really sick. She was sick for 6 years until she eventually passed in 2018, which really affected my work as well. My mental health through it was all over the place, and art gave me a way to express all those emotions. Art made me feel like I could be heard in a time where it might’ve been hard within my own family. 

When I was little, there was not a lot to do. I didn’t have internet, and no electronics, so I was limited to drawing and colouring.  I loved art, and I did it as much as I could in and out of school. It was something I have always loved doing all the way up until high school. I had an abundance of encouragement, specifically in high school, to get serious about it as cheesy as that sounds. It wasn’t just a fun thing to do anymore, it was a proper way to communicate with others. I had the chance to learn all the right techniques in order to effectively express myself. 

In high school you took International Baccalaureate Art, can you talk a little on that and how that had an effect on you and your art practice? 

I started IB in grade eleven, which is a demanding program in high school you can take for specific courses which helps create a portfolio of sorts. We had a lot of prep from our teacher beforehand who was figuring out how to prepare us for that path. She would throw in something here and there to get us ready for that level of art. 

It really helped with my ability to be analytical with what I was doing, and really gave me a chance to dive into why I was making art the way I was, and why I was presenting the subject matter that I did. It was extremely beneficial in terms of growing my art skills, technically but also analytically. 

From it, I believe that I am well prepared now to pursue a career in art, from both the information and preparation I received through the curriculum. It is a fast paced learning program, you really learn ahead of your time. You are expected to prepare and present work in a way that is much more mature than your level, which develops your skills very quickly.

Having to create a solo exhibition for this curriculum, how did that shape the way you thought about your works? Did it help having to create a large volume of works with a specific agenda help give you a glimpse into the reality of working as an artist?

It presented a lot of challenges that I didn’t think would be challenging. Things like actually getting all my pieces planned out and having them be coherent in a thread to connect them. I had to think about the elements of art and how to unite them within my pieces. I wanted to have different types of pieces with different mediums, but still have them cohesive.

It was difficult as a high school student to balance other things with the IB program because it was something I was constantly working on. Every time I did a piece I had to think about the whole picture rather than just what I was working on right now. It really did give me a dose of reality of working as an artist. Before this I had really only done a piece about every month and they were never really big. We needed 7-12 pieces that were to be included in our exhibition. We could use pieces from prior years, but I found that those not only didn’t fit my thread, but also I had matured and improved from that point so they no longer presented what I needed them to. 

I made it my mission to make as many pieces in Grade 12 that I was proud of and that I liked to include in my exhibition. It really showed me the time crunch that real artists face although it was nowhere near what a real artist would face. It wasn’t like I was under pressure from an employer who was going to pay me, and there was no fear of judgment from the public eye. It was truly just my family and my friends enjoying the work I was able to create. 

What was the thread of your exhibition? 

The passing of my mother really affected me, and it conjured a path of self-reflection and inevitably changed the way I saw the world. The exhibition really is about who I am, both past and present, on the outside as well as inside. It’s about my connection with life through art. I matured my art from not quite knowing who I was supposed to be to realizing my growth and potential. For my art, I took from life experiences like heartbreak, my mental health, to things happening around me like love and my identity. It really did showcase my growth as a person throughout my years in art and how I grew. 

You mention that art had been something that you did and loved throughout your childhood. Did having that pressure of meeting these deadlines and having an end goal with your pieces affect the way you looked at art? 

It took a lot of creative energy that I don’t think I quite had. It’s like running a race, and you go from running 5k to running a super marathon overnight. You don’t know how you’re going to get through it, and you’re so tired, but even if you had to walk you had to make it to the finish line. You get this overwhelming sense of relief when it’s finally done. I hadn’t really built up to making that many pieces or releasing that creative energy all at once. After that exhibition, this was horrible, but I didn’t do art for months! I just felt so creatively drained. It was really hard to build myself up to that and meet those expectations when I hadn’t had any expectations before. It was originally just something for me, and all of the sudden it was something for everyone else. 

What does art mean to you? Are you aiming to make a statement with your work?

I’m not so much trying to make a statement with my art, more just express myself. My art is for me, and not for anyone else. It’s truly a communication tool for me, I’m not very good at expressing my emotions verbally so I have found this as a successful way to show how I’m feeling. It’s not as much of a hobby as it is something that helps me release my thoughts and feelings. 

Looking through your works, there is recurring imagery of tears falling from the faces of your subjects. Is there a specific feeling or emotion you are trying to evoke with your work? What inspires and motivates you?

It’s funny because I was thinking about this the other day. I believe it’s just imagery that I really resonate with. In high school I didn’t put it in all my works, but I started realizing that my art is so different all the time. I’m constantly exploring different mediums and subject matter, and so I wanted to make my art recognizable. It became the signature thing I did. I started adding the rosy cheeks and tears, because that’s exactly what happens when I cry. It’s like creating a signature using symbolism rather than words. It’s a symbolism of releasing emotion, which is exactly what I am doing. It unifies all my works, and it shows what I am feeling using widely recognizable imagery. 

Do you have a favourite medium? How did you discover your love for it?

I use a lot of mediums, I never limit myself to one, and I don’t want to because I want to be a jack of all trades. Good at all of them, master of none! I feel like art is too broad to be narrowed down to one thing for me. I love all types of art, and to adopt one as my main medium feels like a betrayal to the other ones. I love using different mediums and with that brings different techniques, different textures, challenges, and eases. So I don’t really work in a specific medium, but if I really had to choose one it would be acrylic, mainly because that’s what I have on hand most of the time. I have been discovering digital art a lot recently, and it’s been something that I have really enjoyed. 

Are there any major influences on your work? (Other artists, periods, ideas, life events)

That’s so funny, I was also thinking about this the other day. In IB they make you pick an artist and you have to take and learn from them. One of my first artists was Graham Francoise, he is a watercolour illustrator from the States. His style was really striking to me, and that was really the first year that I started to jump out of the mindset that “only realism is good art”. I started to explore different types of art, such as abstractionism and illustration, and I really enjoyed it. I really learned what it takes to make good art, and good art isn’t only realism. 

I started to look at him as an artist, and there are so many elements of his works that I love. He uses elongated limbs and expressive facial features. His style was really juxtaposed to what I had been attracted to up until this point. I took a lot of inspiration for my style from Graham Francoise, so often you will see in my work that my proportions are off, which is most of the time on purpose, and I will have a more expressive face in my subjects. He exposed me to the world outside of realism and I was no longer holding myself up to the standard that I didn’t think I could ever reach, which was hyper-realist oil painting. It gave me a life lesson to sit, enjoy and have fun with your art. It shouldn’t be something to beat yourself up over or compare yourself to other artists. You need to strive to be like you. 

When my mum was sick, I felt like I didn’t want to make any more problems within my family so I often kept my feelings to myself. I didn’t want to make my family worry when they were already worried about other situations. I never really talked to anyone emotionally because I didn’t want to put that burden on anyone else. With that, I would often put that into my art and explore those emotions. It was like talking to myself, and asking myself “who do you want to be? Why do you feel like this? How do you stop feeling like this?”. I have really bad issues with mental health, I have major depressive disorder and a little bit of anxiety, but who doesn’t, so that has been really influential on my work. 

My feelings are first and foremost the most influential things in my work. My art follows me, like a diary, through my ups and downs. If I’m really happy or really sad it’s clearly reflected in my art. You can tell how I can feel by what I’m creating at that point in my life.

How do you feel, with your style being so transparent of how you’re feeling, the fact that you are going to be opening up to the public eye in your schooling and future career?

I feel like I have a good distinction between whether they’re critiquing the subject matter rather than the actual performance of my art. I feel like no one is ever going to look at me and say, “your feelings aren’t valid within this art piece”. They’re going to look at it and make suggestions on my techniques and the colours I use. They will be critiquing that perhaps my piece doesn’t convey what I am trying to show, so I feel very confident that I will be fine in terms of distinguishing constructive criticism and someone not liking it. I validate my own feelings and I know that my feelings are valid, and what anyone else says doesn’t matter. Of course, I am going to take their critiques on my technique and how I delivered the art, but I won’t let it change what I want to show. 

Let’s talk a little about your education. What are you studying now? What keeps you going?

Growing up I loved art but I was never encouraged to pursue it as a career, because everyone around me thought it was useless and that I wasn’t going to get a job out of it. The goal that I always had was to be financially stable. It wasn’t to be rich, or to have a certain job, I just wanted to be financially stable. In my mind art didn’t support that. 

I ended up going to University for a semester in 2020, and I realized that it was not what I wanted, not what I saw myself doing with life nor did I enjoy it, so I dropped out. I then applied to the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), which was a huge and scary step in my life. Later on in 2020 I got the news that I got in!

I never saw art as a serious career until I started to look at myself and what I wanted to do instead of what made others comfortable with what I was going to be doing. My life, ultimately, is my own. It shouldn’t matter what others want me to do. So, I am studying Illustration this year and I am beyond excited. What keeps me going is that I am now doing what I love to do, and that I am living out the life that I always wanted to as a little girl. As a little girl, when I was asked what I wanted to do in the future, in my head I would scream “Artist!”, and then I would regretfully say “Lawyer”. Little me would be so happy and so proud of where I am now. 

What do you aspire to achieve with this degree/do you have any plans for the future in art?

What I want to do with this degree is one of two things; either become a children’s book illustrator, like every other illustration student in the world, or be a high school art teacher! My art teacher was one of the driving forces for my love of art and even my appreciation of living. She would always be so encouraging by appreciating the little things and pouring so much love into me and my art. It was the best part of my entire high school career. I got excited everyday to walk into art class and know the fact that I was going to be encouraged in whatever I loved or did. So, becoming an art teacher and being that person for someone else would be so cool. But also, I have a dream of owning a little art cafe where people can come in, do art and have a treat. People would be able to hang them up or bring them home. Now, that’s my “if I marry rich” dream. As cheesy as it is, I just want to be happy. 

What has been your most challenging feat so far in your practice?

I think the most challenging feat has been trying to manage my creative energy and trying to balance a healthy art life. Not focusing only on art, but also taking care of myself and doing other things I like. As much as I love art, it can’t be the only thing I love or else I will get washed out easily. It’s been a learning curve to balance a healthy amount of art with a healthy amount of other things. Especially going into a degree doing art, I want to prepare myself, but I don’t want to burn myself out before I even get there.

No matter how big or small, what is the most fulfilling moment of your artistic career so far?

It is so cheesy. But I have a second mom from my church, and she has provided such a loving environment and home for me. I have my father, who is fantastic, but I didn’t have a woman to talk to. She invited me into her family and through that I built really strong relationships with her kids. Emmie J, her daughter, is my absolute favourite little girl ever. She’s my little princess and I love her with my whole heart. She loves art, and when she learned that I also loved art she started giving me a bunch of art she did. I have her little gallery on my wall, and she has been so encouraging to watch and see that she has no expectations of herself or of her art. She is just a kid who loves drawing and is doing it for her.

If you would like to see more of Erica’s practice, follow her Instagram accounts @ericaaemond and @rickitydrawings. For any inquiries, feel free to email her at ericaleeemond[at]gmail.com.