October 29, 2016

Meet Midtown Atlanta Artist: Alea Hurst

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alea Hurst.

Alea, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember, I have been drawing and doodling on anything I could get my hands on. Around middle-school age, I began to take drawing a little more seriously but had the idea I wanted to be a fashion designer. That was what ultimately set me on the path to becoming a visual artist. My freshman year of high school I took my first serious art class. I was lucky to have an amazing teacher who taught me a lot and showed me I had talent. I remember a lot of the students in my class had the same dream of being fashion designers and were a lot more talented at it than me. It was intimidating. I also have always tried to stand out from the crowd and walk my own path. I really wanted to do something different from everyone else and had no idea so many people wanted to be designers at the time. That is when I started thinking of being a visual artist instead. I really loved creating art and did not think of it as a career option until that point. From then on, my goal changed and being an artist has been my focus. I have not regretted that choice either. If anything, my need to create has only gotten stronger over the years. I am naturally a very quiet person and do not say very much, but with art, you can communicate to the world without words or boundaries.

My art has changed drastically, especially in the last couple of years. I used to be mainly interested in classical art and focused on painting still life with a landscape thrown in here and there. If you had said I would end up working with figures and masks on unconventional media, I would have said you were crazy. No way that was ever going to happen. I avoided figures to an extreme. Now they are my focus. I guess a major part of being an artist is going with the flow and being able to reinvent yourself when things aren’t working out the way you want them to. It was time to make a change. With still life, I was playing it safe, but with my current work I am making more of a statement and taking greater risks. In a way, my work is mirroring my evolution as a person.

I have gotten to where I am now by sheer perseverance and hard-headedness. It is not easy being an artist and you have to take every opportunity that you can to get your name out there and make it. Over the years I have learned to never give up and don’t give in to outside pressures. The most successful art is the kind that makes you happy and it doesn’t matter whether or not you get approval from someone else. It is your ideas and expression of yourself and don’t quit because someone gives you negative feedback or says you can’t do something. Perseverance is key. Take the negative comments and look for the validity in them, if there isn’t any just push through and one day you will prove them wrong. That said, I still have a long way to go to be successful in my career. I am happy to have been blessed with many opportunities up to this point, but I am still growing as a person and an artist and cannot wait to see what the future holds.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s definitely not been a smooth road. I think like most people’s lives it has been up and down and a lot of work. It is really hard to make it as an artist these days, especially when trying to get into galleries. I think for every show or opportunity that I have participated in there were at least 10 that I either was rejected or just never heard back. Sometimes, that got to me and made me insecure about my career choice. I think everyone has doubts at some point, but it is how you bounce back and move forward that counts. There have been several times where I seriously considered whether or not I should continue this path over the years. Each time there was an instance where I found the encouragement that I needed randomly and I was able to push through and stick with it. As an artist, I have learned that you have to trust your decisions and have thick skin. There is often a lot of rejection involved and that’s not always easy to handle especially when you are putting your heart and soul into a piece.

What’s the hardest part of your job?
I would have to say it is a tie between two things. The first being just getting your name out there. There are A LOT of artists today and an area can seem a little oversaturated, so it can be hard to get into galleries and get your work in front of the right people. That is where persistence and perseverance comes in handy. The other would be that as artists we put a little piece of ourselves into our work so rejection can be hard. You will come across people who love your work and then there will be others who hate it. You can’t please everyone, so learning how to deal with that is part of the business. I don’t want to say creating the work itself is easy. I do have struggles making the work sometimes and some of my paintings fight me during the process. Ironically, no matter how hard the painting process, it seems easier in comparison to what comes after it.

What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
Success is different for everyone. Yes, it would be great to be a well-known artist and be well sought after on a national or international scale. I do have big goals and dreams for myself, but ultimately I define success as doing what you love to do. It doesn’t matter how much money you make doing something if you hate your job. That is why as long as I am happy creating and enjoying what I am doing and there are people out there who love and support my work even on a small scale then I consider that success. You build on that through your career, but to me, that is the foundation.

What are your plans for the future?
I have a lot of future plans, but nothing set in stone. I mostly have set long term goals and am just working towards those. I really want to start showing more outside of Georgia and branch out into other regions. With my work, I am currently in an experimental phase. I am continuing to paint on fabric but am also testing out other non-traditional material for my background patterns like a metal flake and auto paint as well as glitter and embellishments. I am also testing out painting my patterns by hand. Currently, I am working on my most ambitious painting to date. It is a 7 x 4 ft panel where I have painted the background pattern by hand. It is not only the largest painting I have ever done but it is my first full figure mask painting in the series and is also the most detailed mask I have used. For now, I plan on continuing this series and seeing where it takes me. Other than that, I am open to the process. I don’t know where it will take me, but I am open to it. I mean, honestly, I never would have imagined that I would be making the kind of work that I am now. Definitely not any type of figurative work. I avoided that with a passion until I started this series. My mask series came about all of a sudden and was a mixture of a bunch of different influences creating the perfect storm at the right time. One day I didn’t know where to go with my work and the next I was literally starting this series. No planning involved. I am the sort of person who likes to have everything planned out and organized, but I have realized that sometimes the things that you don’t plan for can be the best things. Who knows what type of art I will be making in the future.

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