Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Mccants
Hi Amber, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m a 23-year-old mixed-media artist from Warner Robins, GA, about an hour and a half south of Atlanta. I never lived anywhere else until 2019, when I moved to downtown Atlanta for school.
I think I’ve always been an artist, even when I didn’t realize it. There are pictures of me at 4 and 5 years old with a paintbrush or a crayon in my hand, drawing flowers and stick figures. I didn’t start taking art as a skill seriously until my second or third year of high school. I had a truly excellent teacher, Mrs. Sauceda, who taught me a lot of the fundamentals of drawing and painting, all the way back to shading cones and spheres in the sketchbook. Those classes were always the ones I looked forward to the most because they lit a fire of interest in me for the process of artmaking.
Even with this interest, art wasn’t my first major when I started out at Georgia State. I was first a psychology major, then it was managerial science, then marketing before I finally landed on Studio Art. You always hear these tales of the “starving artist” and I didn’t want that for myself, so I kept pushing art to the side until I realized there wasn’t anything else that I wanted to do with my life. 5 years later, I still can’t say that I regret that decision.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge I face as an artist is one that sort of leaks into other areas of my life in general. It’s this idea of perfectionism. That there’s a perfect way to execute a project or that perfection even exists to begin with. Even as I’m answering this question, I’m trying to think of the best way to say what I mean.
A lot of people may think that a perfectionist is just that friend who always has a clean house and crisp outfits, but it can really be a lot more than that. I was listening to an episode of No Deep Dives by FlexMami recently and she really hit the nail on the head for me. She said that “it can be someone who has the desire to find quote unquote the perfect solution, which makes it hard for them not only to settle on decisions but to enact their will for perfection.” And man if that isn’t the truth. That ideal picture in your mind will really keep you still and stagnant with the brush hanging over the paper. The idea of potentially making a mistake or not being able to realize the vision to its fullest potential will keep you inactive. I think we’ve all been there once or twice and it’s something I’m working on.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Ultimately, the goal of my work is simply to communicate and show myself to people in my own way. I’ve really come to value communication over the years because that is the basis of who I am and what I want to do with my life. Whether it be through art making, writing, or the carefully curated 15 seconds of that one song I posted on my Instagram story. I just want what’s going on internally to shine through on the external, and that usually ends with me making a lot of work about nostalgia, anxiety, or spirituality.
I’ve taken a bit of a break from painting recently, just to give my brain a break. There’s so much going on in the world and in my mind, and it’s actually been a bit difficult to pinpoint where my focus should go. I have a lot of ideas going in my sketchbook that I’m excited about though, and I think the time is coming for me to get back to it.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
1. Don’t be afraid to slow down. I think anxious thinkers like myself always feel like we’re running out of time, so we rush to do things in an effort to keep pace with the community. It’s okay to slow down and get your mind and body back in sync with each other. Creating feels better that way.
2. The idea doesn’t have to be perfected in your mind to start. I feel like the longer you turn the thing over in your mind, the less likely you are to actually get started. Take that idea down off the pedestal and use it. That’s really just advice to myself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ambermccants.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/amber.jeen
