Alumna Amy Boone McCreesh ’07 brings her creative life insight to Artist Talk Thursday
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Wednesday, November 3rd, 2021
For PCA&D alumna Amy Boone-McCreesh, her time in art school was a great opportunity to learn how others — her peers and already-established artists — were managing to navigate the art world. Returning to her alma mater gives her a chance to do the same for current students.
The interdisciplinary artist and 2007 graduate of PCA&D returns to the College this week for an Atrium Artist Talk and studio visits with seniors. The Artist Talk will be held Thursday from 10:15-11:15 am, and everyone is welcome to attend.
Boone-McCreesh, who is based in Baltimore, works with a variety of materials. Her work is in a wide range of collections, from Facebook in Washington, D.C. to the Department of State, Art in Embassies, U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, Mexico. She also has exhibited nationally in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New York, and Denver, Colorado. “I think my creative practice is all about world-building,” she told Power Clash, “informed by the world I experience and made through the lens of exploration and aspiration.”
Artist Talk, Amy Boone McCreesh
Thursday, Nov. 4, 10:15 am, Atrium
After earning her BFA in Fine Art from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, she earned her MFA in Studio Arts from Towson University in 2010. We recently learned a little more about her studio practice, her love of teaching, and an online passion project of hers that inspires conversations between creatives:
You work in, and have worked in, so many different mediums, and with such a variety of materials: What are you working with in the studio right now?
Amy Boone-McCreesh: Right now I am working on a large public art piece that is primarily made from laser-cut acrylic. I am also working on some new pieces on paper – I have a real soft spot for paper and collage.
You also teach: how does work in the classroom influence work in the studio, and vice versa?
A B-M: I love teaching college and art school, there is a constant dialogue about the formal aspects of art, which always reminds me of the fundamentals of things like color and form and how those decisions can have such a great impact on how the work operates. On a deeper level, having conversations with students about why they are making their work and how it is communicating to others allows me to revisit the clarity of my own work.
The website you began, Inertia, is such a trove of inspiration and information for artists. What inspired its creation (and its name)?
A B-M: I started Inertia a few years ago on the website BmoreArt and after about a year decided it needed to be its own thing and operate as an archive of contemporary art. It is a series of studio visits and artist interviews. I started it because I feel like being an artist can be such an isolating experience, and yet we all experience the same hurdles in the studio and with a lifelong commitment to a studio practice. (The term) “inertia” (means) a snowballing of lack of motivation or a downward spiral that compounds. I feel that as artists we fight every day to keep going despite those struggles. Being a creative person is a real emotional rollercoaster and I wanted to normalize the conversations around that and how we make it work. It was also important to me to interview artists at different career levels and geographic locations outside of Baltimore (where I live) to deepen the bonds that already exist among different art communities.
What’s currently your favorite tool to use in your studio/in your art? What could you not do without?
A B-M: Rives BFK paper and an X-Acto knife.
And, finally, as a graduate of PCA&D, what have been the most important lessons you gained here that have been useful to you in your post-PCA&D career?
A B-M: Having independent studio time within the loose structure of a class was a really great way to build accountability and truly understand what it means to have a personal practice. As upperclassmen, we came to our studios and worked side by side even though we were all working on different projects. Visiting artists and attending art events in the community was also really important in that it exposed me to many different ways of working and how those ahead of me were navigating the art world.
