Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Harms.
Hi Amy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Even though I’m known for my visual artwork, my artistic journey actually started in music as a pianist. I went to university on a piano and vocal scholarship and taught piano privately for over 20 years. Even though I enjoyed teaching, I also worked in the art world in my “day job”. I had a career in art consulting and gallery directing throughout those same 20 years, and also studied interior design and privately with other artists in their studios as I collaborated large-scale hospitality commissions. During my free time, over the years I started experimenting with my own art practice. Soon all of the hours for my creative energy that had always been at the piano started shifting to a visual art form. I began breaking down the walls between sound and image – translating what music meant to me into visual form. Not only did I start deconstructing, destroying the concept of how I felt about music in my life, but I literally translated this shift into deconstructing my work, cutting my paintings apart. Arranging them, rearranging strips of my paintings like a composer weaving a new symphony of colors, movement and memory of sound..
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have learned to look at my struggles as learning lessons. Life lessons that not everyone is going to view my work and my experience the same way. Just as not everyone interprets songs, or has the same inner responses to music the same way. My struggles have primarily come from my own life journey, having to move my studio to a new state and find a whole new network of vendors, clients and artists communities. But through having to start in an unknown community, it forced me to expand my network and work harder than the average entrepreneur to get exposure for my work. Where I could have gotten frustrated or intimidated by putting myself out there, trying all different means of networking and marketing, it actually lit my fire and gave me a boost for the drive to perform and establish myself in the Nashville arts community.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My body of work that I’m known for is my Paperweaving art series. Essentially, I paint multiple paintings on acrylic and then cut them up into hundreds of strips, then re-arrange the work into an evolved, textured large work that is woven with meaningful hidden bits of album covers or significant mementos that are applicable for each commissioned work. Most of my clients are like myself, driven by how music has impacted their lives or the lives of their family. They work with me to curate custom pieces for their homes or commercial spaces that are site specific and deeply personal with the inspiration album bits woven into the soul of each piece. I’m proud to have been commissioned to do over 6 hotel commissions and over 30 private residential + commercial commissions, along with keeping up a full-time practice of creating inventory works. I think what sets me apart from others is that I’ve found a way to connect with my collectors in a deeply meaningful way with my work, and my pieces end up being a custom heirloom that they will want to pass along for generations to come.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I grew up a true Gen X kid from the midwest…and I’m starting to get nostalgic about all the simple things I grew up with and embracing how I can carry those simpler times into todays world. I was the one making mixtapes for my friends, or also spending hours upon hours hand “weaving” them friendship bracelets as a kid, all while blasting music on my boom-box or record player. I find it fascinating what we take with us into our adult lives, those little snippets of our past. A client recently remarked how the process of working with me on a commission for their home reminded them of making their burned-cd mixtape into art form and I took it as a compliment. I cannot ignore the familiar feeling when I’m cutting and arranging colorful strips of paper and spending hours on-end weaving my work with my Spotify playlist blasting…my 13 year old self would appreciate the dedication along with my art studio music vibes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amyharms.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/amyharms.art.studio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amyharmsartstudio
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyharmsartstudio/
