Featured Artist: Emily Keating Snyder on the Artist Life and How to Sell Your Artwork

As a creative business owner, I often stress the importance of surrounding yourself with other types of artists. It’s good to create an inspiring community around you that will keep you moving when you start to doubt yourself.

Whenever I get stuck or discouraged, I just reach out to one of these artist friends, (or make a point to go meet a new one!) and immediately get excited to get back to work!

Today we are meeting Emily Keating Snyder. I met Emily when I was passing back through La and looking to connect with some awesome new lady art friends. 

She is a fine artist that incorporates a crafty twist with embroidery into her paintings that I adore, and she also sells prints of her work.

So without further ado, here’s Emily with with how she discovered her style and started selling her artwork:

What’s your artistic background? When did you first know you wanted to be an artist?

I’ve thought of myself as an artist my entire life, although it did take some time to feel confident calling myself a professional artist. I was a very artsy kid, always making collages, doing sewing projects or painting whatever furniture my family would let me take over.

I remember my mom telling me that my friend’s mom was an artist when I was little and thinking that was the most amazing thing ever. That was probably the first time I knew I wanted to be an artist “when I grew up.”

However, when I started college at NYU I didn’t fully believe that it would possible for me to have a career as an artist. I had limiting beliefs around my abilities and the whole starving artist myth that hangs around. It didn’t even occur to major in fine art, so I focused on art history while taking studio art classes on the side.

Looking back, I’m so glad to have both the art history and studio experience. Learning what has come before has been essential for seeing what I can now add to the progression of art in my own small way.

After college I worked in various jobs in the art world for several years, while continuing to make and show my own work. I eventually took the leap to focusing on my art, starting with selling watercolors in my Etsy shop and evolving into the embroidered paintings that I make today and sell online through my website and beyond.

Your artwork seems to be an interesting cross between craft and fine art. How did you come to work in this medium?

The blend between craft and fine art is so important to me. Coming from the New York art world I was taught to place much more value on “high art.” But in my heart I was such a crafter, I didn’t want to have to choose. We’re at a great place now where craft has been elevated so much, with macramé wall hangings and embroidery taking on so many modern forms. I feel lucky to be part of that movement.

It wasn’t necessarily my intention to find a way to blend craft and fine art. My current body of work came about more from my love of materials. I don’t ever limit materials to what they’re meant to be used for, so when I had the idea to make paintings that were focused on one color and I knew I wanted to balance that color with some sort of visual framing, I didn’t feel limited to just using paint.

I had been doing more traditional embroidery pieces for many years so the idea to “frame” my paintings with embroidery floss came to mind very quickly. Since then, I’ve been expanding on the many possibilities for this combination of paint and thread.

What is your creative process like when you start out on a new project or get an idea?

I’m a pretty patient person in real life, but when I get a new idea with my art I’m always eager to get started right away. Often when I’m working on one collection of paintings, the idea for the next collection comes to me and I start making sketches as I’m still finishing the current pieces.

That usually looks like filling a few pages of my sketchbook with color swatches, embroidery composition ideas and lots of notes to myself. I let all these ideas pile up and then when it comes time to make the new collection I try to narrow them down and choose just a few things to focus on. That is the hardest part!

I love your color palettes, how do you decide what colors to use in your paintings?

Thank you! I feel like I’ve been finding my color voice and honing in on what I love more than ever.

When I get into that idea gathering phase I mentioned, I’ll start collecting examples of the new colors physically and digitally. Growing up I had a notebook where I would tape in magazine clippings, paint sample cards, ribbons, stickers, whatever I found that would inspire new artwork.

Today, I have a Pinterest board where I do most of my image collecting for a color palette. For example, I’ll see a blanket with colors that I want to work with and then I’ll start noticing similar colors in clothing or wallpaper, etc. I’ll save them all together to “sketch” out my ideas. I also mix sample paint colors in my sketchbook or on scraps of canvas and see how the colors translate from my mind or screen into the real world.

What artists or designers inspire your work?

I always have to mention artists like Helen Frankenthaler, Agnes Martin and Frank Stella because I resonated with their work the most when I was growing and learning as an artist in my teens and twenties.

These days, I’m balancing the fine line of wanting to see (and support!) everything that’s happening in the art and design world while also needing to keep my ideas my own as much as possible. I believe we all influence each other and there is a collective consciousness so nothing is made in a vacuum, but I’m careful to limit my exposure because I never want to feel like I’m copying other people even if subconsciously.

In general, what have you found to be the most difficult thing about creating and selling your work as an artist?

Good question! Overall I think it’s the mental blocks that I’ve needed to overcome more so than the strategic issues. As I mentioned, I think the myth of the starving artist is still something our society associates with art. Being a successful artist or selling work consistently is made out to be something rare and random, but there are tons of options and different ways to make art a career.

Being able to tune out any limiting stories from the outside world is really important. It can sometimes be hard to create new work when I have this idea that it might not sell in the back of my mind.

I try to focus more on the joy and creative flow of making, getting in touch with my younger self who made art to express herself, not because she needed it to sell. Taking that pressure off allows me to make my best work which is, of course, what collectors respond to the best as well.

Do you have any new ideas or projects coming up that you’re excited about?

Always! I’m working on a new collection of paintings with embroidery that will be released this February. The colors are earthy and muted, with pops of pastels. The palette is loosely based on the colors of natural clays and stones found in the ground, while also incorporating the more unexpected colors that come from nature, like those of crystals.

I’m also very excited to begin an artist residency at The Ruby Street in Highland Park this March, which will culminate in my first large solo show at the end of the month.

What’s your best piece of advice for someone who wants to sell their art and get clients?

The advice from my hippie side is to remember that if you love making art and creating, it’s not by accident. You’ve probably always had an inner knowing that you were meant to share your work, so things will fall into place for you if you keep making.

The practical side of me says to get specific. It took me years to narrow down my artistic focus, but working mainly in one style and creating really cohesive collections has been so valuable for me. It allows people to get to know and remember your work more easily.

I also recommend hiring a coach, joining a mastermind or connecting with other artists in some way to share tips, ideas and general support.

Thanks Emily for chatting with us and teaching us a little about your world! You can find more about Emily and her art here.

Check out this post next if you want to learn more about how to sell your artwork online, and also click the image below to watch my free workshop on how to start making consistent online art sales!

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