Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Crimmings.
Amber, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I grew up loving art. As an only child, I would set up still life, after still life, in my bedroom and draw whatever I had around me. I was raised uniquely by two hard working, intellectual thinkers. My childhood was not filled with things such as princesses and dresses. Instead, I was taught how to use tools, how to make things, how to work hard, follow passions, and creativity was encouraged. I come from a family of entrepreneurs and hard innovative thinking workers, my father runs his own successful business out of Houston, and my mother has worked in the legal sector for over 20 years. I graduated McKinney High School and I had a scholarship to TWU, which I was not ready for… I decided I needed a break from the normal system way of life, and joined the Army. I was stationed in Alaska, Korea, and Miami and did a variety of things, from air assault, helpdesk support to operating secure network systems for 7 years, with a brief stint doing contract work. From there I took a break to raise my children, and make a return back to art, and new venture into teaching. I finished my bachelor’s degree at UMHB in Belton TX. And proceeded to teach HS art for 4 1/2 years and immersed myself back into creating. It was time to get back to original passions. During that time I got Alley Cat Press up and going. I lived in the Ft. Hood area, but I was represented by galleries and was active in both Dallas and Austin. I met John LaRue through Alley Cat Press, and he offered me an artistic director position at Deep Ellum Art Co to design, create, and run his art programs from scratch, and I agreed to jump off the cliff with him, so to speak. Here, I am able to run shows at an extremely fast pace, every 2 weeks, and coordinate artists for live work/sales during events, along with providing mentorship and guidance to help them become more successful.
Has it been a smooth road?
NNo road is smooth. Mine is no exception. I have always loved living a bit with my head barely above water. Puzzles, challenges, doing what others think I cannot….I enjoy large tasks and being challenged. I am bored otherwise. The Army as it turned out, was also a good life schooling on responsibility, organization, and confidence which have helped me in my personal artistic career, even though I did not make much art during that period of my life. My quiet times in creating used to make me feel guilty or less of an artist, but with the time that has passed, I now realize those quiet times are important. They allow things to percolate in the back of the brain and become bigger ideas, and when you are ready to institute them, coming out of the quiet, wow, can it be a resounding creative roar! I live my life very much in the mindset of treat others how I would want to be treated, and am generally known as the mom and teacher wherever I am. This is borne from having my own trials, I am a survivor of an abusive relationship, and still struggle with protecting the kids from reoccurring abuse. I want everyone I meet and work with, or work for, feel kindness when our interactions are over. That is my personal way of regaining balance, making things right in my bit of the world, and it really is the best way to be, in my opinion. That, along with not particularly caring if, on the flip side, some people may still not like you. To live well all the time gives you the ability to truly be free. It assists in creating a supportive environment for others, which is always my goal in everything I do.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Alley Cat Press / Deep Ellum Art Company story. Tell us more about the business.
Alley cat press is where I operate my personal art from. I am a multimedia painter and printmaker.
Artist statement:
The act of creating art to tell, or retell a story of who we are, and what we believe in, is an important part of many artists and society’s intrinsic need to illustrate their deeply-held belief systems. I explore and illustrate the ways “morals” have been taught in many cultures to both adults and children through fairytales. I work by layering different iconography and imagery pulled from texts, both in the final image composition, and in the creation of work. This is representative of how the tales themselves go through a cycle of alteration, following social cues, as they are written and re-written through the centuries. With design and curation, history and the creative community are integral parts to successful shows / cities / businesses / developments. Those with a rich history (preserved and updated), along with a vibrant local creative scene, are what make for a successful environment for creatives to succeed, as well as foster growth within the community, outwards, and within, benefiting businesses / districts / artists.
I am also the Artistic director for Deep Ellum Art Co. Here I am able to Control/curate local artists and fine art for shows/events, budgeting and monthly show planning/designing for indoor and outdoor gallery spaces, interior design. Resolume 6 projection mapping set-up/operation and curation during events / shows, mentorship, agent work, art sales, collector relations, and much more. I am most proud that we are able to provide a supportive community that provide the local creatives a place to practice, live work and make sales easily. I also get to teach and mentor with no rules. At Art Co we also try to emphasis to our artists that it is important to integrate business principles to their artwork, how they do business, and how they market themselves, it’s not just perfection of techniques, or waiting to be “discovered”. So many local artists are great, but they are making art in their rooms, and do not know how to get it out there, or how to do basic fundamental business tasks that would easily help them exponentially.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I see galleries needing to adjust and integrate into the new societal scape. More and more Galleries are struggling to keep up with rent costs, particularly those “grower” gallery types with good strong local connections. And this is an important struggle everyone should be aware of, and worried about. With less galleries operating, less people will be accustomed to walking into galleries and buying local original art. Fast forward, less people will then walk into the higher end galleries, meaning, the deficit will continue to bleed to the top. We need to grow our artists, and at the same time, this will grow the local communities love for local art and encourage them to purchase and support and fall in love with it. If you grow Artists and Collectors, it really is a win for everyone.
Additionally, with affordable artist lodgings becoming more and more scarce, it is important to have good network connections to tie together the multitude of small artistic boroughs together, especially in the wide swath that the DFW area is, we have so many great small pocket scenes, and they just don’t seem to talk, when they easily could! They could rotate and share artists, spreading them on a network that feeds art into itself in a circular pattern. And connect artists for collaborations etc. that is why Art Co is great concept, it balances the art and the music along with other creative disciplines. At Art Co, I would say in this first year, a good 2/3 (at the very least) are all brand new local art buyers, and since then, there is another list of return buyers, we are not only growing local artists, but we are growing collectors! I have had so many people tell me that they have never been in a gallery because they seem so intimidating, which saddens me, and that is what I love about the atmosphere of Art Co; the blending of all the arts in an event venue! In turn creating an atmosphere like we have, it will make people feel more comfortable to walk into a traditional gallery, which all art sales help the art community as a whole!
For art, printmaking is making a large comeback. It is a wonderful way to make beautiful imagery by hand and reproduce, yet still make changes to complete and make originals. This allows more people to purchase prints since they are typically cheaper comparatively than paintings for the most part, and it is also a rich process with a wonderful history. The printing press is what literally spurred on the technological age! What’s even cooler about Art Co, is it used to be a printing press repair shop for a lot of local newspapers in the area many years ago, we actually moved the transport beam over our bar, and designed aesthetic lighting elements out of it and the retaining piece in the center of the room! We also offer pop up live woodblock t-shirt printing! I personally love live printing in front of people to show a process that is original, and bring them back to the idea that art is a fun and interactive thing that is right here in the same city with them while also sharing a bit of history on the building that houses Deep Ellum Art Company!
Contact Info:
- Address: Deep Ellum Art Co
3200 Commerce St. - Website: www.deepellumart.co
- Email: amber@deepellumart.co ; amber@alleycatpress.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alleycatpress/ ; https://www.instagram.com/deepellumartco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeepEllumArtCo.1/ ; https://www.facebook.com/alleycatpress/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeepEllumArtCo ; https://twitter.com/alleycatpress
Image Credit:
For the pic of myself, that was taken by Nick Williams. https://nicholaswilliamsdesigns.squarespace.com
Gallery wall pics, by Andrew Sherman, https://www.instagram.com/drewliophoto/
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
