Yes! Today’s guest on ART FOR YOUR EAR is New York based artist and illustrator Amber Vittoria. We have been overlapping on projects throughout this crazy quarantine, so clearly I took that as a sign from the universe to get her on the podcast! Amber works almost exclusively with the female form, which – you guessed it – I asked her about. Turns out, she worked in advertising at the beginning of her career, and found that she couldn’t relate at all to the images of women being used – so she started creating her own, very stylized bodies. Anyway, we’ll start at the beginning and work our way up to those stories! We recorded this a couple of weeks ago, knee deep in lockdown so take a listen right up there under that curvy, flower-carrying lady, or subscribe right here.
First up, the results of a six week artist residency she did earlier this year at Facebook’s Analog Lab in New York:
See why I asked her about these pieces? I love the work so much, and her reasons behind this series:
“Inspired by the modern embrace of individuality within office spaces, this risograph poster series leverages bright and colorful portraits of women heading into work. Historically, women and their personalities tend to be quieted or ignored within an office setting; these portraits aim to be a playful nod to celebrate how society has began to empathize with womanhood and the stories, thoughts, and ideas women bring to the table.”
Amazing, right?! Okay, up next … Ambers’s HAPPY SOCKS!
So much fun! This was one of my biggest take-aways from this episode… that Amber continues to create the work she wants to create, using her very personalized style of drawing female figures, and the brands come to her FOR HER! This is the dream, and she’s living it.
Speaking of brands, here’s a lineup of some of her collaborations, starting with this pair of shoes she did with K-Swiss:
Not only are these sneakers delicious, I mean gorgeous, listen to the concept behind them:
“Through the bright colors of “This Space Is For You,” this collaborative K-Swiss Classic pair celebrates the space women have made to express themselves both physically and emotionally. The woman in the piece also pushes to create even more space, representing the continued crusade for intersectional feminism and equality amongst genders. This collaboration had an international release on International Women’s Day.”
Next, her mural that is installed in the Warby Parker shop in Boston:
So cool! I scoured Amber’s Instagram feed for the photo she took when she popped in for a visit, but alas, an official interior shot will have to do.
But wait, we’re not even close to finished! How about the work Amber did for the “social launch of Marc Jacobs’ Daisy Love Eau So Sweet scent. The pieces embody the bright scent of Eau So Sweet, leveraging fruity decoration, daisy iconography, and warm musk coloring.” Yeah they do:
I can’t handle all of this goodness… and we haven’t even gotten to Gucci yet:
The first piece was a commission for Gucci’s DIY knitwear collection and the second illustration was for a perfume campaign.
Oooh, and this just launched! Amber’s latest class on Skillshare came out a few weeks ago, and is titled “Intuitive Illustration: 4 Quick, Fun Exercises to Unlock Creativity”:
She shares all sorts of tricks for getting out of your head… which you just know I absolutely LOVE!
Oooh, this is brand new info too. I just curated a new online show on Showfields’ site, and of course I reached out to Amber to ask for a couple of her pieces. She said, yes:
Yes! I love everything she does, but there’s something about this soft, blurred colors that speak to me. These two pieces are originals and are still available… but I’m betting not for long!
And finally, I had to include a few process shots. I love that she combines digital and analog in her work because, as she said, that kind of defines her creative experience so far. Here she is adding analog to the digital right in front of our eyes:
Love! Speaking of love… she posted that ‘line and scribble or lollipop or rose or a stop sign’ on Instagram a couple of days ago, and I just had to share it... oh art, the possibilities really are endless. Sigh. Ok, with that I will say thank you so much to Amber for doing this with me, and thanks to YOU for listening. There will be more ART FOR YOUR EAR next weekend.
Other links:
- Amber’s online shop : Originals / Prints
- Amber on Instagram
- Amber’s class on Skillshare
- Showfields x TJC Show
- Happy Socks… go get some!
Hi Daniel
Thank you for this installment, a lot of the conversation resonated with me and have a follow up question for Amber, (or maybe it can be a question for the next artist). Here in Cleveland we had a major retailer reachout to local artists to provide artwork for their new store, payment for their work was “exposure”. Did Amber have to put up with a certain amount of that? What percentage of her retail installation is paid? Did she ever struggle with making a switch from “exposure” to “$”???
Thank you so much for your podcast it keeps me going more often can I can say!
Melissa
Hi Melissa!
Amazing question; especially in these trying times, majority of the requests that come in are for exposure only. I traditionally say no to barter and exposure projects, as if they don’t have a budget for the work, they likely don’t have a budget to advertise the work to generate said exposure. With that said, my response to these tends to be, “If there is no budget, I’m sadly not in the position to work without compensation, but I’d love to do an interview with you featuring my work instead, if there is an opportunity?” This way, you are getting your work in front of a new audience in trade for answering a few quick questions – hope this helps 🙂
-Amber
Ah, thank you so much Amber! Great advice xoxo