Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Rice.
Amy, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have been an Internationally exhibiting visual artist for twenty years. I have been an aspiring flower farmer for five. Sometimes I wear both hats at once. I did not anticipate becoming a professional artist. I have an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Augsburg University. By the time I graduated, I had decided I wanted to be an organic vegetable farmer (to the absolute dismay of my 7 generation farmer family, who had sent me off to college to be something else). I have always made art as a hobby. My art has always been about what is happening in my life. As I followed my farmer dreams, I made an art of it: gardens, wheelbarrows, vegetables, and all the accouterments of starting a farm. When I took my vegetables to the farmer’s market, I took some of my art too. My art sold way better than my sad vegetables, which was the start of my unexpected art career. Some thirty years later, I am back to growing things for a market. My art is again about the things I am growing. My art still sells way better than the thing I am trying to farm. LOL
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I have been fortunate. Minneapolis has been a welcoming place to be an artist, with many opportunities to exhibit and build a community around visual art. I feel very supported and encouraged by my adopted city.
The biggest challenge for me as an artist is that I am not a risk-taker by nature, and so much of art as a business is a gamble. My entire income is from art sales and licensing of my art, and I never know how much money I will have a month to month. Excepting a solo exhibition at a gallery in another state or another country can be a fantastic opportunity for my resume and career but not necessarily make me a dime.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a painter and a printmaker. I print on antique paper, preferring hand-written documents, love letters, and envelopes. While most of my work starts with some printmaking process, most of my finished artwork is one-of-a-kind originals made from cut-out pieces of print work. My process is layered, developed over twenty years, and unique to me. I am proud to be represented by Groveland Gallery in Minneapolis. After five years, I still feel like I have to pinch myself to believe it. I had a book I wrote published, “Playing with Stencils,” and translated it into four languages. I am also proud that I hung on to my beautiful California building studio through the pandemic. It was touch and go.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role you feel it’s played for you?
I started making stencil art at the beginning of the wave of stencil and graffiti artists getting media attention. As one of only a few female stencil artists, I had a lot of amazing international opportunities. That was luck.
An Outsider Art Gallery opened in Minneapolis the same month. I started looking for exhibition opportunities beyond Palmers Bar and Pizza Luce. Not only was that lucky then, but that same gallery is now located in Vancouver, and I have a solo exhibition slated there for 2023. (Outsiders and Others Gallery) A handful of art galleries opened around the country interested in art rooted in craft and women’s traditional handiwork right at the beginning of my career, and my work fit right in. That was luck.
I founded an art program for artists with disabilities to help them overcome obstacles to exhibiting their work. I learned so much about art as a business and art-making in general, and I made a lot of great connections in my quest to help other artists. There was nothing that helped my career more than that. That wasn’t luck. Maybe karma.
Contact Info:
- Website: amyrice.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyriceart/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmyRiceArt
Image Credits
Zoe Prinds-Flash is the photographer of my bio pic. I took all the other photos.
