Today we’d like to introduce you to Colie August.
Hi Colie, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always had the itch to make art – my favorite painting I’ve ever done is one that I made when I was three, I still have it!! In my junior year of high school, I got very sick and was in and out of the hospital the entire time.
It was actually eight years to the day I’m writing this that I was admitted into the ICU. During a hospital stay I bought myself a sketchbook and started drawing all the time making art was such a wonderful way to process the trauma of nearly dying. This event changed my relationship with art entirely, and here we are.
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?
HAHAHAHAHAHA. If it was a smooth road, maybe I wouldn’t’ve become an artist.
If the mental illness has an upside, it’s that incredible art occasionally swims out of it. I have an extensive history of mental illness and have been constantly let down by people I entrusted to provide care for it. At the end of the day, I’m my best friend and no one will love me more than I do.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I do a whole bunch, I can’t sit still!! My first love is painting, but digital art is so reliable. Right now, I’m very much into these upcycled works – I get so excited about them!!
I love giving second lives for discarded items, including stuff I just find on the side of the street. Railroad spikes, goose bones, busted hardware, a positive covid test, propaganda, a fawn skull, are some of my favorites that have made appearances recently. I will always be proud of the skill I have to make a decent drawing with graphite, but gluing stuff onto more stuff just hits differently sometimes. Surprisingly, It’s such an expressive medium.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Compassion, authenticity. Anti-racism, anti-capitalism. Radical acceptance only seems radical in the world we live in, but is it really radical if you’re just existing as yourself?
Contact Info:
- Website: colieaugust.bigcartel.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colieaugust/
