This is a guest post written by Elektra Steel's summer intern, Alexis Bullock! Alexis is a rising sophomore at Northwestern, majoring in Art Theory and Practice and Psychology. She made herself totally indispensable this summer -- she produced and photographed a line of enamel pins, developed a launch plan, researched potential wholesale accounts, and helped paint a mural. In this post, she reflects on what she took away from her two internships this summer.
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I started this summer wanting to get a better idea of the different paths that art offered. I had two jobs so I could test the waters in two different areas of the art world. The first was with Elektra Steel, so that I could see how a maker operates. The second with Catharine Clark Gallery, so that I could explore the gallery-side of artistic careers. Over the course of the summer, a simple two-month investigation of gallery and maker careers morphed into a reflection about my own artwork and how I wanted my future in the arts to take form.
Alexis working on enamel pins for Elektra Steel.
I began to understand what it took to develop a portfolio of my work in a comprehensive and professional way. That understanding was supplemented by the work I did at the gallery, where I learned about the represented artists, their bodies of work, and how they documented them. I became invested in documenting my own work: I kept a journal of all previous, current, and future projects, photographed my finished works, and created a website and Instagram account to serve as my artistic portfolio.
Working with Zai gave me the opportunity to see the behind the scenes of all of her Instagram posts, blogs, and design thinking. It helped me to see my art not only as a hobby or a side project, but as a career. Despite this new outlook, putting together the portfolio often felt overwhelming: I had never created a website, and felt like I was posing as a maker when I didn’t have the authority to put my work out online.
Drip I by Alexis Bullock
Making a journal to track my works, the professional connections I made this summer, and my website and Instagram activity helped me focus on building a portfolio for my own sake, not for the sake of others to see it. Zai made sure I understood the most important part of building this portfolio: to document my work for the future, not for the present. I wasn’t starting an Instagram to get a certain number of followers or likes, but rather to have an established platform where I could collect and share my work going forward.
With that in mind, I began creating my website on Squarespace, and set up a professional email and Instagram as well. Although I only have three of my projects on the site right now, it has made me more sure that I want to continue creating and sharing work. I truly believe now that all makers should collect their work online in some form. For me, it has become the foundation of endless inspiration for more projects.
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Check out Alexis's work in wood, metal, and thermoplastic over at alexisbullock.com, and follow her on Instagram at @alexisbullockdesigns.