Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby McAllister.
Abby, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
When I was young, my Dad found a Super Nintendo in a bag, cracked, on the side of the road. It had a handful of sports games that were completely uninteresting to me, and a broken Mario cartridge already in it. At the bottom of the bag was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was only in kindergarten, but I was fascinated by the interactive movie playing out in front of me. We eventually got the new game in the series, Ocarina of Time, and that’s when my obsession really started. I would beg my mom to make paper dolls of the characters so I could have my own adventures (I was too scared to actually play the game – I didn’t want to kill Link!) and ferociously looked for any concept or official art I could get my hands on. I started drawing the characters doing day-to-day mundane things and playing out stories in my head.
With art, I could make an entire world exist, with characters that I could make do whatever I wanted. And for a long time, I pursued that dream of concept artist, and it was the driving force behind going to MassArt in 2012. It was there that I found oil portraiture my senior year and realized I had found genuine direction. I still use my passion for narrative illustration in my art, even if it’s not in the way I had always thought I would. When I paint someone they become a character to me – they aren’t a perfect physical representation but rather how I view that person in that moment.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Fear has always held me back. Fear of failure. Fear of not being liked. Fear of change. Sometimes I feel like I’m a background character in my own movie, an extra too afraid to leave her house. If I didn’t try my best I could never be faulted for not living up to the high expectations I set up for myself. So I didn’t really try hard at anything. I kind of coasted through college, getting high marks but never really being sure why. By my senior year, I was lost.
Getting into painting was the best thing that has happened to me. It gave me a real direction in my art. Before I was bogged down by rules and details and thumbnails and busy work that was making me resent art, whereas now I could just spill my guts onto a canvas without all the planning. I didn’t have to think, I could just create and get my feelings out and I didn’t have to explain myself to anyone. I paint very fast – one or two hours start to finish, so I just started to do what made me happy.
People are fascinating and scary to me. I’m highly sensitive so being around many new people can be intimidating and I get too caught up in how they might be feeling or what they think of me. I think that’s why I love painting strangers so much; you can get to know someone without having to verbally open yourself up. Every painting I do I leave a little part of myself, and I learn a lot about the person I’m painting, even if it is just from a photograph.
What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
I surround myself with all different types of people, none of the artists. It wasn’t a conscious choice, I guess I just gravitate towards people who have walked different paths. Although my good friends from art school have all moved away, it’s nice to have peripheral connections in Boston through my peers. There’s a certain stigma around artists that I think I’ve bought in to (they’re pretentious and self-important) that has steered me away from befriending them. Sometimes I feel like someone who just doesn’t /get/ art, and I think that deters me from seeking artist friends. The only advice I can give is don’t be afraid of looking stupid. Be yourself. Be proud of your art and know your worth. Don’t compare yourself to others ever. It’s just following through that’s the hard part.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My website is AbbyMcAllister.net and my Instagram is abbymaemac. You can email me at ammcallister@alumni.massart.edu for pricing and commission info.
Contact Info:
- Website: abbymcallister.net
- Phone: 9784207653
- Email: ammcallister@alumni.massart.edu
- Instagram: abbymaemac
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abby.mcallister1
Image Credit:
Lauri McAllister
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