Today we’d like to introduce you to Steph Ferrell.
Steph, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I’ve always been an emotional and expressive person, and for most of my life I channeled that passion into something a bit different than art: swimming. I swam competitively for 13 years—on a club team for most of my childhood, and then on the Harvard Varsity Swim Team in college. Considering how heavily swimming dominated my life for so many years, when I graduated and officially “retired” from the sport, I felt pretty lost.
I realized I needed a new expressive outlet; a way to find humor in tough moments, a way to appreciate my relationships, a way to feel like I was emotionally supporting myself and others. While I was coping with my new reality of no longer being a competitive swimmer, I had also just discovered @bymariandrew and @scribblesbynicole on Instagram. Seeing their posts made me smile, and I thought: maybe I could do that. Maybe I could draw simple things every day as a way to journal my thoughts and feelings. Maybe, I could even have others feel along with me. So, truly on a whim, I gathered some old colored pencils and markers I had lying around my apartment. I purchased a small $10 sketchbook. Then, I uploaded some very poor doodles that were captured in some very poor light to my brand-new Instagram: Decade2Doodles.
From there, I’ve found a home in doodling and taking the time out of my day, every day, to express myself (I’ve also gotten a bigger sketchbook and a scanner that gives my doodles much better lighting). In addition to providing me with the alternative outlet I needed once I was done swimming, doodling has helped me tap back into my creative side much more than I ever have before, which I am so grateful for.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Right now, I focus on creating simple “doodles” that represent the everything about life: from the raw, to the humorous, to the joyous, I draw what makes me feel. If anything strikes me throughout the day, I’ll jot it down to doodle later. If not, I’ll see if anything comes to me as I sit down to draw after work or on the weekends.
I try not to force it, though, if an idea doesn’t come to me or if I’m feeling overwhelmed by creating. When I first started doodling, I made a commitment to posting a new doodle every single day. I did that for a year, and I definitely went through periods where the pressure of having a new, worthy idea every day stressed me out (especially as my followers began to grow). So, after I completed a full year of posting, I took a few breaks to alleviate that creative pressure. Now, I make sure to remind myself why I started creating and posting my doodles in the first place, which was to give myself a happy outlet. As a word of advice: the instant you realize you need an outlet for your outlet is when you should check in with yourself.
From that experience and my work in general, I hope people take away the message that you can have commitment paired with forgiveness, and not everything has to be perfect and externally validated to be worthy. I think one of the best examples of this “imperfect” sentiment is actually manifested through my doodles themselves. I’ve had some people comment about how my drawings “look like a five-year-old drew them”, but I think that’s part of the beauty in them, actually. They’re simple and they resonate, but most importantly—they’re mine, and they work for me.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think the role of artists has changed given today’s political climate and the access we have to art and artists on various social platforms. A lot of artists I’ve met on my Instagram “doodle journey” will express their political views or commentary through their art, and I love that they use their platforms to do that. I think it’s incredibly important, and we need those influential stances to make us feel heard, supported, and understood. But, I also think we need some relief from it all. So, that’s what my doodles intend to tastefully do: on a day when the world feels like it’s going to rip itself apart, I hope I make you laugh from a joke about cookies; on a day when you feel the news is about to pull you under, I hope I buoy you up with a post about love or happiness—because everyone, no matter what they believe in, relates to those core emotions.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
People can see my work through following me on Instagram! I post a doodle every day to @Decade2Doodles. I also have a website, www.decade2doodles.com, where I will occasionally blog as well (you can read my full “story” there).
Contact Info:
- Website: decade2doodles.com
- Email: decade2doodles@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decade2doodles/
Image Credit:
All image credits are my own (@decade2doodles).
