Meet Blaine Schroder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Blaine Schroder.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
My story starts with how I was raised in a military family. But unlike others, I never got to travel with my father; he was just gone from 4th grade till I graduated high school. While other kids asked for legos for Christmas, I asked for my dad. While others talked about Sunday baseball, I hoped and prayed I’d have my dad to teach me how to throw a ball even though I already knew how. This mindset brought a lot of darkness into my life, but thanks to my mom being the angel she is, she introduced me to art. It quickly became my way to express myself emotionally and exhaust my inner demons into something at least my mom said was “beautiful.”

This passion grew from crappy little drawings and art projects to ceramics, then ceramics to metal sculptures and metal sculptures into photography. Art has been my therapist since grade school, and it’s shaped my life into something that brings me joy. Photography has brought me friendships and experiences that I never thought were possible and because of my passion for art, I’ve come to realize that I’ve started living the life I thought was never possible for myself.

Please tell us about your art.
Every shoot I do, I plan. The whole point of the shoot is to express some form of emotion through a theme or message. I take a lot of inspiration from other artists and different time periods like the 60s-90s. Some of my photos may not mean much to others, and it may just be a pretty image to some. But to me when I create something new for myself its an embodiment of all my emotions at the time, it was taken. My editing style changes depending on my mood and current emotional well being. I can look back at my portfolio and see a timeline of myself throughout the photos and see where I was having a rough time or a happy time. The only reason I keep taking photos is that I need photography in my life. I do it for me and my own personal happiness.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Staying motivated when you don’t feel creative, as well with being too critical of our own work. I remember one time I was editing an image, and I just could not come to terms with an editing style that I liked, and I basically had a mental breakdown and felt like I should quit photography. Which was dumb of me and I ended up just posting that edit I hated and oddly enough it is still currently one of my best-performing photos on my Instagram page. Just other times, I feel like we as creatives can get in ruts and not have much motivation to create new content bc we don’t have any new ideas. I still struggle with this one and honestly, when I find a better solution than “just go shoot” I’ll let you know asap.

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can see my work on my own Instagram page. I don’t display it anywhere else at the moment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artisticavenuesphotography.com/
• Email: artistic.avenues96@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blaine.schroder/

Image Credit:
Personal Photo: ben fuller @a.fuller.life.photography

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