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Meet Erica Maronie

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Erica Maronie.

Erica, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m not sure if I was supposed to be a visual artist. There were a few other things I decided to be when I grew up as a kid, an artist wasn’t necessarily one of them, not right away anyhow. I’ve always had a very robust imagination, however. I read so much as a kid, that whole thing developed early on and I soon started writing my own stories. Writing fiction was my first love. But even the books that I read had illustrations that helped me dive deep into the author’s made up world. So, I would trace characters and shapes out of those books and add to it and make them the illustrations for my stories. I must have been pretty good at it or showed my parents one too many copies, for my Dad to tell me that I should try drawing these things on my own. I’ve told everyone but him, that although my Brother and I get our creativity from our Mother, it was my Dad that started and entertained this entire art thing. I drew those things on my own, I drew everything on my own, it was easy. I’d look at the picture and move my pencil or pen, look, draw, look, draw…until it was done. I’d take multiple pictures and pieces from them to create the look I was going for. I did that so much that my words faded into pictures completely. But still, I was going to be a writer when I grew up, even though I wasn’t writing.

I somehow and at some point, in middle school convinced myself that I would finally change that and become a fashion designer. But not just any designer, it would be high fashion formal wear. Ballroom-like gowns. And when I realized that no one in my world wore formal gowns anymore I cut that out too. I was growing up overseas in the UK and Iceland around the time I changed my life plan for the third time. How could I be a writer with no stories to tell anymore, and how could I possibly be a designer when I didn’t know the first thing about sewing? Going through adolescence in Europe, all I could think about was high fashion, modeling and what was being worn in music videos and on the streets. I was taking selfies and developing them into a homemade portfolio before smartphones and selfies themselves. I was determined to be the first African American girl signed to the Eskimo Modeling Agency. But what happens when you’re in a military family and you think you’ve got a plan going? You move back across the world.

I graduated from a high school in a small town in New Mexico. There wasn’t anything there, certainly no fashion or agencies or anything. I came back to the U.S. a foreigner with all these ideas and experiences and things I had seen and nowhere really to express myself. During summers I would take the opportunities of being in a big city (Phoenix) and look for a modeling agency of any kind or modeling calls but nothing. I held on to high fashion for as long as I could as a kid. Eventually, I had to settle for sanctuary in my high school art class. It was the highlight of my four years there. My teacher was just as weird like me and I understood him and the music he would put on in class as everyone else goofed off and drew literal stick figures. The art class was serious to me. Everything that I was disappointed about, had once dreamed about, anything that I had ever seen that was beautiful and haunted me I was able to manifest on huge sheets of paper. That class was the only class I ever took in art. I graduated with nice grades and about $500 in scholarship money and moved to Phoenix with my family who was retiring from the military there.

I went to community college for business. I said it was because I wanted to start my own business and know how to run it, but I wouldn’t have been able to tell you what kind of business. Perhaps that’s why I never finished because I was so used to the things I wanted to do not working out and just dissolving. I focused on my jobs and not on another plan. Since high school, I had been painting in the background and was madly in love with it but decreasingly confident in it. I grew up a little bit more and decided I wanted stability in a job and got hired as an insurance agent for a top company. Naturally, I was excited for the first two years, but by the third, I was beginning to adult like everyone else and lose myself. Only it was happening for me at an alarming rate. I dreaded going to sleep at night to wake up and do the same job day after day and while I was there all I could think about was painting and how in my previous working years, I had worked so hard helping others make their small business thrive and grow and how I had never done that for myself. I didn’t have a business plan of my own and I went to school for it and wrote many for others. With no plan at all, I decided after one too many terrible days, that I would put my two weeks’ notice in and try something crazy, I’d work on building my passion again. It couldn’t have been worse than how I was feeling while working there.

In February of 2019, I left my job and became a full-time artist in Phoenix. There are a million jobs that are easier than being an entrepreneur and I often think that art is the hardest thing I could have ever fallen in love with. It has not been easy, and I wouldn’t suggest my approach to entrepreneurialism to anyone. As soon as I left my job, it seemed like the whole world got quiet, me and my art became a drop in the most talented artists on the globe bucket. Some might call the instability of an artist’s life thrilling but I honestly must admit that it is still scary! But just when I think I have to pack it up and go back to one of my old lives, amazing things happen because of these brightly painted canvases. This entire journey has been the most fulfilling time in my life, and I would not change one stone in my path. I burst into joy when I get to catch someone’s wheels turning as they’re looking at my art or when they get excited when they’ve found a piece that was painted especially for them without either one of us knowing it. I love what I do, and not too many people these days get to say that.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
If you have your pick of roads to go down in life, art is the one with no smooth parts and not very many edible berries along the way. It used to be that not many people picked that road. I often think that the power of the internet and social media is both a gift and a curse to people who, “do a thing.” It’s great for letting the world know this is what you do and how you do it but nowadays everyone does your thing and you’re now competing against the entire planet, competing for one person to LIKE your thing the way YOU do it. liking is first, buying is way after, if ever. Trying to make a living doing something that everyone does is disheartening, and even more so when it is your true love, and no one gets it and won’t spend their money on it. Bills certainly don’t understand or care about art. I always despised the idea of the starving artist, I thought it was unnecessary, but I was also under the wing of my family with a side gig while I “colored” for extra cash.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
My business is called E.MoniQue Art, it’s how I’ve always signed my artwork. E.MoniQue Art is a bright and colorful representation of me and my creative transitions in life. My artwork is known for being abstract and brightly colored. I’ve got a few trademarks. One of course, being my signature, another being an elephant which is one of my favorite animals and seemingly a lot of other people’s as well, and then there’s the gaze of the women in my portraits. As odd as that sounds, what I mean is, that I have managed to paint female faces with great big beautiful eyes all telling a different story. The eyes of these women usually move the women looking back at them. I paint in a way that conveys to women that they can be free, express themselves, reconnect with humanity and feel the energy while doing so. I do this subconsciously by replicating the same three subjects in very different, abstract ways; symbols of weightlessness representing freedom such as wings or birds, faces with bold eyes and in nature. My artwork can capture something in your spirit and speak to you in a way that you needed. A lot of the pieces with bold, dramatic facial expressions, head angles and eyes will tell you their story and ask you to share yours. My work is unique because it makes the audience feel, more than it asks them to think, and that is refreshing.

E.MoniQue Art is also made up of a merch line that will include some artwork and separate designs on t-shirts and sweatshirts. My love for fashion I guess will never fade. At times I’m the proudest of a warm, comfy sweatshirt I’m wearing with my art on it.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I have tried many times to play on the trends of popular artists who from what I can tell are successful. Every time I do art or techniques that I think the people want, I fail. I don’t use that word loosely or frequently as an abstract artist, but I do. It’s a hard lesson to learn but a necessary one. I am reminded that these other artists, trendy or not, are successful because they stick to what they know and that’s being themselves. When I stray from that, it never works. Being true to myself is what makes my art my art, I love being different, you’re going to pay attention to things you’ve never seen or experienced before. It’s also very important to me that no one is counted out of my audience even if I think I know who my audience is. There’s always someone from afar who is the biggest fan of my art, that I never would have expected. I’m ready to welcome and appreciate that person each time. A good or mediocre experience can make or break your business.

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