Artist Feature: Grace Selvig

By Natalie “Lee” Arneson

CPJ: Getting the background of you and your artistic journey, when did you first begin making art? 

Grace: Oh, that’s hard. That’s a complex answer because me and how I make art—like my biggest passion is like designing spaces and like interior design, on my scale, and then on miniatures scale. So the biggest, “Oh, this is when it began” was when, I don’t remember how young I was. I was in elementary school and my mom hand-made me these wooden dolls to play with, and I played with them for years. But the thing about it was, was that they had furniture that my dad made and all the time playing was really just me arranging their furniture and their houses in different ways. They probably had a million different house designs the whole time I had them, but their names never changed or anything. That was the game for me was just making their house look pretty.

CPJ: I love that. I guess a good follow up to that one is, what do you define as art in the ways that you create?

Grace: Art is pretty much like anything you want it to be. It’s, you know, makes you feel something. And even sometimes that can be like a lack of feeling. But for me, you know, designing, or simply just planning out how something’s visually going to look, that’s just like making art, I guess. Or even not planning how something’s gonna look. But your intention is, what does this look like? Or sound like? Because there’s audio arts, y’know, there’s everything arts.

CPJ: What would you say that your favorite way to create is, besides doing the interior design?

Grace: My favorite way to create…Well, I’m really into collaging and so I think just taking bits and pieces of stuff that I see in my life, and then making something else out of it is a really fun way to create stuff. Like magazines or poems, or I’ll even—I like to print out Tumblr posts. And that’s been like a really popular collage style of mine with, like, millennials. They see a Tumblr post printed on paper, and they freak out. They’re like, “Oh, my God, this is so meta.” 

CPJ: I love your Tumblr collages. When did you first start doing collage work? What got you interested in it, or when did you first try it out?

Grace: I’m trying to remember the beginning, I want to say around 2014. Somewhere in there, I started doing most of my artwork inside journals and scrapbooks. And I think it’s because I saw a lot of like, Pinterest people and people on YouTube doing like little—or at least that’s what YouTube was recommending to me was “look at all these people with these really cute journals and notebooks, look how they’re putting things in them.” And so I just totally, like, was obsessed. And I would put anything in there, like packaging wrappers and stuff.

CPJ: That’s really cute. I love that. What inspires you to create?

Grace: I think a lot of my inspiration comes from the media that I consume, like TV, books, Wes Anderson movies. Fantastic Mr. Fox is my favorite movie of all time; the colors, the framing, it’s so warm. And you know, like, I’ve grown up in this climate that’s like so not warm, and I think I just want to bring that warmth to my life in other ways. That’s why I lean towards surrounding myself with warm toned things. Although it wasn’t always like that, I think I definitely had like a hipster-punk phase in junior year of high school, where I was like, “Oh, I want everything to be gray!” But, you know, we ebb and flow with what we like and dislike, and this is where the flow has led me, and I really like it.

CPJ: I like it, too. 

Grace: Thank you!

CPJ: Do you currently have a favorite piece that you’ve created, or one that you just really, really love? And that can be out of your collages, your ceramics, anything you’ve created. You can also categorize it like a favorite piece for your ceramics, favorite piece for the collages? 

Grace: Oh, um, let’s see… my favorite ceramics piece. I mean, I really like my bust with the thorns all over it, ‘cause like, I was so terrified in the planning phase. I was like, “How am I going to make this? How do I make a shelf?” And it just really worked out. Like, the process was going my way the whole time and I was so happy. And I just think it’s so fun to look at. I think that’s why—I mean, it has, you know, emotional significance tied to it with the whole theme of the project—but I mostly just like looking at it because it’s pretty.

CPJ: What is some background to the piece? Like, what was the project if you don’t mind sharing?

Grace: Yeah. So, in my program, we have two theme projects a quarter, or at least we have for the past two quarters. And we had to make, I think it was, objects of protection and resilience. So that was the overarching theme, and we got to take it any way we wanted. So I was like, let’s think of the body as a vessel. And how do we protect it? What’s resilient about it? And so I did the torso, because like that’s, that contains your heart. And on the shelf, there’s the heart vessel, which also opens up and I haven’t put anything in there, but it’d be a cute place for love notes or something. And then the thorns are just like added protection. Added, like resilience. And also I just, I didn’t want a stark white piece. I wanted some life on top of the life I guess. 

CPJ: Yeah, I think it’s a beautiful way of showing interconnectedness. When did you decide that you wanted to try out ceramics?

Grace: So my journey was ceramic started in high school. I took two semesters, and my ceramics teacher was so awesome. He was so, like, it was just whatever the student wanted, and he would back them all the way. And that was something I never had in an art teacher before. Like, I had some not fun experiences with art teachers, I feel like everyone has, but this guy was just backing everyone. I think his name was Mr. Williams. Shout out to you, man. Oh, and then I did a quarter of ceramics in community college. Yeah, that was really fun, although that’s when the pandemic happened. So our class ended early in March and I never got to like finish stuff, and I didn’t get evaluated in any way. It just got cut off. But then I was like, let’s see that world again, but at Evergreen.

CPJ: That’s wonderful. What is it that you like about ceramics? About the art form of it?

Grace: Um, I think it’s just manipulating three dimensional space because, y’know, I’m really into miniatures and like that kind of hands on building, and this is hands on building but just in a different medium. But I can warp it and like so many more ways. It’s a temperamental material, but it’s also more giving than other materials you could go with, like, wood or something.

CPJ: That’s beautiful. 

Grace: Thank you.

CPJ: Could we also discuss your blackout poetry? 

Grace: Of course we could!

CPJ: That’s one of my favorite works from you! When did the blackout poetry begin?

Grace: The blackout poetry, ironically, didn’t start with the poetry. It started with the book. I went to a bookstore near my hometown, and I found a book called Christian Science Centennial. And I audibly laughed. Because I was thinking, these two things seem contradictory, but there’s a book about it. So I went through, I read a lot of it. There was a lot of people’s testimonials in there, there was so much. And like, it’s kind of a point of frustration, where I thought, there’s so much contradiction happening. I just wanted to black it out. And so I did. I just started blacking out words, I started just reshaping what was said on the page, and I got some pretty interesting stuff. And so far, no one’s given me a hard time about it. But at the same time, I don’t really introduce that to people that I think would be offended by it. 

CPJ: I mean, I think there’s something to be said about, like, you don’t have to make your art public. And you don’t have to share it with everyone. We think of like, artwork up in museums and stuff, and it’s like “That’s for the public, by its nature it’s up for interpretation.” But it’s also, like, not necessarily. Sometimes the art is simply what the artist says it is and it doesn’t need to be anything more. And sometimes, y’know, that art is not for everyone. And not in a way that maybe some people don’t derive meaning from it, but in the way that “This is not for you to look at or experience.”

Grace: Yeah, I definitely—because I don’t have public social media. I don’t have a public art account. And that’s just, that’s because I want to avoid harassment, because I’ve had a problem with that. But yeah, I just, y’know, I don’t have a community that would be offended by that. So unintentionally, nobody who was offended could see it.

CPJ: Yeah, because I feel like art isn’t something that you just curate for the public. It’s something you curate for yourself.

Grace: Yeah, that’s definitely the like, the origin story for the blackout poems was just, I was frustrated. And that was the result.

CPJ: And do you still typically work with Christian texts for your black out poetry? Or is it just whatever sparks an interest?

Grace: I go hunting for books that I think would be right to use, and I haven’t come across many where I’m like, “Oh, yeah, I really want to edit this text specifically.” So I just have the one book for now. 

CPJ: Nice. And then also, your sticker packs. 

Grace: Oh, my goodness, the stickers!

CPJ: Let’s talk about the sticker origin story, too.

Grace: I have been interested in stickers as long as I can remember. I love putting stickers on everyday objects, just to spice them up. Give them some life. Yeah, I would love to print my own designs on stickers. Like, that’d be awesome, I just haven’t—I mean, candidly, I haven’t sought it out. I feel like I just got a lot going on. But yeah, it came to the point where I had so many stickers I didn’t know what to do with, so I just put them in little groups and curated them. Like, I do the zodiac sign sticker packs, and like, “If you’re a Leo, these stickers are for you.”

CPJ: What’s it like for you, just having your hands in all these different modes of creation?

Grace: It’s fun, but it’s scary. Because everybody asks me, “What do you want to do after college?” And my answer is some variation of “There’s like 20 different things I’d be happy doing, so I haven’t decided yet.” And then I think about that, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, I haven’t decided yet!” But I don’t know, not everything I do has to be part of what I do in the future, I guess. But it’s definitely fun. I get to fill my life with art through many different ways. So, that’s where I get the enjoyment out of it.

CPJ: Let’s dive a little more back into the miniatures. Let us circle back, because I love the little miniatures that you have set up in your kitchen.

Grace: Oh, my Calico Critters. I love my Calico Critters so much. You know, those were a Christmas present, maybe just one or two years ago. My mom was like, “You’re a grown woman, but I know you want these so bad, so here you go.” And I was so freaking excited. As far as miniatures that I create, there’s definitely, I feel like there’s an economic ladder when it comes to making miniatures. Because if you’re going into a hobby store, and you’re buying miniature supplies, it’s very expensive. Like, pre-cut wooden trim, the works, it’s all very pricey. So, doing it yourself also requires a lot of tools if you’re trying to recreate the things that you see in the store. And I kind of do a halfway version of that. I use mostly food boxes, like cereal boxes, pasta boxes, paper, paint, a lot of hot glue—so much hot glue, it’s insane. And I just make little models out of that. Yeah, it’s definitely not like, y’know, there’s like, I feel like there’s an official miniatures society where they measure everything. It’s like this is one sixth scale, one twelfth scale. I’m throwing scale out the window because it stresses me out too much, at least when it comes to personal projects.

CPJ: I think it’s really cool that basically every art from your work with, it’s a very textile experience. It’s all very 3D, it’s not just stuck to a page. I think it’s really cool to be crafty and creative in that way. Is it kind of fulfilling to be able to just hold what you’ve created?

Grace: Yes. Oh my gosh, holding a vase or something after it comes out of this ceramic kiln? It’s fantastic. If it looks, like, anywhere near the way you wanted it to, or even if it didn’t, you still, like, you love it. It’s your baby. Like in the ceramics studio there’s this saying like “Oh, there’s the Kiln Gods” because anything can happen in the kiln, something can go wrong. It might not turn out right, but you pray to the kiln gods that it’s going to be okay. 

CPJ: Working with these forms of creating, like with the miniatures and the ceramics, what do you think you’ve learned from that? Going through those processes and dealing with things that can be so delicate?

Grace: Right, I think when it comes to that, I’ve learned to be less of a perfectionist, especially when it comes to ceramic glazes and stuff. We have sample chips of what the glazes are supposed to look like, but there’s no notes on how many layers were applied, or was it dipped or brushed on. And so when you use it yourself, you can have extremely different results. And over trial and tribulation I’ve let that hurt me less, like the disappointment of “Oh my gosh, this looks nothing like what I wanted it to.” That’s the case for my candle holder on my bookshelf. That did not look like anything I thought it would. But I like it for what it is, after I’ve had a couple of days to get over the disappointment. But yeah, I’m trying to treat everything I make as special in its own right. Just because it’s here now.

CPJ: That’s sweet. What does it mean to you to be an artist and to be someone who creates?

Grace: It has taken me a really long time to let myself use that title, to be honest. When I was like, even when I was in high school, I hated it when people would ask me, “So you’re an artist?” Because, like that silly TikTok audio, there’s the expectation, “Are you good at it?” And I was afraid that people would see stuff I made and be, “Oh, that’s not that good. That’s not impressive.” Because I feel like people who aren’t exposed to the vast diversity of art, they have a surface level, 

“Oh, the most impressive is the most valuable.” And that’s like, realism drawings, where they’re like, “Oh, my gosh, that looks like it’s a mechanical hand.” And I always saw that, and I thought to myself, “Wow, no one’s gonna like what I make if that level of realism is the standard,” but then, going through, I don’t even know, maybe just time, I just learned that that’s not the standard. There is a place for me and my art. And I know I have the drive to be able to go somewhere with that. And it’s not just down to whether or not some people find it very technically impressive. Like, that’s not my bar anymore. And so, because of that change, I feel more comfortable saying I’m an artist. But it took me a damn long time to be comfortable.

CPJ: Thank you for sharing. Are there any last thoughts or comments you want to give us before we close out?

Grace: I feel like I hear a lot of my friends who aren’t in the arts emphasis at school say about themselves like “Oh, I’m just, I’m not a creative person,” or “I just can’t do stuff like that.” And I just want to shake them by their shoulders and say, “Yes, you can! Because what you make is going to be awesome.” Anytime I have the chance to do arts and crafts with my friends, I just, I just like shove materials at them. I’m like, “Take this, take this!” Anytime my roommate has a project, I’m like, “Do you need my craft paper? Can I give you anything?” Because I just, I want people to be happy with what they make. And I want them to make things because making things can make you happy.