Meet E L Chisolm | Fine Artist, Muralist, Designer & Art Activist

We had the good fortune of connecting with E L Chisolm and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi E L, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I always said I ha no desire to be anyone’s boss. I was young and I ha no faith in myself, because I had watched so many people close to me have a hard time running their businesses. One day I was servicing a client, and telling her my desires, and how I had no clue on how to start, and she told me “If God planted that seed in you and you can’t shake it, it is not there for no reason.” So I started to make plans to shift. I had no intentions on startinhg my own business, although i had been making and selling art for about 9 years prior. An artisian business incubator encouraged me to get started. They helped me realize that I had a business inside of me.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a fine artist, muralist, designer and art activist. I am also the Creative Placemaking Specialist Fellow, for the Historical 4th Ave Business District and Civil Rights District of Birmingham, AL. It has been my goal to help decrease blight and increase public engagement and walkability using tactical urbanism projects and public art.

My art is an expression of my Black American experience. My background in beauty aesthetics informs my works. I am a mixed media portrait painter, working with arcylic paint, twine, tissue paper and decorative paper and more. I use flowers, gestures, colors, and a short story to tell the story of each portrait. These works are representative of the charcteristics needed to continue to grow into your person.

What sets me apart is work ethic and authenticity. I am most proud of my willingness to not give up and stay faithful through any and all adversity. Being an artist is a natural, but that does not make it an easy job. I find myself pouring my soul out to strangers, and opening up to reveal some very intimate truths about my story. This is not easy. The road on the journey is not easy. No journey is, and if it is worth it, it shouldn’t be. It would not matter for me to get to my destination and had not learned one lesson or helped anyone. So I am proud of my will power. Rarely have I been a person to freely share my intimacies.

I have learned that the word No, is a complete sentences, and just because you can, does not mean that you should. Being an art entreprenuer has taught me about capacity. When you work for someone else you rarely push yourself to do the best that you can, most of us do enough to get by, but working for yourself you always want to do your absolute best.

I would like the world to know that they can choose. Like actually choose. You can wake up every day and decide that you are living your dreams, regardless of the circumstance. I live by a mantra that everything you need is inside of you, because it is. You has the power to create your own life using what you have. I have a degree in Sociology, with a concetration in Urban Development because I believe in the enhancement of Black life. I want to help make Black communities walkable for Black people before gentrification, using art. As I write this I understand that I am one small person, but nothing can stop you, when you add faith and confidence.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would take my best friend to Ms. Icey’s Kitchen to have mimosas and cornbread with blueberries and whipped cream, we would also have to go to the West End to eat Slim and Huskeys, and have cocktails at the James Room. Beltline hoping to see some really talented local artist works. We would radomly pick a gallery and do soome shopping at a Black indie pop up market.

Some of the most fun places for me are successful black owned businessses. I am really concious of where I spend my dollar. It is important to me that the dollar comes back around. It is important for me to see my people thriving, so that I know that I can also thrive and to show my friends and family that life is filled with endless possibilities.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicat ethis shoutout to my family, and friends, their support keeps me going most days. I would also like to shout out Tila Studios a black women art incubator operated out of Atlanta, GA and Urban Impact Birmingham, a place-based economic development non-profit serving the Historical 4th Ave Business District and Civil Rights District of Birmingham, AL.

Website: www.elcreative.co

Instagram: @elcreativ.e

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-chisolm-b7343218a/

Twitter: @elcreativ_e

Facebook: @elcreativellc

Image Credits
Brock Scott Briana Bllake