You’re more than capable of finding and following your unique creative path.
You simply need a different route to get there.
Are you an emerging artist seeking more authenticity and mastery in your practice?
Have traditional forms of creative education not worked for you? Or aren’t accessible to you?
Have you found yourself thinking…
It’s been years (or decades) since I’ve made art. How do I even start?
I can’t seem to make time for my creative practice. Each day, there’s too much demanding my attention and energy.
I want to advance my creative practice, but I can’t commit to a traditional university program or similar. What are my options?
How do I find or rediscover my creative voice and message?
I’m an artist with unique challenges and looking for accessibility-focused arts education. Where can I go where I’ll be respected and supported?
Welcome. My name is Erin Schalk. I’m an artist, writer, educator, and founder of Bridging Art.
It is my mission to help bridge the gaps of creative education, providing one-on-one mentorship and group classes to support your artistic growth.
I’ll assist you in harnessing your creative problem solving skills (i.e. becoming resourceful with the resources you do have) to tackle the obstacles and lack of clarity that stand in your way.
Working together, you’ll learn to build a sustainable art practice that is driven by what is most authentic to you.
I’m committed to helping you:
Carve out time and permission for your creative work, despite life’s whirlwind demands.
Recenter your focus on what's authentic to you and your creative practice.
Advance your art in terms of technique and concept.
Enable your art to speak for itself and to resonate on the page.
Transition from one discipline to another or integrate the two (ex/ artist-writer).
Discover the inner calm that comes from making the creative work you were put on this world to do.
Engage in creative educational resources unlike what you’ll find in traditional programs.
...and more.
Erin has LIVED this creative process like the unstoppably gentle, but persistent power of a seedling inherently determined to find its way upwards through any condition of hard or stony ground knowing its destiny is the light; like the gentle, patient, persistence of water finding its way around every obstacle knowing its destiny is the sea. No matter the physical, mental or emotional terrain life has presented her with, Erin has not lost the constancy of the course of her vision to expand, experience, express, create, and share. Rather than seeing life’s unexpected circumstances as only barriers, she’s incorporated them into increased awareness, sensitivity, depth, and richness of expression.
Erin’s professionalism, self-motivation, curiosity, depth and range of experience is astonishing. From physically living in a diversity of areas of this country from coast to coast, to years spent living in Japan, she’s continually opened herself to new, in-depth opportunities for involvement - in the arts community, in learning a variety of mediums of expression (painting, writing, ceramics, film), in learning a variety of modes of teaching (from one-on-one instruction, to group classes, to learning video production in order to circumvent the restraints of this pandemic), and through her own personal arts education, via universities, residencies, museums, seminars, research, creative exploration and experimentation, and diverse teaching experiences.
And Erin is personal. She is patient, persistent, empathetic, flexible, professional, trustworthy, and committed. She knows that there’s ‘more than one way’, that each person is unique, and that every person’s life circumstances and stories are different. She knows that that’s the very beauty and power of the creative spirit. YOU will be her focus. She will be dedicated to helping YOU find YOUR own voice, in YOUR own way.
— Barbara S., Professional Artist, barbarascottartist.com
Current Programs:
Reconnection: Your Creative Practice in the World
(6-Week, 1-on-1 Mentoring Program)
You’ll gain:
Customized techniques and a game plan for gentle reintegration back into your practice.
Exercises and prompts to identify the biggest barriers to your creative work, as well as concrete action steps for overcoming these blocks.
Tailored assistance in rediscovering your creative voice and pinpointing what you want your work to do (impact!) in the world.
An assessment of your creative and artistic strengths, as well as advice and tools for leveraging those strengths to meet your goals.
Cross-training exercises: engaging with related creative disciplines to help provide fuel for your primary area(s) of focus.
Information on the tools and resources that can best support your clearly defined, sustainable creative practice.
We’ll uncover ways to build the foundation for a sustainable creative practice that is authentic to your voice.
Investment: $675
(Payment plans are available. Click below to apply and learn more).
For Visual Artists: Present Your Work through Writing
(4-Week, 1-on-1 Mentoring Program)
As artists, we hope that our work will speak for itself. Yet, we often find ourselves tasked with dreaded documentation: artist statements, biographies, proposals, statements of purpose, artist resumes, CVs, and the like. Learn how to compose writing that clearly reflects the power and nuance of your artwork.
You’ll learn:
To get to the core of what drives your creative practice through a series of exploratory questions and prompts.
How to draft different types of artist statements, including the ones that are best for you, your work, and your audience.
Tips for putting together personal artist bios, resumes, and CVs that are professional and compelling.
A breakdown of best practices for writing grant proposals and statements of purpose.
Line-by-line editing and feedback.
Together, we’ll tailor the mentoring to what you need most at this stage in your art career.
Investment: $450
(Payment plans are available. Click below to apply and learn more).
For Writers: Learning to Paint with Your Words
(Coming in 2022)
Perhaps you’ve dreamed of writing beautifully and eloquently, with descriptions of sounds, images, and scenes that catapult from the page into the reader’s imagination.
As writers, we often engage our readers through specifics. In this course, you’ll learn techniques for crafting writing that is exceptionally vivid and precise. You’ll gain the benefits of my fourteen+ years as a painter and learn to discern and describe colors, textures, and shapes with razor-sharp detail. You’ll also learn techniques for building richly-detailed settings, landscapes, and fantasy worlds with a keen eye for spatial orientation, atmosphere, and more.
Even if you don’t paint with a traditional paintbrush, you can still paint with your pen.
You’ll learn:
Tools for making finer distinctions between sights, smells, sounds, textures, tastes, colors, etc. (a.k.a. ‘sensory reconfiguring’).
Techniques for more unique and visual verb choices.
How to create and use ‘white space’ or ‘negative space’ to your advantage.
...and much more.
Click below to receive updates and details on when this program will become available:
Erin has a great combination of qualities as a teacher. She has a vast knowledge of art and writing acquired through formal education, world-wide life experience, and self-teaching, coupled with innate ability. Erin is a very calm, patient, and encouraging teacher, also very positive and professional. Her love of art and writing exudes in her presentation. You cannot help but get caught up in her enthusiasm for learning! Erin provides whatever instruction and direction needed, but then encourages you to run with your own ideas and imagination. Because she is both intuitive and a great listener, she can discern where you are at in your creative journey. She can help you find multiple approaches to navigate your roadblocks, whatever they may be.
Also, Erin genuinely believes in you! You will not find anyone more encouraging and knowledgeable, or who will work harder to help you achieve your goals than Erin. She helped me to believe in myself and in my writing ability again, and she gave me invaluable tools to help me regain my self-confidence and motivation.
— Joey O., Independent Writer