After 5 years of working my ass off as a (mainly) acrylic artist, and steadily improving my skills, 2019 is here and I’m ready for a BIG change. I’m planning to destroy some of my artwork some time in the month of January, 2019.

For those not familiar with me and my work, I’m Stephanie Ishler. I’m a self taught artist. You can call me Steph.

I started painting acrylic on canvas seriously in 2013. I moved to New York from South Korea in 2015, and that’s when people really began to notice my work. Painting mostly from my home studio in upstate NY, I painted several days per week throughout 2015-2018.

In 2016 I created a Twitch channel, and began streaming some of my painting sessions live on the internet. Most sessions I would start and finish a piece all in the same day. Streaming sessions lasted anywhere from several hours, to more than 9 hours in some cases, averaging around 4-6 hours per stream. At the time of this posting, I have 3800+ Twitch followers.

As an artist, I’ve been truly blessed. I’m constantly challenging myself, and collectors around the world have taken note. My paintings now reside in over 14 countries, and across 5 continents. This sort of support as a young, self-taught artist has greatly contributed to my continued motivation to improve my artistic skills.

It’s now 2019. A brand new year. And, I’m setting out to be the best damn artist I can possibly be.

In 2019, it’s the best time ever to be an artist! Social media websites like Instagram and YouTube have (sort of) turned the traditional art market upside down. Artists no longer need galleries to be successful. Artists like myself can start out small, work from home, work their asses off, and possibly sell art direct to their collectors. Although galleries are still major players in the art world, more than ever new artists seem to be popping up everyday. Anyone with a smart phone can create an Instagram account, and call themselves as artist.

With more options than ever as an artist, without careful consideration, it’s difficult to know where to start.

When it comes to creating a painting from scratch, every artist I know has a slightly different approach. I’m not sure about others, but I have a ton of extra paintings that I don’t know what to do with. Many were created between 2013-2015 when I was still developing my talent and skill. Many are not my best works. I’m storing them in virtually every room around our house, attic, etc., and it. has. become. too. much. I don’t want to pay to put them in storage on the off chance that someone 10 or 20 years from now may want to purchase them. I’m not that far away from opening my own studio outside our home where I KNOW I’ll have more space to store older works, but as I don’t yet have my own studio that’s not currently an option.

When I look around my house, I see artwork everywhere. Deep down, my paintings are spawned from mixed up emotions from all over my life. Seeing my paintings around me all the time is somewhat maddening. It sort of like being forced to look into a mirror of the deepest parts of your soul. All day. Every day. These crazy thought processes are beginning to stack up emotionally in my brain, and I cannot take it anymore. Furthermore, seeing the physical manifestation of many deep emotions displayed in artwork all over my home is driving me crazy. I feel the need to purge myself of it. I need to let some of these emotions go, and especially the paintings I’m not so proud of. Looking at some of them reminds me of times I came up short of my goal, and it hurts.

It will be extremely healing and cathartic to not hold on to some of these paintings anymore, but instead say a proper goodbye and let them remain in the past.

I know I’m going to be judged for this. I can’t predict how the general public is going to react. But none of that matters.

I’ve made a list of paintings that I’m going to destroy soon. This list may change, but for now this is it. If you are reading this, and are interested in purchasing a painting on this list, contact me now before it’s too late. You could literally own a piece of history.

I’ll be updating my social media about the artwork destruction throughout the month of January. Follow me on Instagram, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for updates.