Today we’d like to introduce you to neon glittery.
Hi neon, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, I’m neon glittery—nice to meet you.
My real name is Elizabeth Ashley Arnold. b. 1987, I grew up in central Arkansas, Germany, and Colorado. As a child, I had my own rolling cart of art supplies and an art nook by a big window that looked out into our lush German backyard. My artistic mom encouraged my creative talents, so I began drawing, painting, and making art, very young, around the age of 3. In early elementary school, she signed me up for classical piano lessons that I attended for a decade with a steadfast teacher who, while recognizing my natural talent, helped me develop life long skills. I studied fine art and creative writing in college and continued my multiple endeavors. I established my moniker, neon glittery, in 2008.
During college, I spent time participating in and photographing Little Rock’s underground D.I.Y. art/music scene. After college in Conway (where my family has been since the early 1900s), I moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas where I spent 8 solid years creating, and selling art in varying ways—namely in person and at craft shows, working art commissions, and booking and playing shows. I worked part-time jobs and freelanced with the rest of my time. I liked a flexible schedule. I had the freedom to make art at late hours being the night owl that I am, still get my beauty rest for 10 hours, play shows whenever I wanted to, and also take off of work at length for different trips. For example, I took off for 10 days to travel to New York and upstate New York for a mini music/art tour. I view my experiences in Northwest Arkansas as an era of productivity, growth, and exposure for me as an artist. At my 3rd and last apartment in Fayetteville, I finally set up the spacious bedroom art/music studio that I’ve always dreamed of. I found myself making more art and recording music there, pre-March 2020, considering that I equipped it better than my first two studios in Fayetteville.
In August 2020, My lifestyle changed literally over a weekend. In 2 days, I moved 5 hours away to Memphis, Tennessee in the middle of the pandemic to begin a career as an elementary art educator in Eastern Arkansas (where I recently resettled in August 2022). This life change put me on a challenging and character-building journey to teach art as an artist in a different community which I am now calling family. For a month between my move from midtown in Memphis to Eastern Arkansas this past summer, I traveled to Denmark and Sweden where I felt inspired by their nature, quality of food, architecture, history, and high standard of living. In the future. I will soon travel to Scandinavia again. In the foreseeable future, I plan to illustrate and write my own children’s books, illustrate coloring books, and record a long awaited LP to be released on an LA cassette label.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No, I discovered the difficulty of making a living solely as an artist which I thought of as my ultimate goal at first. Honestly, I haven’t yet delved into it deeply enough to try 100%, since I have always kept other gigs going to pay bills. I came from a family of six medical doctors and graduated college with an art degree, but I lived a get-by artist’s lifestyle for many years. I am able to empathize along with past and present ‘starving artists’. The challenges I encountered and I believe all artists do at the beginning and throughout their career, can be summed up by two words: exposure and contacts.
As I view it, the steep staircase of financial success as an artist includes: the more an artist gets their art out there, the more exposure they have; the bigger their audience, the more people that can promote it, the more people that can buy it; the more clients they have, the more consistent commissions, etc. I’m not exactly a marketing person. I’m a hands-on, analog kind of artist. Someday, I would like to make art my main focus; but for now, I know in my gut—as I daily drive past cotton fields—that I’m needed and being used where I am, teaching art in rural Arkansas.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
As a multidisciplinary artist, I create and experiment in many different mediums including but not limited to: illustration, 35mm/medium format film photography, show flyers, album covers, custom screen printing, mixed media, collages, typography, watercolor painting, murals, concrete (visual) poetry, and my music which I label as dream wave—a kind of genre mix of ambient and lo-fi space pop with a classical background. I play two vintage Casio keyboards and sing soprano at times. I have recorded some experimental lo-fi noise songs too. Many of my lyrics derive from poems I previously wrote, with no intention of adding music, which I added melodies to later. Once, a close art mentor said I sounded “like an angel with a keyboard” when they first heard my ethereal sound. I am a ‘D.I.Y. or die’ artist at heart. D.I.Y. means “do it yourself”. I own a simple, flatbed film/negative/photo scanner that I used religiously to make my analog work digital. I have spent countless hours designing show flyers from scratch. I hand-assembled and self-published two poetry chapbooks and collaboratively self-published 3 children’s books with Fayetteville writers. Around 2009-2012, I enthusiastically participated in an online global and IRL ‘alt-lit’ poetry/writing thriving community where at one time, I read my poetry at home and they live streamed it, digitally projecting me on a wall in a venue in Brighton, England. That niche literary community genuinely supported my chapbooks by ordering them as well as my poetry online by publishing it. We wrote words via blogspot, twitter, tumblr, lit-mags, and collected each other’s chapbooks internationally. In my D.I.Y. development process, I’ve converted my bathrooms into darkrooms for screen printing as well as for film photography. I even still print my own business cards. I like to do it myself because I can. Why would I hire someone if I possess the skills?
As for my art education career, I’m happy when I am able to build confidence in students and encourage their budding artistic talents. I gladly spread love and light in my school every day by smiling, greeting students, and guiding and furthering them in their creative learning.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Devotion as well as positivity. Success looks different for everyone. I feel I have succeeded in the prolific portfolio I have created in my time here, whether it’s known by the world or not. That adjective used to describe me as ‘prolific’ comes from a peer artist. With devotion, I pursued my artwork long enough to finish it—I like it—and that’s what matters to me. It’s a plus when others enjoy my art and want to buy it.
Pricing:
- 5×7 prints: $10
- 8×10 prints: $25
- 12×18 prints: $45
- Silkscreen tees: $25
- Originals/Commissions: ~$300+
Contact Info:
- Website: http://neonglittery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
neonglittery - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
neonglitterycreative - Twitter: https://twitter.com/e_arnie
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@
neonglittery - SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/
neonglittery - Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/
neonglittery
