Aly Ytterberg (mother, painter, sculptor)

What should you listen to while you read this Mother Art Story?

Music: Yonder Mountain String Band, Greensky Bluegrass, Mighty Pines (she’s a sucker for instrumental folk and bluegrass!)

The Family

Aly lives in Manchester with her two year old son, Olan, and her husband Brent. Brent is one of those Mother Art champions that we love so dearly with his unwavering support and faith in Aly’s ambition and talent. Go Brent! Aly stays home with Olan during the day, who is one curious little dude! During our meeting, he was quite interested in all the people, trains and chairs at the plaza outside Kaldi’s in Kirkwood. It was a precious reminder that Covid-style Mother Arting takes on a whole new meaning when toddlers are your charge! In fact, it should be noted that in the first 10 minutes of our chat, Aly had to deal with a diaper emergency and I whipped out all the boobs to feed my hangry newborn. Very on-brand for Mother Art!

*“I have created more art since Olan’s birth than I ever did before.”*

The Early Life

Aly was born, reared and fine-tuned in good ole’ St. Louis, MO. Her parents are both accountants by trade, but have creative hobbies and interests. In fact, it was her parents pushed her to study art at Washington University. Her family, including her in-laws, is wildly supportive of Aly’s pursuit of a creative career path, for which she is grateful. “I may have doubted being an artist from time to time, but they never doubted me.” After high school (hello Marquette!) Aly was off to Wash U. to study sculpture. “Honestly, I’ve lived my whole life within a 20 mile radius…some might say that’s boring, but I just have found what I like I guess!” While many people from St. Louis stay in St. Louis, Aly has most certainly made the most of it. After Wash U, Aly was determined to have a real job that paid homage to her inner artist. One day in 2016, while settled in at a great job with the Sam Fox School of Design, Aly made the leap to be a full time artist and hasn’t looked back since! “Being a full-time, practicing artist was never really the plan for me. I am very Type A, and that seemed too loosey goosey.”

The Art

What strikes me as the most compelling aspect of Aly’s art is her crisp, clean exactness and moody color choices. It’s the kind of work that appears so simple, but if you actually think about how someone may achieve such precision you would realize there must be far more going on behind the scenes. When you look at Aly’s work, you can sense the satisfaction of the artist. I know so many artists who never feel like a piece of work is “done”. In fact, one artist I know brings paint and brushes with her if she ever goes into the home of a collector. She just knows she’d see something that needs to change! In this way, Aly’s work is so incredibly refreshing. It’s the kind of work that brings a level of calm to the space where it lives. Aly’s work makes sense.

Her process, while by no means easy, is also beautifully sensical. “I start everything on the computer so I can play with colors and design with a lot more freedom. I like the ‘undo’ button.” Using mostly Illustrator and Photoshop, she can work out her design elements until she’s absolutely satisfied. At this point, her digital efforts can go down one of two paths: they are printed locally at Grafica in Webster Groves and sent away to her clients OR she paints an original on canvas. When I asked about how this second path works, expecting to hear words like “tracing” or “eyeball it” she responded with “Generally I do mathematical proportioning. I design it to scale and then scale it out to whatever size I need to draw on my canvas.” Ah yes, Math, you sly devil you. Anyone else love it when Math creeps it’s way into the visual arts?

Aly has worked hard over the years building up the business of selling her art. It will come as no surprise that she has a robust client list, from personal collectors to corporate commissions. Throughout this journey, she’s had to navigate her way through royalties, price points and negotiating contracts. Her process suits commissions perfectly, as she can tweak colors and sizes to appeal to whatever the client might want. Most purchases are of her National Park series or her landscapes, but she’s always working beautiful new ideas that deviate from her typical commissioned pieces.

What’s next for Aly? In January 2021, Aly will be the featured guest artist at Greendoor Gallery in Webster Groves. Mask up and check it out!

The Workspace

Aly works out of her basement studio in her barely-1000 sq. ft. home in a small, well-lit portion of their basement, adjacent to Olan’s play area. She even fashioned a baby gate to keep Olan in sight, but out-of-touch of her work space. Despite her dream of working while Olan independently plays, most of her work is done while Olan naps. "Being in the basement is perfect, because I can run down during naptime and get a lot done in my two hour mommy break.” (Please take a moment to honor the sacred “nap time” and all it’s grace. Amen.) Managing her Art and all that comes with it is no easy task with a toddler, but she loves it. In fact, having a busy little one running around has made her a BETTER artist. “Knowing that I have limited time has really helped me to stay focused, set goals, and reach for those goals. I have created more art since Olan’s birth than I ever did before.” This rings true for almost every Mother Artist we’ve featured. Despite the challenges and obstacles we face caring for children, Motherhood can make us better artists.

It will come as no shock that Aly, the self-proclaimed “type A” person routinely cleans and organizes her studio, but it’s for good reason. In college, she sometimes struggled with the ultra-conceptual vibe of the Wash U. sculpture department. “I like to make what I want to see and not necessarily give it a ton of meaning.” (Anyone who has been to art school probably found themselves thinking the same exact thing at one point!) She had a professor who told her that when feeling stuck and uninspired, the best thing to do was to gut your workspace and clear your head. To this day, Aly finds clarity in cleaning. In fact, I even tried this tactic recently and found it did, in fact, give me a new perspective on the work I am currently sorting out. Who knew?

Thank you, Aly, for sharing your work and your life with us! This holiday season, be sure to check out her website and follow her on Instagram for information on how to start collecting some of her beautiful pieces.