I've been creating for my entire life. I remember as a child hearing my mother say that I liked to work with my hands. I just love that. I've spent my entire life dabbling in different mediums but have always been drawn back to painting.
Several years ago I was inspired to paint some insects and I later shared them on my Instagram. There they sat. They were nice, but I felt unsure about how to sell my art and was apprehensive about putting myself out there and baring my soul for all the world to see.
Some time later a dear friend asked me to paint two paintings for her. She calls her two little sons beetles and remembered the beetles that I had painted. She is such a sweet person and as I was working on them, I thought, "I'm going to add some flowers into the background". We were both so happy with the paintings and I had finally found my unique style.
I still struggled with the idea of sharing my art publicly. Sharing ones art online is very much like posting a diary photo. However, I shared in spite of my apprehension. I'm so glad I did because the positive response was so refreshing and warming to my soul. A month or so later I decided to enter my first art festival and had to literally go home and take art off the walls in order to have art for the second day. It was the most wonderfully amazing blessing!
Being the mother of three young children, rounding the art show circuit every weekend was not desirable, so I immediately thought of Etsy. I love selling my art on Etsy. I have been able to share my art with people all over the world and I love the thought of my art being in so many different homes.
More recently I was feeling a little burnt out with painting. I was experiencing a lot of hand and shoulder pain and though I loved painting, I would push myself to the brink continuously. Leaving myself without the use of my right arm for days at a time. I needed another medium, something that required a range of movements and a process rather than the same repetitive stress. I entered a ceramics class and made my first palette. It was life changing. It allowed me to immerse myself in a creative process that while allowing me to paint, was not my sole purpose and movement. This journey is just beginning for me and has completely restored my creative energy and output.