ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born and raised in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I had an affinity for art from a young age and attended the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA.
Though I really wanted to major in Painting, becoming a fine artist didn't seem like something sensible people did. So I chose the much more "practical" option of Illustration—and I hated it.
I left school after two years and spent the next chapter of my life wandering through Corporate America. Insurance. Entertainment. Technology. Project management. I became good at lots of things, but none of them felt quite right. It wasn't until I found fitness in my thirties that I realized what was missing: passion!
I fell in love with fitness, and suddenly it was no longer acceptable to have a job that I just kinda liked. I needed to do more of what lit me up. I left my stable corporate career and transitioned full-time to Fitness Coach. It was scary and maybe not the best idea on paper, but it was oh-so-fulfilling.
Helping people become stronger and more confident filled me with a kind of joy I hadn't felt before. More importantly, it taught me something I carry with me today: we're usually happiest when we stop living according to what we think we're supposed to do and instead follow our internal signals.
...which brings me back to art. Rediscovering that passion for one thing led me back to my original passion from all those years ago. One day, I had an overwhelming urge to create artwork again. I bought some brushes and paint and a huge canvas. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I didn’t care. I wanted to go big and go bold and go colorful!
It was a disaster. 😂🙈
My first attempt didn’t turn out great, but man, was it FUN! I got lost in the colors and felt like I was right where I should be. I knew I had to keep going.
Over time, I learned techniques for my creations, carving out a process that worked for me. I was even able to fall back on my art training from all those years ago, as - even though I didn’t have the courage to be a painting major back then - my education was not for nothing. All of my old lessons in composition, color theory, value, contrast and all the other fundamentals still applied and were just lying dormant, ready to be dusted off. I gradually found myself creating the art pieces that I'd been dreaming of since I was young.
I recently branched out into playing with clay and discovered yet another fun creative outlet. With ceramics, I'm trying to stop worrying about creating "good" art and instead make things that simply make me smile. Permission to be weird is 100% a prerequisite. 😂
So, to sum up, I am a firm believer in do-what-makes-you-happy. Colors make me happy. Coloring outside the lines makes me happy. Making delightfully weird objects makes me happy. All of these things are reflected in and govern my artistic process.
And if I can use my artwork to spread joy and bring a smile to others, well then, that's just icing on the cake. 🤗
#choosehappy #seekjoy #spreadlove