I’ve always wanted to create art, but I never learned how to draw and never enjoyed trying to learn how to draw and paint in the traditional sense. It was too much like work to me, so I put away my pencils and paint brushes and unleashed my creativity through sewing, crafting and creating flower arrangements.
Everything changed in my 40s when I was hired by my church and introduced to the world of digital art and design. My job included creating bulletins and PowerPoint slides (along with a long list of tasks that had nothing to do with art, but that’s a story for another day).
The things I created back then were far from great, but I enjoyed it so much that I kept creating and getting better at it. Eventually, I was able to sell my designs on places like Dreamstime, Shutterstock, Greeting Card Universe etc. The feedback from these companies, while at times painful, taught me many important lessons about how to create unique, but professional products.
Then came the day my computer crashed. Suddenly, I was “computerless” for months. I was devastated, but I’d been hearing a lot about mixed media art, and I decided this was the perfect time to explore it. And it was. Mixed media felt like the missing piece—messy, tactile, expressive, and full of possibility.
For a while I had my art for sale at a couple of local art shops and in various art shows but it was a lot of work. Today, I have an art studio down in the basement and I like to listen to faith teachings and self-development audios while I work on my art. I mostly do mixed media for as a fun creative outlet and to get ideas for new designs, while I create digital art and designs professionally to sell.