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Once upon a time I wanted to be an artist. I can't claim that I've *always* wanted to be an artist... I wanted to be a lawyer and a veterinarian and a teacher... but I do remember having some artistic inclination as a child, and by my senior year of high school I knew that I wanted a career in art. I'd fallen in love with painting.
So I studied fine art during my freshman year of college. I took courses in drawing, design, painting, and photography. I minored in psychology, planning to pursue a degree in Art Therapy. Then I interned at a local art gallery and painted a handful of commissions. I began to dream about owning my own gallery someday.
But then life happened... I dropped out of college, moved across the country, and ended up working in the corporate world for nearly a decade instead.
During that time I met and married the love of my life and added four little boys to our family (and moved back across the country!) Life was busy... I was raising babies, working full time from home, learning to be a homemaker, and did I mention raising babies?!
To my surprise, God led us down a path that allowed me to quit my job to raise and homeschool our sons. In the moments between the new busy, I realized that, for the first time in a long time, I was "free" to explore art again and test my creativity. I started to play around with different ideas, opened an etsy shop, and built up my confidence. Slowly the "likes" became comments, and the comments became messages, and the commission requests started to trickle in.
And that brings us to the now. I still dream of spending all day painting in a studio, earning a full-time wage from it, but am crazy grateful to be able to spend my evenings after the kids are in bed, painting at the dining room table and earning enough to support my hobby. I still dream of opening an art gallery/co-op/community, but am embracing the opportunity to educate my kids at home and spend time planning their lessons and projects.
Being a homeschooling stay-at-home mama to these wonderfully amazing and crazily sweet little boys is my top priority. I warn all my clients up front that I work on #momtime. If you need something done a hurry, you've got the wrong girl. But if you have the time to wait for me to bring your concept to life, I'd love to spend my free time making that happen!
