The Long Road to Becoming an Artist
My journey into the world of art was definitely not a straight line. When I was young, I was a music kid, which meant I was not allowed to take art classes in school. I did not realize at the time what I was missing. After college I started a career in the information technology field and eventually became an independent project management consultant. The closest I came to creative projects was when I was designing websites. Honestly, I loved my job. The challenge of taking disparaging pieces of information, making sense of them, and then piecing them together to complete a project was very satisfying.
I married a wonderful man, eventually had a child, and went about my life still not realizing that something was missing. I decorated cakes as a hobby and used to joke that I could create anything with icing, but do not give me a pencil and paper.
As I approached retirement, I knew I would need to find something that would fill the void when of no longer working. I realized I would need something that gave me purpose; something that I was passionate about, something that excited me. My daughter suggested that I try flow painting, so I watched a few YouTube videos, bought myself some basic painting supplies and started painting. To say I became obsessed with seeing what I could create would be a gross understatement.
By 2019 I had retired, and my husband and I relocated to Naples, Florida. Finally, I had the time to paint every day. Before long I wanted more control on how the final piece would look, so I bought myself some brushes and pallet knives and returned to YouTube to learn how to use them and it was then that I discovered the world of abstract art. A whole new world of art opened up for me; one filled with vivid color and patterns that all had to be pieced together by analyzing their pieces and combining them to create a beautiful composition. Perhaps computers and art are not really that far apart!
I finally enrolled in some art classes to expand my techniques and eventually began showing my work in local shows and two of the COCO Art Gallery locations in Southwest Florida.
During this journey I discovered that moving across the country and spending all my time alone in the studio could be lonely. I knew I had to fix this so I broadcasted a call in my community to other artists so we could gather as an artist community. From this initial gathering I founded the Art Guild of Naples, a nonprofit artist community dedicated to helping visual artists succeed.
Life is good!