my story

This all started when I had a feeling that I needed to do SOMETHING in my life and I just didn't know what . I had a baby and a toddler and I was a military wife and needed to bring in some extra income but I did not want to leave my children to go work a job that I had no connection to . I was actually praying and asking God what to do , it was agony to know that we couldn't even afford new tires but I did not want to leave my babies, God told me to start painting. 

 

I will absolutely admit that the beginning of my art journey was born out of financial need but it wasn't far off from my personality, it wasn't like some out there calling that didn't make any sense. I was a creative, solitary child. I was always coloring, playing store, listening to records, pretty much what I do now ! 

 

My first painting was February 12, 2012 and it was a bird. I I still have this painting and it is for sale for one million dollars. I have to admit that I did not feel uncomfortable at all and I never once doubted my ability to do this. I just had no idea what it would be, look like or turn into. My only frame of reference was what I learned in school about " real artists". I know this is hard to believe but back in 2012 the internet still was not a big thing in the sense that it is now. There were no influencers and no common people really to follow who were doing what I was called to do so I just sort of starting winging it. There were no galleries around me nor did I ever think of that as an option and to be honest I only heard God tell me to start an Instagram account and that's what I did. I just posted my daily life here and there and what I was painting. This story doesn't even end with me telling you somehow I gained millions of followers and look at me today, somehow with only under 15,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram , by the grace of God I have sold just under 2 million in art. I know its shocking considering what the world tells you, it wouldn't even be until 2025 that I would have any of my artwork in a gallery but you will find out soon, I just ended up opening my own.

I started painting a lot of Christian forward imagery , crosses and words and it just was not it for me. I distinctly remember hearing the holy spirit one day telling me to just paint " pretty things" and it was like a weight that lifted off of me. I thought that Christians painted and wrote Christian things but I did not feel that . I had an inner knowing that I was supposed to go into the world and 2013 was when I started painting for my first online shop on Etsy. Then name of the shop was Boutique 419 and it was based on Matthew 4:19 Fishers of Men. I was living in Texas at the time but in my soul I have always been a coastal girl. I grew up in Chicago but I spend a lot of my childhood in my grandparents condo in Largo, Florida and it just always stuck . All of my first apartments, first house and duty stations the military took us always had a coastal palette, natural wood, lots of whites and always a " beachy theme" . I absolutely loved painting for this genre of art. I was always drawn to the water. 

My studio was my kitchen in Universal City, Texas and my babies and I THRIVED. I figured out all on my own how to paint, take photos, ship boxes, get a business licence , how to file my taxes, and how to arrange my days so that I could be mom, military wife AND artist . 

 

to be continued...