This US artist traded her plans of becoming a NASA scientist for open impressionist painting
HOW I MAKE IT WORK
BECOMING A FULL-TIME ARTIST was a gradual process for me. I didn’t ‘quit my day job’ until I was already booking museum shows and had sold hundreds of pieces.
I probably could have transitioned sooner, but I spent four years taking the proceeds from my art sales and putting it back into my art business; buying supplies, a good travel van, a great show set-up, etc. The day finally came when it didn’t make sense to continue working my ‘job’ job, and my husband helped encourage me to take the leap, pointing out that every day I wasn’t painting, I was actually losing money.
I start my day by waking up at 6:30 am snuggling with my little girl. After she heads off to school, I make my way to the gallery, driving 20 minutes through the winding country roads of Oregon wine country. I work on administrative tasks in the morning and paint in the afternoons until dinner time.
I do commissions from time to time but most of my income comes from selling oil paintings of whatever I choose to paint. I also make about a third of my income selling canvas prints and 3D Textured Replicas – a technique I developed to make the most realistic art reproductions on the market today.
I began taking art classes aged eight and continued studying art through high school, getting a scholarship to Otis College of Design and working in a mural studio for a few years as a teenager. When I went to college, however, I got my degree in Bioengineering at UC Berkley with the intent of becoming a NASA scientist or similar. But art was my true love, and I returned to painting soon after.
My style
