Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Stevens
Hi Angela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was a creative late bloomer. In our small farm town, we had no exposure to art until Junior High. I grew up in a home where music, antiques, and pretty things were valued, but I didn’t see anyone making anything, anywhere in our town. Surely I had crayons, but there was no kindergarten, and with 45 kids in our first-grade class, I’m sure our teacher just tried to get to the basics.
In my first art class in 7th grade, it was clear to me and my teacher that I had a strong affinity for it. I really fell in love with art in High School when I was able to take a few classes, but my exposure and opportunities were still very limited.
I intended to study art in college but lacked confidence and after my first year took another path, went on to get my MBA, and didn’t paint for over 35 years while pursuing a career in corporate marketing and raising my daughter.
So YES, art was important to me but I did very little the first 59 years of my life.
It was not until I turned 59, just 7 years ago, that I made art a part of my life again. Then it became an important focus for how I strive to be my most authentic self and an encore career.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, I was on a different road altogether, and I wanted to take a new path!
Because at age 59 with 60 coming on fast I had a big ol Epiphany – I am more afraid of regret than failure. I knew I would regret not trying to be an artist. However, anytime I thought about it I had butterflies or a flat-out knot in my stomach because I was afraid I had lost IT. The inherent ability that had been clear when I was young. What if I had wasted it? Or it was no longer part of me?
So it was time to be more intentional, more true to what I care about beyond my people.
And Paint. And create JOY for myself and others. Somewhere below the fear I knew I could do it and wanted to.
The hardest part was how to take action–the technicalities of making art yes, but even more so the life changes that needed to happen to enable me to make a significant shift. Shifts in how I spend my time, the narrative in my head about what I could and could not do, and positive changes in my mindset and habits needed to happen.
So an even bigger focus for me was on the HOW you move from Inspiration to an Idea to Action – I suspected that this ACTION piece was the hardest and as a planner and a list maker and a positive motivation geek I dove into understanding myself, where I might get hung up or excel in getting to a new path, and what knowledge and tools where out there that could help me move past inertia and yes fear, to be a working artist – that was what I wanted at my core.
I got a lot of energy and motivation reading about self-development and a term called life design, being intentional about creating a life that aligns with who you are and how you want to live. It was a lot of fun and slowly and then more consistently I began moving forward. It was a lot of baby steps at first.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a watercolorist painting what makes me and other people happy: landscapes, florals of all types, and birds are typically at the top of my list. And custom portraits of people’s homes and other places special to them and their beloved pets — these are the most fun because of the joy they bring to the client.
Typically I offer most of my work framed in antique or vintage frames, ready to hang. My goal is to create pieces that look timeless and add unique character to a space. For me, a frame is an integral part of a piece of artwork that is ready to live in a home. I have loved antiques as long as I have loved art and so most often, I plan a painting around an old frame, maybe not one that is of value, but one with character. I get great joy out of these “pairings”, as I think of them.
I get equal pleasure from styling my paintings, showing them on different backgrounds and in groupings to show how they can look in different spaces and in combinations. I never met a gallery wall I didn’t like and I have the most fun playing with various groupings and arrangements of a new collection of work.
What’s next?
I am continuing down my path, always mindful of making choices to find the right balance of making, marketing, and selling art as well as growing as an artist.
Two years into being an artreprenuer, I’m increasingly interested in expanding the type of work I create. I am starting to work bigger, looser, and with more layers, adding ink, graphite, wax, and other materials to add texture to my watercolors. I toy almost every week with the idea of painting with oils, but I still have so much growth ahead with watercolors, it’s hard to think about spreading my painting time to include a new medium.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akstevens_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angela.stevens.5680
