Michele Maule ... Michigan, USA

Artist: Michele Maule
Business: Michele Maule
Web sites: michelemaule.com, how2drawacupofcoffee.blogspot.com, michelemaule.etsy.com
Location: Pontiac, Michigan

What do you create?
Paintings, original prints, giclee prints, ACEOs.


Where and when do you do your creative work?
I work from my apartment. I am a morning person so I typically work in the morning and throughout the day.

Do you have another "day job"?
This is it! This is my job and I couldn't be happier. I moved to Pontiac this last summer. My boyfriend was accepted into grad school at Cranbrook Academy of Art and I decided to go with him. I looked for a job for two months. I turned in over 30 resumes and 20 applications. Nothing. I did get interviewed twice for a similar position that I had in Portland, and I didn't get it... that was the final straw. I don't remember ever feeling so down about myself. I decided that while I was looking for a job I would make some small art and try to sell it on Etsy... and that's how I got started!


Where and what did you study?
I studied fine art with an emphasis in printmaking at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

Where do you find inspiration?
This is a good question for me. When I lived in Portland I seemed to find inspiration everywhere. A rainy spring day walking down 23rd with my iPod could fill me up for days... but Pontiac, Michigan... not so much. I have been relying a lot on my feelings of missing home as well as all the uncertainty that comes along with Michael, my fiance, being done with grad school. There are so many unanswered questions, and there is so much waiting for the next step. Those have been recurring themes in my work lately.


What motivates you?
Well, bills! Really, I have always had this little rumble inside telling me to do something. If there is one thing that I can never be accused of is being lazy. I always have to be doing something, and I just don't feel right when I haven't gotten anything accomplished. It's not something I can really put my finger on. My fiance likes to call it crazy.


When did you start doing this?
Like I mentioned before, I started my little business this last summer. I have been on Etsy since March of last year, but it wasn't until about October that I started to take it seriously. I posted a couple of small paintings and a print, and they sold! So I just kept it up.


Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
I loved art as a kid! I remember my first art class in the first grade. We made little clay bears and the teacher fired them for us. It was so fun. She also gave me my first art career advice. She said, "Don't expect to make any money as an artist unless you're dead." Ha! I still remember that. I have always loved making things and have been interested in art as far back as I can remember. I remember thinking when I was really young that I either wanted to be an artist, or Wonder Woman.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
Well, I have always wanted to make art for a living. Well, since I was in my junior year of college. The last few years I had been working for a small locally owned grocery store in Portland. I loved the people I worked with, but it wasn't something that I could see myself doing as a career. I would often dream about being able to quit my job and just make art full time. It's so hard for me to believe sometimes that it actually came true... and I have to stop and just take it in once in awhile... I mean how often is it that people get to do what they are really passionate about?


What do you love most about creating your work?
What don't I like? It's fun. It can be frustrating at times. When things aren't turning out like you'd like them to. But for the most part, I just love painting. It gives me a certain amount of confidence, and I really enjoy what I paint. I use a lot of collage in my work, and the tearing and gluing of paper is really cathartic for me. I tend to get lost in my thoughts.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
Italy! My boyfriend and I went to Rome, Florence, and Venice a few years ago. It doesn't get more interesting than a different culture, food, and language. Not to mention the art and the museums. It was amazing.

A book you love:
The Time Travelers Wife, and always The Little Prince.


What is the most interesting thing about you?
My dad was in the Navy so I moved a lot growing up. I think I have lived in eight different states. I also moved out of my home when I was 16 and I have been taking care of myself ever since. With the help of my grandmother, and student loans, I was able to finish college. My mother and I didn't have the best relationship, and I decided to leave. Over the last few years we have definitely opened our communication and things between us are much better.

I can also touch my tongue to my nose and after a couple of beers I magically start speaking French fluently.


What achievement are you most proud of?
If you had told me a year ago that I would be making art for a living today I wouldn't have believed you or anyone! It's not every day that people get to wake up and go to a job that they love. I am so lucky. I also think that it's quite an accomplishment that I went to college to study art, and I am still making art today. I think one out of ten fine art graduates continue to make art after school. I am still here painting and creating and I think that says a lot.


What advice would you give women starting their own business?
Go for it! If you can manage it financially I say do it. Even if you aren't making as much money as you would at your day job, just being able to do what you really love to do is worth it.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Keeping up! It's hard for me to keep more than 15 items in my shop. Also, working from home can have it's moments. I am a neat freak, but when I am working I make a huge mess. Everywhere. Before moving to Michigan I had a studio and I could make a mess and just leave it, but I can't really do that here. So trying to adjust to having a studio at home as been a challenge.


What do you love to do in your free time?
I love to shop! I also really just like going out for coffee with my fiance and doing the NY Times crossword puzzle.

What are you working on right now?
I am currently working on a show that I have in Portland in April. It's at a little coffee place called The Fresh Pot. I am also painting some little painting for my Etsy shop. I am also working on a second degree in graphic design.


What do you hope to achieve next?
Well, I am hoping that I can get gallery representation in the future, and that I can continue to make art. I'd love to go into graphic design and work for a small company again. Either way, I know I would be just as happy.

Johanna Wright ... Oregon, USA

Artist: Johanna Wright
Business: Johanna Wright
Web sites: johannawright.com, johannawright.etsy.com
Location: Portland, Oregon, USA

What do you create?
Paintings!


Where and when do you do your creative work?
I paint and draw in my lovely studio in south-east Portland, usually five days a week, unless I have a big deadline. I tend to do other creative stuff, like playing music or writing, when I'm kicking around the house.

Do you have another "day job"?
I'm lucky enough to be a painter full time.


Where and what did you study?
I went to the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where I studied puppetry and children's books. When I moved to New York after college, I took a few children's book writing and illustration classes at SVA, which were incredibly valuable to me.


Where do you find inspiration?
Mostly from childhood memories, nature, and playing with my niece and nephew. I recently moved back to Oregon (where I spent my childhood) after living in Brooklyn for nine years. I feel like I hit some kind of creative spurt when I came to Portland. I've been flooded with nostalgia and inspiration by everything that surrounds me here.

What motivates you?
Hmm, well... if I'm not working on something creative, I feel jittery... like I have ants in my pants. Painting and writing are very soothing to me.


When did you start doing this?
As a career, in 1998.

Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
I really liked to draw as a kid, especially people. Actually, I just really loved to draw girls. I remember watching Fat Albert and copying a hairdo that one of the girl characters had. All of my old doodles from childhood are of women in weird 80s outfits... big shoulder pads and big hair. I would write long meandering stories to go with the drawings. I also loved to illustrate songs that I liked, or that my sisters liked. Songs that told a story, like Copacabana, or Maxwell's Silver Hammer.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
Well, in 1998 I started selling my artwork on the street in New York. At the time I was just trying to make enough money to eat and pay rent, but the more I did it, the better I got at what I was drawing, and a lot of wonderful things started to happen (job offers, freelance work, press). That time was very exciting and difficult all mixed together. It took a long time for me to think of what I was doing as a business, but once I did, things got a lot more organized and a lot easier.


What do you love most about creating your work?
I love the actual painting process, a lot. I like to watch all of the crazy stuff that water can do to with a bit of acrylic paint. I also love it when something I've made resonates with another human, it makes me feel like I'm on the right track.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
Hmm, that's a tough one. I'd say it would be a tie between two entirely different places; the winding streets of a tiny town in Morocco, and the tide pools on the Oregon coast. I could spend hours staring into a tide pool. There's a whole universe in there!

A book you love:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime


What is the most interesting thing about you?
I'm easily hypnotized.

What achievement are you most proud of?
Keeping my heart open and free, even when it wants to close.

What advice would you give women starting their own business?
Read Martha Beck's book, Finding Your Own North Star. It has been so helpful to me over the years.


What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Taking downtime. Unplugging. Turning off the part of my brain that feels like it needs to work all of the time.

What do you love to do in your free time?
Going to coffee shops to write. Swimming (especially in lakes and rivers and oceans), playing music. Hanging out with my hubby and friends and family, knitting with my sister, playing 'squirrel family' with wee ones, Tetris, watching TV on DVD, going to thrift stores, listening to audio books, yoga.


What are you working on right now?
I'm finishing up my very first children's book for Roaring Brook Press, Secret Circus, and getting ready to start my next children's book, Rabbits on Skates.

What do you hope to achieve next?
I hope to get a bit more organized with my artwork prints, and I want to launch a card series this summer. I would love to get back into puppetry and try a bit of animation. But otherwise, I just want to keep making up stories and painting and growing and feeling inspired!

Michelle Moode ... California, USA

Artist: Michelle C. Moode
Business: michellemoode on Etsy
Web sites: michellemoode.etsy.com and millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com
Location: Los Angeles, California

What do you create?
Primarily small mixed media works on paper. My work usually combines two or more of the following: paper, ephemera, drawing, etching, silkscreen, Xerox transfer, tea, ink, typing, watercolor, acrylic medium, sewing, beeswax. I also make books, shrinky-dinks, little woolly things and sculptural things.


Where and when do you do your creative work?
I recently moved into a wonderful teeny-tiny studio apartment, which is also (rather appropriately) my art-making studio. I tend to have pieces in various states of being: works-in-progress arranged on the wall so I may consider them as a group, used tea bags drying on heavy paper in the kitchen, and little bits being stitched together over near my Ikea sofa-bed. Sometimes I work on the floor, sometimes at my table. It sounds pretty chaotic, but I have a master's degree in arranging little things in little spaces.


Do you have another "day job"?
I currently teach part-time: non-major drawing and printmaking at Loyola Marymount University. I finished grad school less than a year ago, so needless to say I am still figuring out what I'm doing, and what I want to do. And how I will pay for things.


Where and what did you study?
I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts from Murray State University in Murray, a wonderful little town in Western Kentucky. At MSU my focus was Drawing and Printmaking. I fell in love with Printmaking because of my instinctual attraction to repetition and process, but also because of the sense of community I found working in the MSU printshop. It was a crazy-fun time.

I received my Master of Fine Arts from West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia (an hour south of Pittsburgh, PA). Technically my MFA is in Printmaking. However, my time at WVU was hardly limited to printing editions. My artistic research and obsessive tendencies led me into sewing, bookbinding, sculpture, installation, collecting teabags and thread, and taking watches apart.

I’ve also spent time studying at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina and Frogman’s Print Workshops in Vermillion, South Dakota. I whole-heartedly recommend both experiences. I also recommend the long cross-country drives that will get you there.


Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration on the ground, and also in the sky. I find inspiration in a good cup of tea, a thoughtful walk, or a wander through an antique store. My older brother’s robot drawings, good science fiction, distant ferriswheels, familiar songs, Muppets, flowers, and rainy days are all sources of inspiration. Signs I drive by in LA inspire me. Businesses including “Coffee & coffee”, “Hollywood Star Muffler” or “Celebrity Quality Cleaners”...maybe these don’t inspire my art directly, but they make me laugh.


What motivates you?
I find Etsy to be very motivating. Like most twenty-something artists, I am motivated by deadlines and a need of money. I am prolific by nature. My obsessive tendencies are mostly a blessing, as I only feel productive if I have a pile of things in progress. I am not a one-at-a-time artist; I make art in “crops.”

When did you start doing this?
I've been making work that looks or feels like this since I was an undergrad at Murray State University. My work has progressed, and become more refined (more "crazy" some might say...) but the imagery and marks I draw have been popping up since before college. As for Etsy, I opened shop in September of 2007, so close to six months ago.


Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
Yes, I have been drawing my entire life. My mom saved and dated all my early work. One of my favorites is a whimsical outer-space crayon drawing with transparent garden “capsules” as part of a space station. “Michelle in Space!!!!!!” is the title at the top of the piece. In retrospect, I see this drawing as a logical combination of what I knew from my youth: I spent most of my time playing in our amazing garden and orchard, and I was also exposed to my big brother’s “boy” interests, like Star Wars and Star Trek. My interest in gardening and space continue to inform my work.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
In school I sold art when the opportunity presented itself. At conferences, workshops, open portfolio events, and gallery shows, I discovered that people were actually interested in owning my work. Last summer a friend at the Penland School of Crafts suggested that I check out Etsy. Since moving to LA I have also tiptoed into doing craft shows, which has been a fun, friendly, positive experience.

How did you choose the name for your business?
Well, when I selected my Etsy username I went for simplicity. I want my art to be associated with my name: Michelle Moode. Maybe I’d be more popular if I had a cute “brand,” like “sunshine crumpet” or “princess polkadot surprise,” but that’s not really me. However, my Etsy shop and blog are named “Millions of People Happy.” This is a quote from the original Muppet Movie. The possibility of making millions of people happy is suggested to Kermit-the-Frog by Bernie-the-Agent, prompting Kermit to leave his swamp and move to Hollywood, where he and his friends sign a “standard rich-and-famous contract.” It’s a simple, sincere, wholesome goal.


What do you love most about creating your work?
The meditative mind-wandering that comes with repetition. Arranging piles of paper. Drinking cups of tea. Filling a space with things I create. The satisfaction of sharing my work with those who love it.

What's the most fascinating place you've been?
Hazel, a small town on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. On afternoons when I needed a break from the hustle and bustle of slightly-larger Murray, I would drive eight minutes south to Hazel with Paul Simon blazing and the windows down. Hazel is full of antique stores housed in antique buildings. Hours would slip away as I explored the musty spaces. I’ve made so many discoveries there: beautiful broken time-pieces, blue typewriters, the dress I wore to the opening of my thesis show. But more than these purchases, it’s the time spent exploring that makes it a fascinating place.


A book you love:
Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll.

What is the most interesting thing about you?
Probably exactly what’s coming across in this interview: the things I make, the things I think, the things I collect, the things I know-by-heart. I’m really not much of a conversationalist, but I have a lot of cool stuff in my apartment and in my brain.


What achievement are you most proud of?
My Master's Thesis, “Pieces of the Universe.” The written thesis with images of the installation can be found here. I had a sinus infection the week before installing my show, the Southern Graphics Council conference a couple of days after the opening, and I took down the installation a couple of days after that. Besides the silly time-line of events, it was a huge space, and I filled it with innumerable little tiny things. Writing has never been my strong point (although I’d take writing over talking anyday!) so I will always be proud of the written portion of my Thesis.


What advice would you give women starting their own business?
Honestly, I think I am still in a position of needing some advice. How about: “Remember who you are and where you were born.” My aunt has been telling me that my entire life.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
I just hope I can make my work....work! You know? I hope that my success continues, and that I can continue to be an almost-full-time artist. I am good at staying motivated, and making things. My challenges are all business-related. I need to become cleverer with my computer, and I need to get up earlier in the morning. Like everyone.


What do you love to do in your free time?
I like to hula-hoop when I need a break. But honestly, these days I am working on trying to have less free time!

What are you working on right now?
I have pieces to post in my Etsy store. I am working on submissions to juried shows and galleries. I have stacks of works-in-progress. I would really like to make more books.


What do you hope to achieve next?
I’ve been saying this for a while, but I hope to list some things for sale on Etsy besides my small scanner-friendly mixed media works-on-paper. I’m also itching to have a show. I love selling things on Etsy, but scattering my art one-at-a-time across the world is not the same as filling a gallery with my work. Both are good, though. I want to do both.