Groundwork ... South Carolina, USA

Artist: Danna Ray
Business: Groundwork
Web site: www.groundwork.etsy.com
Location: South Carolina

What do you create?
Paintings, drawings, and children's illustrations.


Where and when do you do your creative work?
I work at home in my studio, where I keep somewhat erratic hours. I often get inspired late in the evening and work straight into the morning. I like the quiet and the focus of working at night. I also don't like to take breaks while painting. I prefer to start a new project and just keep working until its finished.

Do you have another "day job"?
I work part-time as an rock climbing instructor for a junior climbing team.


Where and what did you study?
I received my BFA in Communication Arts and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia.

Where do you find inspiration?
I grew up in a log cabin in the woods of rural South Carolina. I spent nearly all of my childhood playing in those woods. I didn't care for dolls, but I was fascinated with animals, and plants, and rocks, and water, and changing seasons. This was really the basis for everything that I know and love. Additionally, I draw inspiration from energetic people, idealistic people, and artistic people. I like searching for a balance between the tedious and the transcendental.


What motivates you?
The act of creation. I think that's why I don't like to take breaks while painting. I'm just so excited to see ideas come to life.

When did you start doing this?
I have been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. I opened up my Etsy shop about a month ago.


Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
Absolutely. My mom likes to tell the story about a Thanksgiving turkey collage I made in preschool. The class was given worksheets printed with a line drawing of a turkey, and instructed to cut feathers out of construction paper and paste them to the turkey. Mom laughs about seeing the collages when she came to pick me up. Apparently all of the kids had cut and attached five or six big lumpy feathers, except for me. My page was covered with dozens of the tiniest feathers I could cut out. Sure, it was partly because I had seen turkeys in the woods and I knew they had more feathers than I could count... but mostly it was because I was obsessive. You know moms like to tell stories that both brag about you and make fun of you at the same time. This obsession with tedious detail is still very much present in my work.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
I decided in high school that I wanted to write and illustrate children's books. So, I chose to attend VCU for their illustration program. After college, I spent the next four years traveling, working as a horticulturist, renovating a house, getting married, and rock climbing. Finally, I am back to drawing and painting! I've missed it terribly. I hope to never take a break from being an artist again.


How did you choose the name for your business?
I thought of the word groundwork as two words: ground and work...it seemed fitting for my naturally inspired artwork. A thesaurus can be a great resource when trying to think of names.

What do you love most about creating your work?
I really enjoy the unexpected surprises and fortunate mistakes. No matter how much planning and sketching I do, I'll never know precisely how a piece is going to look in the end. Many times I get to a point in the middle of a painting where I think its just not going to come together. When I was younger this was quite discouraging. But, then I realized that project after project, I was always able to pull it off in the end. Now, I've come to embrace this part of the process. I feel like many of my best ideas and best paintings have been a result of working through that very frustration. By incorporating or fixing these unplanned elements, I become more creative and versatile as an artist.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
I've been lucky enough to take trips to Italy, Switzerland, and Jamaica, as well as a climbing trip to the Palisades all in the last year! (Amazingly, I had never even been on a plane until 2004.) This is a tough question, but I think I have to choose the Palisades. The Palisades are a group of peaks in the central part of the Sierra Nevada range in California. Here you can find the southernmost glaciers in North America. The landscape there is astounding. My husband and I climbed our first 14,000ft peaks!

A book you love:
For children or adults: Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor. I love the pictures by Peter Parnall.


What is the most interesting thing about you?
I have far more hobbies than time. The more interesting of these would probably be rock climbing. I've been climbing regularly with my husband for about two years now. Climbing can be quite freeing. As you focus intently on your movements, any small nagging thoughts from everyday life tend to slip away. Then, by the end of a trip, it feels good to get back to those everyday thoughts with a fresh perspective.


What achievement are you most proud of?
I bought and renovated our home with no experience, on a shoestring budget. I was inspired by my father, who built the log cabin my sister and I grew up in when he was only 26 years old. He cut and notched all of the logs by hand. My father passed away in 2004. I bought our house in 2005, figuring that if my dad could build an entire house at age 26, surely I could manage to renovate one at age 23. It was a process of constant challenge, and I often wished for my dad's advice. Now, two years later, this is a pretty nice little house. There are still some unfinished projects here and there, but they can wait. I have paintings to make.


What advice would you give women starting their own business?
When I was at VCU I talked to a woman named Libby Meggs who had just had her first children's book published. She told me that she had a Winston Churchill quote taped up beside her desk that read “Never, never, never, never give up.” I've often thought of that. I have a large magnetic dry erase board over my desk where I hang various pieces of inspiration. I used to have this quote written there: "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing- that's why we recommend it daily." Sometimes knowing that you aren't motivated or inspired can be very depressing. That quote helped me remember that I need to motivate my self each day, even if the day before wasn't as productive as I had hoped.


What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
I enjoy working in more than one style as well as a variety of media. This is not usually a good thing for an artist. Clients and customers like to know what to expect. Thus, I have to keep my children's illustrations separate from my Etsy/gallery work and those separate from any graphic design work I've done. Even in those separate categories I have to monitor whether my work is looking consistent enough. Ugh.


What do you love to do in your free time?
Gardening, rock climbing, kayaking, cycling, cooking, dancing, tea drinking, chocolate eating.

What are you working on right now?
A series of abstract landscapes inspired by dream fragments.7

What do you hope to achieve next?
I've written a children's book that I need to finish illustrating. Then, I'll send it off in hopes of getting published. Also my husband and I are eying new 14,000ft peaks to climb.

Amy Leong ... Alberta, Canada

Artist: Amy Leong
Web site: amyleong.etsy.com
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

What do you create?
Paintings, photographs, drawings and I also write in my spare time.

Where and when do you do your creative work?
Every chance I get, but there is never enough time in a day. I find myself planning out paintings and other creative concepts every time I lay down at night. Some of my best ideas come to me right before I fall asleep. I am constantly coming up with new project ideas, I just wish I had the time to execute all of them.


Do you have another "day job"?
I am currently in university doing my last year of my after degree. It is tough to juggle both school and art sometimes. The more exposure my art gets, and the more sales I generate, the more difficult it is to abandon art and get into school mode every September. I make a living in the summer by selling my work, but I continue to get numerous commissions throughout the year. It is hard because I do have to turn down many great art-related opportunities during the school year.


Where and what did you study?
I finished my BFA at the University of Alberta in 2006 and am currently in my fourth year of my Education after degree.

Where do you find inspiration?
I would have to say that I find other artists to be my inspiration. Not just a select few, but all artists in one way or another. There are so many talented people in the world. Right now I am experimenting with a wide range of mediums and subject matter. Other artists continually challenge me to push the envelope, to try new things. It is important to never let yourself get too comfortable with what it is that you are doing, then your work loses its spontaneity and a great deal of its intrigue.


What motivates you?
It always helps when other people appreciate what I do. It motivates me to keep trekking along. It's a great feeling to know that so many people have brought a part of me into their homes by hanging my art on their walls.

When did you start doing this?
I have been selling my work for the last seven years in various venues ranging from art galleries to hair salons and I just began selling my work online a little over a month ago.


Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
From my earliest memories I have always loved art. I would sit and draw for hours when I was a kid. I also remember meticulously filling in coloring books with pencil crayon, taking great care not to venture outside the lines. My grandmother's house had a large den with a counter that ran along one entire side of the room. It was always overflowing with my sketches, various craft projects and poems. Art has always been a very important part of my life.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
I sort of fell into selling my art in a way. In the beginning of course, I wasn't overly business-savvy. I would say it hasn't really become a business until the last two years or so. I am starting to understand more about the complexities of selling. I realize now that it takes far more than just talent to be a successful artist. It is largely about promotion and confidence, and it takes a long time to figure out even basic things like how much to charge for your work. I realized however, that if I was to devote adequate amounts of time to doing art, I had to find a way to make a living at it too. Working a 9-5 office job wouldn't have allowed me to pursue my art career to the extent that I wanted.


What do you love most about creating your work?
I love the experimentation. Working with new materials or new subject matter is always exciting. Sometimes it doesn't turn out at all and I fall flat on my face, but then there are the times when I discover something new and create something that is really successful. That's the best feeling in the world. To look at something and know that your hard work has paid off and that you are growing and improving as an artist. It's that feeling of limitless potential that I love. I am always striving to do something great, and once in a while when I do, it makes it all worthwhile.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
I travelled to China this spring. The history there is amazing! It was definitely a place where I encountered a sensory overload.

A book you love:
The Time Travellers Wife. I had a lump in my throat for an entire day after I finished it. I haven't met a woman yet who hasn't loved it.


What is the most interesting thing about you?
That is a hard question to answer but I would have to say that one of the unique things about me is my background. My father is Chinese and my mother is Irish, Scottish, Welsh. After immigrating to Canada in the early 1900s my Chinese grandfather opened a store as a practicing herbalist, my grandmother was an accomplished musician. On my mother's side, my grandfather owned one of the first photographic studios in Edmonton. The name was McDermid Studios, and the majority of Edmonton's early history was recorded by photographers in my family. My parents came from two very different places but growing up was a unique experience because of this. My beliefs, values and perceptions come from such a wide range of influences, and I feel fortunate to be a part of two very distinct cultural backgrounds.


What achievement are you most proud of?
I am proud that I have come as far as I have over the last while with respect to selling my work and gaining exposure. Mixing art with the business world is a bit daunting at first, but I think I have begun to find a place for myself amongst all the confusion. I just turned 25 and think I am a lot farther ahead than I was even a year ago.

What advice would you give women starting their own business?
I think confidence is key. When you are first starting out it is all that you have. I really think that if you believe in what you are doing, other people will too.


What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
The biggest challenge I face in my work is how to balance creativity and business. Sometimes I will paint something that ends up being extremely commercially successful. I know that if I keep producing the same thing that they will likely sell very quickly. After a while though, an artist can become like an assembly line worker. If you stick to the same thing over and over, you lose a passion for what it is you're doing. It is not good for art to become too formulaic. When paintings are predictable, I believe they are no longer successful. I think it is really important to balance business (what the customer wants) and the need to explore and experiment and continually challenge yourself as an artist. It is never easy, but in order to be successful, it is necessary to find that happy medium.


What do you love to do in your free time?
I love shopping in decor stores. It's an addiction! I also really enjoy trying out new restaurants – mostly I go straight to the dessert menu!

What are you working on right now?
I recently tried my hand at illustrations. I became inspired by '50s images of children from old storybooks. I am currently selling these prints online. I am also in a bird phase right now, but my most recent project is a series of collages using blown up old stamps and other vintage ephemera.


What do you hope to achieve next?
I am so overwhelmed with ideas right now that I hope to be able to devote as much time as I can to my art over the next while. My next project in the way of selling my work online will probably be to begin posting some larger works. I sell mostly oil and acrylic paintings in and around the city, but I would really love to reach a larger audience.

My goal is also to be able to combine my two degrees and find a full time position as a high school art teacher. That way I can concentrate a lot more on what I love most. I think it is so important for youth to be able to express themselves creatively. It is a freeing experience and something I hope to share with as many young people as I can.

She Rides The Lion ... California, USA

Artist: Sonia Romero
Business: sheridesthelion (she rides the lion)
Web sites: soniaromero.com, sheridesthelion.etsy.com, myspace.com/soniaromero
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA

What do you create?
I create many things, including mixed media linocut prints and paintings. My subject matter currently includes animals, trees, children, food, life in Los Angeles, my strange humor and hopefully a little magic.


Where and when do you do your creative work?
My studio is located at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains in northeast Los Angeles. It’s the best of both worlds, city and country. My house is a live/work converted garage. I work all days at any times.


Do you have another "day job"?
I am a fine artist full time and always have been. Occasionally I teach or do guest workshops. I teach children, teens and adults, in general art and printmaking.


Where and what did you study?
I studied at the Los Angeles County Highschool for the Arts, in visual arts, and the Rhode Island School of Design, in printmaking. My education continued in the Los Angeles art scene, where another set of skills is needed, such as press savvy and relationships with artists and galleries.


Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration from Google images, antique paper goods, museums, news, people I meet, social situations, fairy tales, illustrations, special moments in my day to day life.

What motivates you?
I have always been motivated. I think its because the alternative is utter boredom and sloth, and that doesn’t make me happy. You have to be self-motivated to make it as an artist.


When did you start doing this?
When I was conceived.

Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
I grew up in a family of artists, including both of my parents. I have been creating artwork from the beginning, and showing and selling artwork since I was around seven.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
Well, if we are talking about selling art, I have been doing that for many years. However, I just opened up my online Etsy store in May of 2007. My Etsy store showcases my smallest and most shippable work. I thought it would be a great way to increase exposure. Web presence is becoming increasingly important to artists in today’s society. New customers can link to my regular site (www.soniaromero.com), and my regular customers can conveniently make purchases with credit cards and shipping.


How did you choose the name for your business?
She Rides the Lion is a continuing motif in my work. I am very attracted to the sweet and innocent/strong and ferocious duality. Yes, I am a Leo.

What do you love most about creating your work?
It gives me a sense of satisfaction and allows me to interact with the world in positive ways.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
I spent a year in Rome, Italy, which was very inspiring and exciting.

A book you love:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Read it!

What is the most interesting thing about you?
I’m an artist, I’m talented, and I do something with that talent.


What achievement are you most proud of?
My artwork has brought me many great achievements throughout the years. I met President Clinton and had a show at the National Gallery when I was 17, I had my debut solo show last year, and I am working on my first permanent public art piece as we speak. I guess what I am most proud of is that feeling inside of me that this is what I should be doing.


What advice would you give women starting their own business?
Create a wonderful product that you love, make an excellent presentation of it, and learn how to promote it full time.

What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Myself.

What do you love to do in your free time?
I love to squeeze babies and frequent farmer’s markets.


What are you working on right now?
I am creating 13 linocut designs that will be blown up into 13, 4 x4 foot tile mosaic murals for the Macarthur Park metro station in Los Angeles. Public art, baby!

What do you hope to achieve next?
I am applying to grad schools this year. Onwards and upwards!

Fabrications ... Illinois, USA

Artist: Mary Laskey
Business: Fabrications
Web sites: marstinia.etsy.com and www.fabrications.net
Location: Chicago, Illinois

What do you create?
I work primarily with copper and silver to create art jewelry and small dishes with kiln-fired glass enamel designs.


What is involved in enameling?
Enameling is the process of firing finely ground pigmented glass onto metal in a kiln. It is an ancient process that can be traced to ancient Byzantine times. It was quite popular in the the US as a hobby craft in the 1950s and 1960s, but has since become something of a lost art that not many people are familiar with.


My glass enamel designs are created on copper or fine silver with multiple layers of different colors of glass enamel powder and require a series of firings (three to six on average, sometimes more). My kiln is quite small so each piece is fired individually, not in batches like ceramics.

The glass enamels I work with are ground to the consistency of powdered sugar. I apply the glass powders to the metal surface by using small sifters and sifting on an even layer of enamel, then I fire it in an electric kiln at 1500 degrees Farenheit. A firing usually takes about 2 to 6 minutes depending on the size of the metal piece. The powdered glass granules melt and fuse together to create a glossy solid layer of glass which is fused permanently to the metal base.


Where and when do you do your creative work?
I share a studio space on the north side of Chicago with my husband, Grant, who is an artist and photographer. When possible, I generally spend my evenings and weekends in the studio. I also have a work room at home where I can assemble and finish pieces. There are so many hats to wear when you have a business that it seems like I'm almost always thinking about some aspect of my work.


Do you have another "day job"?
Presently I work during the day as a digital production artist for a large Euro Design home furnishings company.

Where and what did you study?
I have a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Art) in Photography from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. I also spent a year studying abroad, doing Visual Studies at Oxford Polytechnic in Oxford, England.


What inspires you and what motivates you?
I'm super attracted to mid-century modern designs 1950s-70s, so I'm really in my element with all kinds of mod stuff being back in style! I especially love the space-age and futuristic designs of those eras. I also love looking at nature and often find organic themes to incorporate into my work, especially textures and patterns one finds in plants, flowers, pods and the like. In the realm of art, I'm most inspired by the work of Alexander Calder, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro, Barbara Hepworth and June Schwarcz.


When did you start doing this?
I started making jewelry in 1990. I became a full-time metalsmith and enamelist in 1998.

Do you remember getting into art as a kid?
I have always loved art projects, drawing and making things at a very young age. I still have a little quilt that my mother helped me sew when I was five years old. It's made from fabrics that my grandmother used to make clothes for my sister, brother and me.


When and why did you decide to start your own business?
I've always loved jewelry and have a large collection of costume jewelry. When I meet people, I have a bad habit of noticing what jewelry they are wearing before I register anything else about them. I started making my own jewelry for fun just after I graduated from college. I didn't have any training at all, so I recycled vintage jewelry and reused the beads to make my own pieces. I would wear my creations to work and some of my co-workers liked them so much that I began to sell my jewelry to them from time to time.


I quit my full-time job in 1996 to become a freelancer and have more time for my own creative projects. I took a one-day enameling workshop at a local art center and totally fell in love with the process. I also started taking metalsmithing classes. I met several people there who were artists successfully selling their jewelry at art fairs. I was inspired by them to try it myself. In 1998, I launched a website and my business, Fabrications. I've been extremely fortunate to have tremendous support from my family and friends and as well as some very loyal customers.


How did you choose the name for your business?
One of the definitions of the word fabrication is to construct or manufacture something made of metal. I also frequently imprint fabric textures onto my metal pieces to add texture, so there a sort of play on words involved.


What do you love most about creating your work?
Some of my best designs have just popped into my head, out of the blue. I love it when that
kind of spontaneity happens. Also, enameling is often quite unpredictable – I never know exactly what's going to come out of the kiln. I guess you could say that I love surprises! I've always enjoyed working with my hands, and there is just so much basic satisfaction in creating things.


What's the most fascinating place you've been?
I know I should say someplace exotic... and I've been to some fantastic places: Peru, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico. I love to travel, but there are so many distractions that I feel like I can't really get to know a place unless I spend a lot of time there. So truthfully, some of my favorite places to go are rather mundane. My favorite haunt at the moment is a prairie meadow near where I work. There are walking trails through it and I go there almost every day because it's different every day – new plants growing or blooming, different birds, animals and insects. There are constant changes and shifts in light, cloud patterns, sounds and smells. I
love it there because I feel like I can recapture the curiosity that you have as a child, when everything around you is fascinating and you can spend hours playing in a puddle.


A book you love: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

What is the most interesting thing about you?
I don't think of myself as a mystic, but I once had an out of the body experience. I was about five years old and I was running down the stairs at a neighbor's house and I tripped over a vacuum cleaner that had been left on the stairs and tumbled headlong down to the bottom. As I was falling, for a split second I was also standing at the bottom of the stairs watching myself
fall, as though the momentum of the fall actually carried me out of my body briefly. Luckily, I wasn't hurt, but that is probably the most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me. I think that experience has made a lasting impression on me.


What achievement are you most proud of?
I'm very proud of running my own business and doing what I love for nine years.

What advice would you give women starting their own business?
Always be confident and optimistic – especially when you're unsure of yourself. Positive qualities attract positive reactions from other people and will reinforce your goals.


What's the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Keeping up with the flow of ideas. I can't always drop what I'm doing to work on a new idea at the moment it occurs to me, so I always make sketches and notes about new designs or ideas, so I can revisit them when time allows. My sketchbooks are a great source of inspiration when I feel like I'm in a rut.

What do you love to do in your free time?
Take nature walks or hikes, ride my bike, play tennis, ski (if there's snow), read, take pictures, watch old movies with ridiculously naïve plots, spend time with Grant and our spoiled cockatiel, Sprout, and our families and friends.


What are you working on right now?
I'm working on a completely new line of jewelry pieces that combine my two of my favorite things: color and texture. The new pieces will have brightly colored geometric enamel shapes and mixed metal pieces that have a lot of hammered texture. I'm really enjoying the interplay of the geometric and organic qualities.


What do you hope to achieve next?
Besides having a clean house and a great summer, I'd really like to start a website or a blog about enameling. It's a wonderful process that deserves more recognition and I think it's overdue for a revival. There are many marvelous artists out there working with glass enamel and creating the next wave.