My Art Journey-Its never too late to start!

Welcome to my art journey and how I finally became the artist I always wanted to be. I decided to write down my art journey in a blog to maybe help inspire others to follow their passions and dreams no matter what stage in life you are at. I want to share with others what tips and techniques I have or will find along the way.

A little history about me and where I am at now in my journey. As of today I am 49 years old and finally creating art not as a hobby but a full time job. I have always created art since a little girl as a way to relieve stress and boredom. I always had a coloring book or papered pencil in hand. As I turned into a teenager drawing was thew only thing I was interested in doing. My family moved around a lot so I was always trying to adjust to new environments and friends and as soon as I got comfortable we would move again. My drawings were my go to for comfort and familiarity and so that was where all of my energy went to. My last few years of high school I was in the Advanced Placement Art classes allowing me to gain college credit while still in high school and with that I had aspirations to get into a college for Fine Arts. What I soon learned is that the college aspirations needed to include good grades in other areas besides art we which was not the case for me. I was too busy with my art and trying to adjust and did not receive the best of grades. My parent also were not supportive in my art endeavors and discouraged me from pursuing any further and did not have the means to send me to college so my young adult life began a series of odd jobs and taking classes at a community college. I entered into my first marriage when I was 23 when I had my first exposure to veterinary medicine. While living the life of a young military wife I began that journey of working in veterinary medicine as a Veterinary Nurse and Practice Manager for what was to become my career for the next 25 years. During that time I was divorced twice, lost both of my parents, and raised two amazing children and between family life and career my art was lost and I did not create for many years.

In 2017 I was running three businesses within one veterinary hospital under an immense amount of stress. I was still grieving for the loss of my mother and balancing it all. I needed to find a way to relieve some the stress and so I picked up the pencil I once turned to for comfort and stress relief. Working in veterinary medicine we deal with euthanasia for pets which never gets easier to deal with. One day after a friend had to euthanize their beloved dog I decided to sit down and create a remembrance portrait for her as a gift. After the heartfelt response from her and the amount of pleasure it gave me I decided to start offering pet portraits to others that had lost their pets and so there the journey began once again. After a few months of creating a few portraits and word of mouth inquiries and requests took off and so I started posting on social media, and designed some business cards.

In 2020 the pandemic had started and veterinary medicine was in turmoil with trying to keep up with the demand, staffing shortages, and working in a practice that had become toxic. For myself I decided to pursue my art on a full time basis and created Black Cat Art LLC (inspired by my black cat Mitty) in October 200 and left the hospital I was working for. I started offering in addition to the pet portraits murals, and started an abstract animal painting series. I still work part time in veterinary medicine as a Hospital Administrator for a friend's practice that opened up in 2021 as well as pursuing my artistic endeavors full time. The best of both worlds I always say because animals and art are so close to my heart and soul.

I decided to share and start blogging about my art journey to hopefully inspire and help others that may have not been able to pursue their art passion and to know its never to late. The internet and social media is so saturated with artists all doing amazing things and thought it may be difficult to learn and keep up it is a also a amazing tool that exists. Its been a lot of work researching YouTube and social media different tips, techniques, and marketing so starting this blog I hope to share what works or may not work for me. Stay tuned as I continue to grow and follow my art passion.

Becky