How Disaster Changed My Entire Path and Life
Like all good stories, mine starts with complete disaster. Well, my story didn’t START at disaster, rather, it meandered into disaster. After going through a series of professional losses and devastating personal losses, I decided to quit. Despite 8 years of art school and dedicated art making for years and years, I was done. I couldn’t make sustainable income, I couldn’t find my people, and I was exhausted. I had hit a point where I hated art. It was at this point when everything really started for me.
As the daughter of an artist father, I had been a visual artist from my teens. I had gone to art school and then continued by completing graduate school. I was doing everything you were supposed to do. I exhibited my work, taught at local colleges, and ran workshops. I had a studio space in a thriving arts district. I even routinely applied for grants, exhibits, and any other opportunity I could find. Despite all of this, my results were lackluster at best.
The routine I had created was making me tired, and then I had a baby. Naturally, having a baby changed things for me. After waiting tables for years to make up the gap of art income, I became a stay at home mom. I was obsessed with my sweet baby, but I also knew that I was not wired for homemaking. Becoming a mom is one of the coolest experiences I’ve had, but it doesn’t really define my identity. Being a mom is amazing, but it wasn’t my ONLY calling.
After having my baby I kept making art, and we decided to try to have a second baby. It was after this decision when the plane crashed into the mountain. I could get pregnant, but I had loss after loss. In a 2 year period, I had 4 miscarriages, and our daughter Esther died full term at birth. I was a mess of grief and hormones.
After Esther’s death I decided to quit trying to be pregnant and I also quit trying to be a professional artist. It was too much work, and needless to say, it wasn’t satisfying. In an unpredictable move, I started writing a novel in my favorite category, zombie apocalypse. Honestly, it was pretty good and maybe I’ll publish it some day.
I was such an emotional mess and I knew I needed something more. I had a little watercolor set and during my daughter’s nap time I would paint dots. Yup, just dots. Sometimes I would paint hexagons or squares. When I painted the dots, I would forget for a minute. I would lose myself in the meditative color and repetition. It was incredibly healing and restorative. One day, just for the heck of it, I filmed the process and made it into a 30 second time lapse and popped it up onto Instagram to my 289 followers. To my surprise, it went viral. I decided to make another one, and that went viral too.
Now, I'm wired to please more than most people I know. If I think someone even remotely likes anything I made, I will tirelessly provide more it. Do you like homemade banana bread or learning obscure wine facts? If it will give you enjoyment, I'm here for you! How about videos of me painting rainbow hexagons? I’m ON IT!
After the initial success with my art videos, I spent the next 5 years posting a new video EVERY single day. That's right, for 5 years, and it's ongoing. The process of posting all those videos did a couple things for me. First, it positioned me to be an early adoptor of Instagram, which had just switched over to allowing videos on their platform. Secondly, I got pretty good at filming myself. It takes a while to get used to camera angles and lighting and hyper speed editing. Back then there weren't as many cool apps to edit video so I had to improvise with existing software.
My Instagram audience, and later my YouTube, Pinterest, Tiktok and Facebook audiences grew rapidly. When Tiktok burst on the scene with vertical video, I was ready, because I could repurpose all of the videos I had made with minor editing. At this point, I now have a huge library of 1000s of videos that are ready for almost any platform. In fact, when I'm looking at my archives, I will frequently have no memory of making the art, which is usually a good sign I can probably post it again!
Slowly, I was able to build my art studio back up, and sell art and prints. Things took a while because even though I had viral videos, I did not necessarily have a straightforward way to monetize it. It was during this process that I became a studio artist again. Then, I realized that I was inspiring people to dabble with art. My simple and satisfying approach made people say, "hey, I could make art" and I was surprised and delighted by how rewarding that was. For me, it's the ultimate compliment for a creative to see my work and say "that makes ME want to make art!"
Now, I have a busy art studio, a line of watercolor paints and art courses, a line of jigsaw puzzles, and a membership called Art Revenue Coaching for artists who are ready build creative businesses. If you've been with me for a while, thank you so much! It's been an amazing journey!
I believe that artists should get paid, and I also believe we’re in a moment in history when artists CAN get paid. There are so many elements that have converged to help you create a thriving business from your basement, which is where I built mine, with a toddler on hand. If you want to know the basics, I just wrote an epic free report called The ultimate guide to selling your art online. You can it get at josielewis.com/ultimate.
