I will be honest, the idea of Blogging never crossed my mind when I started my art journey. These were my exact perception as an Artist. “I am a Painter, I create art that is supposed to be visually appealing to my audience. What’s words got to do in this profession?”

But boy was I wrong? As I kept practicing Art, even as a hobbyist, I kept finding myself explaining my creation to others, even when they were obvious visuals of a beautiful landscape or a bold depiction of a pretty floral. I quickly found out that art connects with an audience especially well when there’s a story behind each piece. The Artist’s thought process, visions, inspirations, etc.

So when I established Rusty Brick Studio, I utilized a platform like Instagram to start my somewhat raw and informal journaling practice about my Art. In that process, my creativity channelled in the literary forms very naturally and I found that I actually had a lot to share. To nourish that more I knew at some point I needed to get more organized and host a separate space just for my thoughts and visions.

Rusty Brick Studio, formerly known as Rusty Brick Shop was established in June 2020 and as expected, started out generating very low profit if any at all. It was just a passion project for me at that time and I wasn’t sure if it would even last long term. My paintings quickly started selling out fairly well, which made me ecstatic to know that people out there felt the need to own a creation made by my own two hands. It was a wonderful feeling, and kept me motivated to paint more and more. I even reached out locally and collaborated with couple of boutique shops to showcase and sell my paintings, and that brought my art recognition within my hometown as well. Soon the holiday season crept in and my plate was already full completing commissions, creating new paintings for the shops and marketing and promoting my works online. My passion project turned into a full time job but with a very low income and most of all by the end of December 2020, I found myself burnt out and exhausted. That’s when I realized that this was not sustainable, and definitely not the reason why I started this side hustle in the first place.

Come January 2021, my new year’s goal was set and I was determined to make it work by enlisting for some help, not on my painting skills but on the business aspect . I invested in learning how to create a sustainable business model by enrolling in Emily Jefford’s The Collective Membership in April, and to further compliment that I also started a few one on one coaching sessions with Hayley Price from The Souted Studio for summer 2021. Both of these educational supports have been crucial for me to not only find a good grip on the foundations of running a creative business, but also to define my artistic voice even better. It helped me build a brand for Rusty Brick Studio encompassing my voice and painting style.

The courses helped me take a step back and evaluate my past works in a different perspective and wonder why I created those in the first place. What drew me to create those subjects? It took a lot of digging at a deeper level, but when I did, I found my why I create what I create, thus leading to defining my Artist Statement and my mission for my work:

“To define and point out the beauty in every minute details of this great expanse under the sky, while conveying a feeling of peace and joy to the beholder of my paintings.”

Having found a purpose and a guide for my art to run as a business, I decided to create and launch this new online space for Rusty Brick Studio to thrive not only as a gallery to showcase my art but also to serve the audience with my vision in line. And this bonus little blog space is just the perfect addition to voice those thoughts and visions that bring my creations a little bit closer to its audience.

So help me out here friends! If you have any ideas or would love to see more of in future blog posts, feel free to comment below. I would love to hear from you!