Sometimes I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self that my dream of making a living as an artist would actually happen. That I could have an art career.
There was a time when the dream to have an art career didn’t seem likely.
When this photo was taken I was a barista at Starbucks. I started working there my senior year of high school and stayed with the company until I was eventually a store manager.
I put any dreams I had of being a working artist on hold while my husband finished his graduate school program.
We had our first baby 2 years after we were married, and it seemed unlikely that my career would ever include art. And I was okay with that for a while. I was thankful to have a job at all during The recession of 2008.
But the dream I had held onto since I was a little girl, of drawing and illustrating and creating beauty with my art supplies, it just wouldn’t go away. I didn’t feel like I was fully myself without art.
Thankfully, I discovered Etsy, and then art licensing, and then wholesaling my products to stores.
I bet on myself and started to make room in my life to create again.
Thankfully my family believed in me and held space for me to invest in myself.
18 year old Starbucks Stacie never could have imagined a future where she ran her own illustration company. Where she worked side by side with her sister. That the little building on Carley street that she would drive by every day on her way to work at Starbucks would eventually be her own studio.
The world feels so hopeless at times. It gets the best of me many days. But then I look back at the gift time has given me, to see that our stories aren’t written yet. That maybe our dreams will manifest in ways we couldn’t imagine.
On the days I feel scared, or overwhelmed, or when I wonder what life will be like 10 years from now, I try to remember that those deepest dreams inside our hearts matter.
Your dreams matter. My sincere prayer for each of you today is that the universe shows you a sign that you are loved. That there is space for you.
Here’s to planting seeds that eventually sprout and grow. To roots that go deep. And here’s to you, my sweet friends, who are a part of this community. I have to believe that the best is yet to come.
Here’s to finding a path to have an art career.
