Hey everyone! I'm Michelle. I’m an Arizona girl turned stay at home mom who is now living in southwest Missouri. I wear many hats around here. Some of them feel like a large Texan sized 10-gallon hat (primarily my mom hat) and others like a baseball cap or white chef hat. When I create, I get to take off all the hats and just wear my hair down...or maybe in a ponytail because you know, hat hair.
I first got my start in the world of creating digital art when I was looking for a seamless repeating pattern to use as the background on my blog. I couldn't find what I envisioned anywhere! My curiosity was peaked and I began the arduous process of creating one myself. I was hooked! Soon I opened up an etsy shop. For a few years I was a sponge! I loved learning and creating new designs for my shop. I expanded to other platforms. With all the learning and creating, I found that my favorite thing to create was seamless patterns- or surface pattern design. I enrolled in a very expensive course with the hopes of one day designed for a fabric company. This was right before giving birth to my 3rd child. Screech! What was I thinking?! It was near impossible to keep up with my now 3 kids and the sleep deprivation that came with a newborn. My shop stayed open, but adding new designs slowed to a trickle. Adding a fourth child slowed any artist pursuits even further. For a time, the demands of my family took me completely away from designing.
One day, during this creative drought, I was vacuuming and found myself pondering how we are promised that if we lose ourselves to serve others, that we will find ourselves. I had been trying to put aside my creative desires for years to serve my family. But I didn't feel found. I felt lost. This phrase came to my mind, "When seeking to lose yourself in the service of others, it's possible to have an identity crisis". And I was having an identity crisis! My identity crisis prompted an intensive period of soul searching and prayer. Little by little I began to discover that God didn't expect me to sacrifice something I loved so much. It is a gift to feel desire and passion and he had blessed me with talents and desires to bless the lives of others.
So here I am today in the fray. Some days I feel like God is using my love for art to serve others, especially with my children. I light up inside when my kids ask to paint with me or geek out when I get to teach my oldest or nieces and nephews about different drawing programs. My heart skips a beat when I receive a heart felt drawn picture from one of my kids or when I see someone else using their creativity as they incorporate one of my designs in their own creation. And I love techy questions from friends and family about programs and supplies and classes. But then there are the not so clear days where I just can't catch a break! The house seems to be one perpetual mess and I'm playing referee more than mom. But despite this chaos, I know it's important to me to continue to create. So I keep up the good fight to find time where I can wear my hair down and create.