How I Started My Art Business
We were devastated and hope threatened to seep through the cracks as we scrambled to figure out what to do next. Then the unthinkable happened. A virus invaded the world and made the next few months even harder than we could’ve imagined. One let down after another piled up in my husband’s email telling him that they weren’t hiring leaving us with big decisions to make.
But let’s back up a little.. or maybe a lot. I’m at artist. I have been known to dip my toes into all kinds of different art over the years. I grew up with an insanely talented artist of a mother and when I was little, I watched her go back to school for art. I remember sitting with her in the evenings at the dinner table and helping her memorize which famous paintings when to which artist. I loved everything about it and soaked it all up.
About the age I started drawing a lot alongside of my mom.
Fast forward to college when I went to Anderson University to figure out what I wanted to do with my art. I was all over the place because I loved everything that I tried, but mostly, I loved to paint. I spent 3.5 years creating and learning and trying to figure out life. I left school early (due to depression, another story for another day), took time to heal and figure out what was next.
At an art show in college with my fellow art students (front row, third from left in a purple shirt and SHORT hair!!!).
The next few years were a blur, but full of hope and life and decisions. I moved to Arizona as my then boyfriend and best friend lived there. Derrick and I got married in 2005 and had to figure out what to do with my life. I had an incredible job that landed in my lap for the next seven years, working with kids with Autism, but I still hung on to my art dream. It was a part of me I knew I would have to pursue at some point. In 2006, while I worked at the autism center, I began dabbling in photography. Derrick bought me my first digital camera and I was sold. I was photographing anything and everything, including a lot of my kids and families that came to the center. People started hiring me and I realized that I had a gift for it.
My very first digital camera. I outgrew it within a year and bought my very first dSLR. I also took a lot of what we called “self-portraits” back then, long before they were called selfies ;).
In 2007, I came to a crossroads. I either needed to go back to school or try to pursue photography as a business. Being that we were young and pretty broke, I prayed a lot and decided to open Jenny Spires Photography. I poured myself into my business and became very successful over the next several years.
As my little family grew to four over the next several years, I left the autism center and spent all of my time being a mama and photographing families.
I LOVED it, but I’ve always had an itch to create with my hands and cover them with paint. We moved back to Indiana in 2013 and I moved my photography business with me, where I re-established myself as a family photographer. I got busy again, but as my children grew older, I was finding more time to rediscover some of my passions that had been put on hold for a few years. In 2019, I finally picked up my brushes, bought some new supplies and started painting again. I began to discover who I was as a painter and slowly, a style started to emerge.
I remember the night my husband came home, grief stricken, in early March of 2019. He was let go from his job (the government decided to stop paying his contract) without a lot of warning. His news hit hard, but we were so confident that he’d be able to find a new job as he had great references and an amazing rapport with his previous employer. However, things didn’t happen as easily as we had hoped. Covid-19 hit the world and no one was hiring in his field. Spring was suddenly in full bloom and we had no more money coming in being that photography was also not very lucrative during a pandemic, we were left with no income. Week after week, we desperately prayed for God to open a door to a new job for Derrick. Week after week, he was turned down.
During this time, I painted more and a friend saw my work and asked me to paint a commission for her. When I gave it to her, she paid me far more than I thought it was worth, but that exchange sparked something in me. I began to wonder if this was something I could make bigger.. do more of. I asked myself some hard questions; is my work really good enough to sell? Will people really want to buy it? This was a HUGE decision and I was terrified to put myself out there. But as I continued to pray for something to open up, I slowly realized that THIS was what was opening up. It was right in front of me just waiting for me to make it something more.
My very first commissioned piece that changed everything. “Lake Peonies” is still my number one selling print!
I spent the next few months painting and preparing. I designed my logo, chose brand colors, learned how to build a new website with a storefront, figured out how to assign a value to my art, learned how to make and sell prints of my work, took classes to learn several different things that were new to me to make this happen. And then Jenny Spires Art was born. I was terrified to put it out, but with an amazing community and family supporting me, I did it, and somehow now I am a double business owner!
Meanwhile, my husband also had choices to make. His prayers seemed to be answered from the lack of answers. He had always had a dream to move out of his career and into real estate and investing in it. With time on his hands, he went ahead and took his Indiana realtor classes and became certified. He was suddenly a real estate agent. He also poured time and research into creating a new business with his brothers and dearest friends to create an investing company.
All of a sudden, our lives looked very different, but we were somehow both living our dreams. Finances have been crazy different for us as we are both in the infancies of our business. I won’t lie, it has been HARD as we’ve had to wade through the last year not sure when a paycheck was coming in, but we firmly believe that we have followed what the Lord laid out for us and he has provided for us month after month. Knowing that we are doing what we both love, even in the difficulty, has been beyond rewarding. I think it’s helping us find more value in life again and the grit and hustle is strengthening us in ways neither of us expected.
I cannot wait to see where our journeys take us. I’m also beyond grateful that you’ve landed here to read my story, and I hope that it can inspire you in your life in some way. Please share your own journey with me! I’d love to root you on!!
WANT YOUR OWN PRINT OF THE PAINTING THAT STARTED IT ALL???