Featured Artist Friday

Today's Featured Artist is Megan Self. She has a business called "Paint by Letters" and the link there will take you to her facebook page. She is super talented, and I am happy to call her my friend. She did a set of letters for my daughter's room, and they are simply precious, I've included pictures of them at the end of this post.

1. When and why did you start painting?  I have always been artsy and decided on a whim freshman year of college to try painting.  I took one art class in high school, but other than that I'm self taught.  I learned early on that painting people and animals were beyond my talent level, so I started painting natural landscapes.

2.  What is your favorite medium for creating art?  I've dabbled in it all, from drawing to clay to photography, but painting is probably my favorite medium.

3.  Is your family artistic?  All the artistic talent must be in my family's left hands.  The left-handed people are artistic, the righties, not so much.  My sister Jill first taught me to draw people in profile when I was in junior high.  My aunt Carol has done lots of painting.  My mom can do everything and always encouraged my artistic side.

4.  Which famous artists do you admire?  I try to appreciate all art, but I love realism the most.  Sure, that red dot and green drips may represent "The Inhumanity of Society," but all I see is a red dot and green drips.

5.  What are your fondest art-related memories?  As a child, my parents encouraged me, so their walls and refrigerator door were my first "galleries."  

In my ninth grade art class, we had to create an editorial cartoon for a News & Observer contest, and I won first prize for the state.  It was about the new graduated driver's license laws, well, new at the time.

I painted wooden letters for my niece-to-be, Addison, and gave them to my sister at her baby shower.  Two people approached me that day to paint letters for them, which is what first made me think I could sell my artwork.

6.  Who are your favorite artists?  Wow, I'm not sure I have a favorite artist.  I appreciate that Pablo Picasso never grew stagnant with his art.  He didn't say, "Hey, I like painting women with their mouths where their eyes should be.  I guess I'll do this for the rest of my life."  He sculpted, painted, sketched -- he did it all.

7. Do you display your art?  When I began painting landscapes, I gave them away to my family members.  Many of them still have my canvases displayed.  Now that I paint letters for children's rooms, my art is displayed all over, even in Jenelle's house!

8.  What advice would you give to beginners who are nervous?  Keep experimenting until you find something you love.  I tried a little bit of everything until I found my niche painting letters for rooms.

9. How often and for how long do you practice?  Being a full-time teacher and painter on the side, I don't really have time to practice.  I experiment and push myself with every project that I create.

10.  What inspires you to paint?  It's a great creative outlet for me.  When I go long periods without creating, I feel antsy, like the art wants to escape from me and I need find some way to let it out!  I find lots of inspiration from my clients' ideas and opinions, as well as room themes.  I have the desire to create, and they give me some specifics to help reel me back in.

11. Describe your process for completing a work of art.  When someone asks me to paint letters for them, I sketch out the letters and decide on a color scheme and patterns for each letter.  During the summers, I try to work on the letters in large chunks of time, often finishing in one day.  During the school year, my projects are a bit more disjointed, working on them when I can find an hour or two.  Though I sketch and plan before starting, my plans often change as I'm working.  

12. What is the best part about art?  For the most part, my clientele are ordering letters for a newborn.  This means that I'm creating something for one of the greatest joys in someone's life.  Often, it's the first thing in the nursery with the baby's name on it.  They're so excited, so happy, and I like to think I had a part in that.

13.  What is the hardest thing about art?  Because I am self-taught, sometimes I have to compromise my artistic vision to accommodate for my level of artistic talent.  The product still looks good, but in my head, I can see what it could have been.  That's tough.

For Leiana's letters, I asked Megan to do a "characters from Leiana's favorite books and movies" theme. I knew basically what she would be painting, but I had no idea how beautiful they were going to be!