Welcome to the website!

Last night I sat quietly next to my husband with my shoulders hunched as he coded away. I looked over at his screen every time he made a noise under his breath to try and see if the sound was meant to be good or bad, but could never decipher the code or read his stoic face to tell which it was. He’s spent months trying to get this website to function easily for me, and any second now we would officially launch it. No one was counting down to the moment besides us, yet my body was still filled with nerves. It brought me back to when I was putting together my original website to graduate from Milan Art Institute’s Mastery Program.

It was 2020 and everyone was stuck inside. At that time in my life though it probably wouldn’t have been uncommon for me to be inside anyway, feverishly painting away day and night to try and make this dream of mine to become a full time artist a reality. I had already been working on the program for more than a year and as I neared the end of creating a 25 painting portfolio, it was time to begin creating my website to showcase the work. I could handle the website building because of some coding classes I had taken while working towards a Graphic Design degree (plus I ended up going with Squarespace to make it all simpler). The painting I could also handle, but I was absolutely dreading taking artist images for my “About” page. I texted my best friend to ask if her boyfriend could take some pictures for me. It was perfect timing apparently because he was already getting a set up ready to take pictures for his musician cousin. 

I showed up to the warehouse and began taking pictures, the cousin was late because he was watching UFC fights so I had to be the one to go first. Halfway through taking pictures I see this guy walk up, and stop to introduce myself. He seemed a little awkward and shy as he asked me, “How do you smile like that?” I was kind of caught off guard by the question, and stopped myself from answering with a self-deprecating joke, simply answering, “You just do it.” It was his turn now and I couldn’t help laughing as I watched him do the same pose and shyly dimpled smile over and over again, it was my turn to ask the questions now. “Are you going to do anything else?”

The joking went on for a bit and eased the scariness of getting our pictures taken, and eventually the conversation turned into talking about our websites. Since I was already building my own, why didn’t I also help him put together his? And now his house is filled with purchased and commissioned artwork of mine. Weeks turned to months turned to years, and now here we are back where it all started. Only little did I know at the beginning he could have built himself a website that whole time. Like actually built it too, not just drag and drop things on a pre-made layout like I had. 

So here we are about to launch the website he made me while our daughter’s asleep, and all the same nerves I had back then still remain. Once it goes live we did a couple test purchases to make sure things were still running smoothly, and I asked if we could code the order numbers to pick back up where they left off on my old site, mostly concerned people wouldn’t trust me if they were my first sell even after seeing “sold out” stickers. He asked, “Do you really think people are going to see all this work you’ve put in and not take you seriously?” No. It’s so crazy how years can pass, sales are made, relationships have been established, and a bit of insecurity has stayed. 

But I’ve proved those nerves wrong before and I’ll do it again. This is a fresh start for my business, aligned with a new stage in our lives. A place where I’ll write out what’s on my heart and in my mind, to work through things that might also help you work through yours. To share the process and meaning of my work, and maybe even get to hear what it means to you if you chose to share thoughts too. Thanks for following me along this far in the journey, hope to see you alongside me during more, and enjoy the new site! 

P.S. please enjoy the featured image from that photo shoot back in 2020

💋Bri