Artwork by Isha Greene
Creating art saved me from falling into depression.
It’s truly that simple and something I never thought was true until I looked back at all the art I’d created in the last 5 years. My story started simply enough – Army wife, mother of 3 – the usual scenario of the husband being called away and the children growing up.
Starting at the beginning in 2016, my youngest had a fundraiser he was asked to take part in for an orchestra class trip. We couldn’t afford it without the fundraiser, but I refused to sell bedsheets or balls of cookie dough to my friends – so I decided to sell some fun paintings to my friends. After 8 months, I’d sold enough to buy his tickets and get him a new violin for his birthday!
Then my husband got orders for Korea… and we couldn’t go. One year turned into a two-year geographical bachelor tour and I was here, along with my children. I knew I had to stay strong. Suck it up and soldier on, but art became the outlet and the center of my universe, that I didn’t know I needed. You see, what was also happening is, my eldest daughter had just graduated high school two years prior and my eldest son was about to graduate to go to college as well. I knew I needed something to help me with my inevitable “empty nest syndrome” – so now I had my excuse.
To summarize – Art saved my life, my marriage and gave my children someone they could look up to for stepping out of my comfort zone and starting my art business (2019). A few pivots this past year, obviously, but my passion has remained firm. I have hundreds of started paintings and over a hundred finished paintings to one day open my own gallery/studio and help people going through their own struggles to find healing in art. My hope is that Old Masters Academy would train my skillset to take those unfinished paintings head-on and get them done in the more masterful way they deserve (I usually stopped because I felt out of my depth to complete them)
I feel with my ambitions and wanting to give people a safe place to create, since I’m primarily a self-taught artist, gaining the skills I need to help myself and others get their visions on canvas would be a godsend. Also, as someone with face pareidolia, learning how to paint/sketch better, would allow me to really bring out the faces that come through my paintings. I wish I could afford membership straight out of my own bank account, I truly do, but I’m also still learning the business side of this world – and it’s quite expensive just to remain in ‘existence.’
Thank you for your time and consideration! I look forward to hearing back from you!
ishakisart.com
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