I started painting and drawing in my teens without any formal instruction, support or encouragement. As I headed into my twenties I abruptly stopped and went through a long period of soul searching, discovering myself and mending my soul. All the while, my dreams of art lay hidden in my heart just waiting to bloom. A 4-month life changing pilgrimage through India when I turned 30 brought me face to face with mySELF and my dreams of art began to take hold of me so strongly, I could do nothing but succumb. I started to paint again and filled up canvases with my heart’s deepest longings. While my earlier works were heavily influenced by Indian aesthetics, my art today is more universal in nature. My works are very woman-centered and speak of the many aspects of the female soul; empowerment, wisdom, courage and grace. Yet I also address the broken parts of ourselves–our fears and vulnerabilities. I believe it is when we acknowledge and share all parts of ourselves and our journey, therein lies the power to heal ourselves and others. I put my heart and soul into my art–every piece becomes a part of me. Nothing makes me happier than when I have touched another person’s heart through my paintings. I strongly believe in the power of storytelling. It is through our stories that we learn, share, grow, celebrate, love and live. Each of my paintings tells a story of the deepest parts of our souls. Of what it is to be fragile, vulnerable, joyful, hopeful…of what it is to be human.
1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I work in mixed media and what I absolutely adore about it is… anything goes! I am always trying out new techniques and products; new ways of doing things. For instance, I just started mixing oil pastels with some of my water based products and they work so well together and create such interesting effects.
2. What are you working on right now? What’s on your camera/desk/easel or in your studio?
For the past year or so I have been in recovery (from an extremely abusive childhood) so I find that working in my art journal has been cathartic for me. I absolutely adore art journaling… it seems to completely free me up and provides an avenue for me to play and have fun. I tend to work on 2-3 different art journals at one time sop that way I can always keep working while waiting for pages to dry.
3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
I try to work every single day even if I can just squeeze in a half hour. I find that keeping work on my table allows me to keep my creative juices flowing.
4. What’s one thing you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
It’s a lot of hard work. Sometimes people have a very idealized view of what being an artist entails but, like anything else, it entails a lot of hard work and time. The thing is, though, I absolutely love it! My heart is in it and I feel so fortunate that I get to do this work that is always interesting and challenging and soul-full. It fills me up.
5. What advice would you give to your young artist self?
Trust myself. Trust my voice and my vision. When I was younger, I was so insecure about my art and what I wanted to express. I thought I had to have a Fine Arts degree to be taken seriously. But what I now realize is that I had to believe in myself and my work; I had to take myself seriously.
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Shannon Newlin is an illustrator and painter. Her professional experience includes over 10 years in product development as well as Disney Consumer Products styleguide design. During her time as creative director for a licensee she developed multiple product lines from concept through to production. She and her team also won Disney’s Infant Division “Product of the Year” Award.
1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
I’m an illustrator, painter and surface pattern designer from the Netherlands, living in Leuven, Belgium with my husband, three kids and my dog. My designs have been licensed for fabric and for serving trays. I design birth cards and wedding invitations and I have both written, designed and illustrated a children’s picture book for a Dutch publisher.
Jane Moore Houghton is a mixed media painter living and working in Central Massachusetts, US. Jane received a BS in Studio Art from Skidmore College in 1987. Since 2006 she has been granted seven solo exhibitions as well as several group shows. Jane’s latest series of works, her “Beasts” series was shown in a solo exhibition at the Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, MA this past winter.
The advice I would give my young artist self: get your work out there – not with the goal to get published (I wanted to be a children’s book illustrator) or to be an instant success but to get feed back and grow from the experience so that you can reach your goals. Don’t let the fear of success and how that might change your life hold you back. Find a mentor and set up a lunch date with them every month. Find a tribe of other artists trying to do what you are wanting to do and support one another. Don’t ever stop making art.
Casey Saccomanno is a Women’s Wear fashion and print designer currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She earned her BFA in fashion design at Philadelphia University in 2008. She most recently worked on designing the Nurture line sold at Dillard’s and is now focusing on print design opportunities. Casey’s designs are frequently inspired by traveling, music, nature, and living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. She is an animal advocate and lives a vegan lifestyle, one day she dreams of owning a business and donating a portion of the proceeds to local animal sanctuaries.
I am Marieke Middendorp, dutch illustrator and single mummy of two sweethearts. After I finished University in Rotterdam (I wanted to be a documentary maker) I moved back to Groningen and had several non-creative jobs. I started Studiopie.nl in 2009, besides my day job, first focusing at kids clothes, art and decorations for kids rooms. A little later I taught myself graphic design and designing websites. Only when I started the Lilla Rogers ‘Make Art That Sells’ course at the beginning of 2014, I realized I am a illustrator and not a graphic designer. So I picked up a pencil and could not let go. This is who I am. I have accepted my quirky, non-realistic- style as it represents who I am.
The most valuable activities is keeping my body healthy. I take lots of breaks to reduce my RSI (which can be very frustrating, because sometimes I just want to surrender to my flow), eating healthy, making long walks and getting enough sleep. I think its very important not to stress about things. Have a little faith in the process and outcome. Sometimes I get scared something will not work out, or i can’t get inspired and actually almost all the times when I let it go, relax myself by making a long walk or read, I come up with the best ideas. Also, sometimes I just get started and it will all be allvcright. I get inspired by nature, reading books, seeing great beautiful things; art, patterns, other peoples work, photography, textures, quotes etc.
Bonnie Christine is a surface pattern designer, fabric designer for Art Gallery Fabrics and creator of Going Home to Roost. In addition to teaching and sharing all that she knows with the Roost Tribe, you can find her working in the garden and spending time with her husband and children. Join her in living an extraordinarily creative life on her blog, 
right now, i’m working on my 10th fabric collection for art gallery fabrics. currently on my desk is stack of portfolios i’m working on sending out to my list of dream clients (exciting yet scary!) and a pile of fabric i need to begin sewing through for my display at international quilt market next month. 
the artwork and patterns that i make are a direct reflection of my heart and life. though they may not seem like it at first glance, they each represent something near and dear to my soul. they tell the very story of my life!
Maria Ojascastro teaches children and adults as a Design/Visual Arts faculty member for the Center of Creative Arts and as a private instructor from her home studio in St. Louis. Her heritage and family inspires much of what she does, especially her three sons, one who is a cancer survivor, and all three who are now thriving with the diagnosis of Asperger’s. These personal challenges have led to specialized workshops she created for individuals whose lives have been touched by trauma, cancer, or atypical children. She’s presented workshops for many educational and cultural institutions including the Kemper Art Museum, The Missouri Mental Health Counselors Association (via live national webcast) and the Center for Survivors of Torture and War Trauma. She also teaches art to individuals whose lives have been touched by cancer at the Siteman Cancer Center, the Cancer Support Community and St. Anthony’s Cancer Center.
4. What’s one thing do you want to share with others about your art and/or process?
In 2004, my sister and I were both stay at home moms… and it was just before Christmas. She said, “I have no money to buy you a Christmas present”, and I said, “that’s good, because I don’t have any to buy one for you either”. We are both artists…she had already found her niche, I had not. I cut up every bridesmaid dress I had ever worn, and cut every silk and velvet fabric I had previously hoarded and made table runners for my family members. One friend commented that they would make beautiful scarves. Inspired by this, I shopped them around to local boutiques and received orders for 3 dozen from one shop. Soon after, my cousin who was in the recycled textile business called telling me he had a couple barrels of vintage cashmere sweaters for me to look at. I bought as many as I could and started restyling them immediately…business blossomed.
3. What practices/activities are most valuable to your creative process?
After running a desktop publishing shop from 1994-2000 doing graphic design and printing, I got married and focused my attention to building a career out of web designing. In the process of building my “sample” website to test my web design skills I recently acquired, a new opportunity manifested right in front of me – to design and 
1. What’s your medium of choice and what do you love about it?
