About Wild Heart Art Studio

Since college, design has been a hobby. Friends have said, "you're an artist! ...can you make me a logo? Can you design a flyer for my band's concert? Can you paint me a commemorative velvet painting for my best friend?" 

It's true. I’m an artist, with training in visual expression. In art school, I learned how to express ideas with visual imagery. It was the 1990's and conceptual art was the rage.

Art spilled heavily over into design. 

What does that mean?

Let me explain a little further. Art is used for self expression. Design is expression that has a job to do. It’s art that goes to work. 

Design’s job is to solve a defined problem. A problem might be: needing a visual icon for a phone so that people know how to access the camera. 

So, while I didn't study design, conceptual art’s heavy emphasis on “readability” of imagery taught me how to conceive ideas and express them clearly in visual form. 

Why does that matter?

As business owners, we are responsible for the images we make and how they impact the culture we live in. 

In the current era of social media, we see hundreds more images a day than even ten years ago.

That impacts how we feel, what we think, perceive, and how we treat ourselves and others. 

Understanding visual messaging is especially important in today's era of personal brands and social media.

It also comes with responsibility.

Most business advisors, coaches, classes and programs don’t emphasize that we are actively creating the culture we live in.

How we do business, including how we express ourselves in images, makes a difference.

Images can spotlight our skills, emphasize a message, as well as, challenge stereotypes and subvert harmful cultural messaging over time. 

They can inspire creativity, pose evocative questions and shift notions of belonging and beauty…

On a very practical level, images speak to what’s at the heart of your offer.

They help clients see, understand and feel what you're selling.

and

Most of us aren’t taught to speak in visuals.

There's more information available for every other aspect of business than creating brand imagery. 

Yet, choosing images is vital for your business. 

Words are text. 

Images are text. 

We read images. 

Like written text, imagery also contains subtext. Images help us read between the lines, decipher a sense of truth and trust what written words are saying. 

Your brand identity and visual language does more than make things look pretty. It does more than attract attention.  

If you use social media to market and sell, you are creating a body of work that makes drops of impact one post time. 

In that way, artists and personal brands have a lot in common today. They both make lots of visual communication. Each piece is important and they tell a larger story over time. We get to know who people are and what they have to say little by little.

This provides an opportunity for businesses.

For getting noticed, connecting with clients and also for shifting shitty cultural messages.

It’s rich with possibility. 

It's why business owners need to speak the languages of art & design. 

What’s it like in Wild Heart Art Studio?

In Wild Heart Art Studio, I embrace methods of co-design.

Co-design is collaborative and works even better in groups.

With a variety of creators working in community, we can better spot themes. We can offer more expansive feedback. We can play with translating messages into images beyond what our singular minds can conceive. We can learn from one another.

Taking the time to invest in your visual creation process makes better products. It's worth the time and energy. (And you need to make visuals anyway!)

In Wild Heart Art Studio, I also deemphasize me as the expert or knower.

I like to get comfortable with not knowing and exploring the gray. I am growing out of my own social conditioning, binary thinking and scripts.

I also like to share some best practices. 

In the studio, I both listen and feel what you're saying. I teach basic principles of art & design.

Together we hone our image making skills, including how to read and question what we create. 

• My art training means I ask questions to understand what it is you want to be saying. 

• It means I can explain how things are working and why (to my sensibilities). 

• I like to push for more experimentation and playing around for results that are more unique and exciting. 

I don't believe in good or perfect.

I believe imagery is about how thing are working. Choosing how you’re communicating and why your images support that is important for you to decide. 

The process of making art and the questioning itself is what grows our ability to speak imagery. Building that skill gives us confidence in our expression. 

It's important to me that your images align and communicate what it is you want to be saying. That they support and enhance your copy and clarify your vision. 

What about you?

My guess is you're here because you already know how important visuals are and you need help creating them. 

You might be interested in Wild Heart Art Studio because: 

• You already share your products and services online and embrace doing business more ethically. 

• You also want and need to make a living connecting to clients that actually benefit from your offers. 

• You’re into communicating consensually and clearly. 

• You care about not reinforcing stereotypes, power signaling, using tactics of emotional manipulation, positioning yourself as a guru or selling your lifestyle.

• You're a DIYer by choice or by your financial situation.

• You want to have fun making images and connect to your creative self even if your brand is the vehicle.

• You like to learn and work in community. 

I want you to make a living and feel comfortable creating brand imagery in ways that create ripples of change. If this is what you want too, I look forward to seeing you in the studio!

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