ArtByMAD is an experience

   The courage to start ArtByMAD has consumed the majority of my time and thought over the last many years. What didn't reveal itself to me until recently is that I've actually been formulating this brand since I was in elementary school when I drew the symbol to the left obsessively. My initials have always kept me entertained with ideas in an entrepreneurial way. There's never been a more prominent time for artists and designers to work for themselves and to create a stable livelihood out of selling their art in markets and online. Design has been an interest of mine since I made my own magazines as a kid, but the process of creating has always taken precedent because I like getting my hands dirty. ArtByMAD is not only my outlet for creativity but also my voice to the world and method for encouraging others to pursue their unique purposes on Earth.

  "Handmade" is taking the place of "made in China" and "custom made" is becoming more affordable, more readily available. More young people are commissioning art and spending their money on experience more so than goods. The thing about art,  handmade items and jewelry is that it can often times be an experience. It carries with it a time, place and a memory. 

ArtByMAD comes from experience: My experiences as a young woman in the South, college in a metropolitan setting, relationships, being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua and then transitioning back into the United States while trying to find my purpose as an adult. My artwork reflects the places I've been, how I felt about myself, how I was dealing with it and who I wanted to become. If I created it, I felt it. As an instinctual individual there is a sensitivity that comes with vulnerability, a weakness, an exposure to everything that is and was. It can be overwhelming. I have to work through it. I choose to work through it with writing and creating. I also spend a great deal of time with animals, especially horses. Fearlessly, I have always sought out excitement in life. I get high on the unknown. As a child, one could find me way up in a huge magnolia tree wearing my mom's old negligee with bare feet or squatting behind a rock next to a creek where I went skinny dipping with my brothers. As an adolescent, after school we jumped off the roof onto the trampoline that we pushed up to the side of the house and as a teenager I would sneak out of the house to meet my first boyfriend, paddle out onto a lake in a "borrowed" boat and experience my first kiss. In Peace Corps, in my house there was a machete and a dirt floor. When I left my casita, I had a cowgirl hat and a sarong that served as a dress, towel, shawl and shade. These experiences are worth sharing. ArtByMAD encourages you to show up and share. Live and let live.