Featured Handmade Artist-Maechevrette
Hello!!! This week, I have yet another amazing etsy artist! I'd like to introduce you to Mae from Maechevrette. I simply love the combination of text and images and her paintings are sooo beautiful and inspiring...
Just take a look at this lovely, lovely print? It really speaks to me...
Love, love, love it!
Here are a few more beautiful creations from her shop:
Hi Mae! Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi, my name is Mae. I grew up in Seattle and moved to Massachusetts for college, where I still live and work. My passion (and part-time job) is making art-- I love to paint, draw, write, photograph and make just about anything, as well as travel and explore new places. I spend most of my free time creating artwork for my shop.
How long have you been creating?
I have been selling my work for almost a year, but creating art for as long as I can remember. My first memories are of watching my mother build or sew beautiful things for our house, and as a teenager, all my creative interests were supported. Pablo Picasso said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." I am lucky and eternally thankful to have a mother who encouraged me to grow up creative, weird and artistic.
What is the inspiration behind your pieces?
As you can probably tell, I am really inspired by the words of others-- it is incredible how the right words can completely capture a feeling or moment, and I try to make that feeling come alive visually. Travel, especially road tripping, is also a huge inspiration and influence on my artwork and I try to incorporate it whenever possible. By the end of college I had made 3 solo cross-country drives and a dozen other shorter road trips, totaling 44 states and thousands of miles. There is nothing like being on the open road and finding a new place that speaks to you and freezes that moment in your mind, and that feeling has inspired a lot of my work.
What is your most prized possession?
I love my car and am so attached to the amazing memories I've made traveling in it. I also love my cameras-- a Canon Elph, a Rebel DSLR, a Polaroid One-Step and Lomo Holga.
What would your dream job be?
As far as dream jobs go, if someone would pay me to travel and make art and photograph where I travel, that would be great!
Please describe a little bit of your creative process
I work in fits and starts, feeling overwhelmingly inspired one day and out of it the next. I try to capitalize on the inspired moments by throwing myself into my art, and working obsessively on a piece while the inspiration lasts. If I'm in the mood but unsure of what to paint, browsing photographs I've taken while listening to music helps, and I often print out photographs, draw on them, sketch out words to see if they fit. Each piece gets layers of paint, ink, paper, photographs, thread, etc. until it feels done. There is a lot of coffee, wine and music in this process.
What item would you be secretly heartbroken about if it sold?
I am secretly a little sad to say goodbye to any original painting, however it makes me really happy to know that someone liked something I made enough to spend their hard-earned money on it and give it a place in their home.
How do you promote your work?
I have a Facebook Fan page (http://www.facebook.com/MaeChevretteArt) which is great to hear what past and future customers and fans think about new work, and I try to do giveaways and sales occasionally to thank them for their support. I have a blog http://togointotheworld.blogspot.com that I need to update more consistently. I also make a point of carrying business cards and giving them to anyone and everyone. Lastly, I have several friends and family who have gone above and beyond for me, spreading the word about my art and shop to anyone they can, and I'm so grateful for that.
What are some of your favorite books, movies, musicians, and websites?
I love Sabrina Ward Harrison's art journals and anything written by Dave Sedaris. I love apocalypse movies and documentaries but don't really have any favorite movies and don't watch much television. My favorite musicians are Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band, B.O.B., Wyclef Jean, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley, and I have recently discovered Lucero, Reckless Kelly, and Matt Kearney. I love browsing Flickr.com, Society6.com, ApartmentTherapy.com, and Etsy for inspiration and eye candy.
If you could have one super power, what would it be and why?
Definitely the power to live on one hour of sleep a night! There is just so much I want to do and so little time to do it. I have had to make big sacrifices in my social life in order to finish paintings, shipments, or work when inspiration strikes, and it is also difficult to balance my day job and my art job. It would be great to be able to see all my friends more often, relax with my boyfriend, go to work, finish paintings, and still explore for inspiration without feeling like anything is being neglected. However, I am definitely grateful that having too much in my life is my biggest concern.
Thanks so much Mae!!!! I hope you have a chance to check out Maechevrette-- you'll fall in love with her paintings just as I have!!!
Related posts:
