We were lucky to catch up with Amy Sell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

About 2 years ago I started working at bakery part time to fill in some income gaps and about 6 months into that job, we had some small chalkboards that we used to write specials on. When the owner didn’t have time to keep up on them she asked if I could take that on. Since I knew a little about drawing I thought I could do something ! I didn’t expect to like doing them so much. I asked to take some boards home to practice and I couldn’t stop. I did so many boards with markers, chalk, etc. I started buying better chalk to practice at home and then I began to use my front porch as my new canvas.
All I could think of those day s was the next design that I was going to do and I was hungry to learn. The boards at the bakery began to get bigger and better with each board and as they did, it started to attract attention from the customers and people online. When I started to get request to do work outside of the bakery on more than one occasion, I did start to think, wow, this might really be something I could pursue professionally!

Amy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My art medium is chalk illustrations for business boards, events, promotions and for personal art. I mainly do illustrations on chalkboards and occasionally some street art that are typically fun and bright that will capture people’s attention.
Initially I started with images that I would find and wanted to recreate in chalk and then as I started working with more business related customers, I have moved into more signage that helps their promotions or brand. I do live chalk illustrations at events as entertainment and I absolutely love doing those !

In the last year I started taking my chalk art and making cards and prints. This combination of the chalk art and digital world feels like a sweet spot for my soul. This allows me to capture my art, since it is typically a temporary medium, and play with it digitally to have a whole new product.

I am finding the most unique part of what I do, is that there are not that many people in my local area that use chalk as their main medium and that I started this at almost 50 with no art background.

I got into chalk by a serendipitous set of circumstances and timing. I always say, that I feel like the chalk found me and when it did I was super ready !

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The thing I notice the most is that people tend to think that if you can do one form of art you can do them all. A lot of artist can do many techniques but that does not mean we can automatically switch mediums. I get asked a lot to paint murals and I have never painted before and it would take me some time to learn a new medium enough to do it for a customer.

The other thing that I feel gets lost is how much time goes into the planning of a piece. It takes a decent amount of time to build concepts and get them mapped up to be able to start the actual work. By the time you see an artist in the actual creation they have already put in a lot of time getting that piece ready to implement. It is not always easy to jump from project to project when there is so much that goes on in between.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Yes !!! I have so many fun ideas that I am just so excited to do and finding the projects and partners that match up with that drives me big time. I have visions being able to do all the fun quirky animals and characters in places where we can just go big on the whimsy.

I also have such a love for making cards and products from the chalk art, that I feel so passionate that I want to find avenues to be able to sell online all over the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amylynnstudios.net
• Instagram: @amylynnillustrations
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093589443500