We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Wolf. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Victoria, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned nearly everything I know how to do in life by teaching myself, from graphic design to cooking and everything in between. When I decided I wanted to give art a go, I knew I would be teaching myself. I also suspected it would be one of the hardest things I ever attempted to learn. And boy, was I correct!

I created 50 paintings during the first eight months, and during that time, I was learning acrylic painting, as well as learning about myself. I was shocked that nearly as soon as I started painting, many of my old emotional wounds came roaring to the surface and nearly derailed me. Then, I started writing my memoir and centered it around my “learning how to paint” journey. The combination of painting and then writing about the painting process turned out to be some of the best therapy I’ve had in my life.

Now, nearly five years later, I always paint and then write. When I paint, I express my emotions and thoughts onto the canvas. When I write about it, the goal is to make some sense of those feelings and thoughts and then, hopefully, decipher what lesson I was supposed to learn from the painting experience.

Victoria, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been a creative person for as long as I can remember; however, due to a myriad of assumptions, directives, and events that occurred in my life, I didn’t realize it until a few short years ago. I’ve been a graphic designer for 33 years, and yes, that is a creative career, although it took an assessment of my life after I wrote my book to show me that everything I do is from a creative perspective.

I design books, create cooking videos, write regularly, and now am an artist. My creative energy is vast, and sometimes, this gets me into trouble from a work-life balance perspective, but I would not trade it for anything.

I love creating just about anything, but with my painting, it’s so much more. I combine my emotions with my creativity and create abstract paintings that are colorful and dynamic and are born from the story of my life. I want people, when they look at my art, to feel reassured that they are not alone in their feelings and possible uncertainties with both life and themselves. My hope is for my art to stimulate people to explore their own paths of self-discovery.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The thing about resilience is that even when you think you have enough, life tests you, and then you realize the resilience you possess is critical to passing the test. The episode you just survived has in turn, created even more resilience.

In the span of nearly five years, I have lost a thriving dream business, lived, worked, and explored full-time in an RV, nearly lost my husband to a heart attack, moved to a state I have never lived in, participated in 11 art shows in four months, all the while growing my book design business, and being a supportive mom to my nearly 21-year-old. Resilience is my middle name. Strangely enough, I like being presented with challenges that I know will make me stronger and more resilient. I have joked lately, though, that I have enough resilience and can sit the next resilience-building episode out. But, I know in my heart I can never have enough.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

As a graphic designer with clients as my bosses, I am always, with my designs, giving my clients what they want and what they will love. One of my strengths is the ability to intuit what my clients want when they may not know themselves. I am very good at being a “design chameleon,” and in book design, it’s a very good attribute to have.

When I started painting, I was adamant that I wanted to create just for me for the first time in my life. And, for the most part, I have, but now I am encountering a bit of a fork in the road when it comes to “who” I am creating my art for.

To be marketable on a large scale, if that is what you want as an artist, conforming to the tastes of the general public comes into play. And in doing so, that choice can run counter to who you are as an artist and what you choose to create. I wrestled with this throughout my first show season. It was a difficult journey, but in the end, I have chosen to stay firm on my path of creating for myself. I know that this means my buyers will be harder to find, but my creative vision and the years of creating for others are the fuel that will get me where I want to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://victoriawolfart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriawolfart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/victoriarwolfart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoriawolf/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/gfexplorers

Image Credits

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