We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Cruz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I took my first painting class 40 years ago, I was hooked and knew I wanted to learn as much as I could about this art. My first projects were what is known as pen and ink. You draw the design with a pen and give it a lot of detail and then complete the work of art with paint. From there I knew I wanted to know everything there was about painting. I learned how to do watercolors, acrylics, mixed media and colored pencil. I started teaching and sharing with my students some of the techniques I perfected and the unending creative process that we all have within us.

I started my painting career when I had two small children at home and painted at night or when they were in school etc. I knew that one day I would be doing this full time, but my family came first. I took advantage of this time and started playing with different mediums and techniques and started perfecting my craft.

The skills I felt were most essential in learning my craft is to keep an open mind. I learned to paint all sorts of styles and weeded out the type of painting I did not enjoy doing. Losing the fear that something I painted may not be at the level that I wanted it to be, and working harder at it to make it my own.

There were many times I would have wanted to take classes with other artists that I admired – but money was tight. I was not well known in the community and wanted my name to be it’s own brand.

Chris, 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?

I was a stay at home Mom 40 years ago when I took my first painting class, just to help a friend at her store. I learned the power of the painting brush and never looked back. I started painting at home on anything and everything I could get my hands on. People soon started asking me to make some for them and that they would pay me for it. I am a perfectionist so this was definitely a good thing for me because I knew that whatever I painted for a client had to be my best at the time, after all I had to put my name to it.

Friends and customers asked me if I would teach them how to paint. I started doing home parties before the concept was even a thing. I would get a group of ladies together and have a painting party. My name started getting around and soon after I was teaching at art groups, and started attending painting conferences and taking classes just to learn more.

I learned from these classes that some people are great artists but terrible teachers. I wanted to be exactly the opposite of that. I have a high level of sensitivity and I know that when I teach a class my students want some quality time with other creatives. I believe that everyone has a talent but not everyone is at the same level.

I moved to Alabama almost 8 years ago and started teaching classes here. I always liked to use the best products when doing my art and invested my teaching earnings into purchasing the best brushes and paints.

One of the things I am most proud is becoming an Artist Educator for Golden paints (which is one of the top of line artists paint).

Once year they offered 20 students this opportunity. You had to complete this lengthy application and pray that you were chosen. Over 80 applications were submitted and I was chosen to be among the 20 professional artists. We all met in New Orleans, all expenses paid and trained for over 10 hours a day with other creatives to learn about their products. There are only about 200 Artists Educators world wide.

Not soon after that Silver Brush Ltd – the Cadillac of brushes reached out an offered me the opportunity to be an Artist Educator for their brushes. I was so thrilled. It was like a dream come true.

It is a very prestigious title to carry around. I do not get paid by them but I am compensated with products every year so I can continue to share these products with my students.

Various magazines have done interviews with me – which is very humbling.

Although those are all professional successes I have accomplished the thing that I am most proud of is the number of people that sign up for my classes. I believe that God has sent me on a path to pay forward what I know. I teach my students step by step the process of what they are going to paint. My reward at the end of the class is seeing their smiles and making friends in class and going home and trying these techniques and hearing my students tell me “Chris you are the best art teacher I have ever had”.

When I teach my classes I look at it as therapy, you never know what is going on in people’s lives and I offer them a place were they can come to and forget about the outside world for a while.

My students in return fill my heart with pride. I want to leave each class knowing I gave them 100% of myself, I listen to their stories, I learn about their families.

Chris Cruz is it’s own brand. The people that know me can tell you that when they hear Chris Cruz teaching they can tell you their class is more than painting. It is an experience. Chris is a facilitator. She has the ability to connect people, she is very well connected with numerous art and professional organization and she is always in demand to talk or teach at different groups. She is truly passionate about her craft. She is truly a professional in the field of teaching art.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

One of the biggest challenges artists encounter is selling their art for what it is actually worth. Society does not value art. Artists are constantly asked to donate their art for fundraisers. People may bet $20 and walk away with something that took you hours to create.

That is something that has always bothered me. You also have to know who your customer is, what kind of income do they have, can they afford your art. That is an awareness that every artist has to see and decide what market are you creating for.

I know my market is medium income, age groups 50s and above and most are retired. I have space limitations of how large I can paint since all I have is a small place to work my art. I teach the same project at different locations. That means I have more than one painting of the same thing. I have back problems so I cannot carry heavy boxes anymore. These are all things that are important and have to be seriously thought of.

My solution to helping society support my art is simple. I do not do prints of my work. I only do 2 art shows a year. At the end of the year I take all my class “samples” that are originals and sell them for a big discount price to my students and they can own a Chris Cruz original at an affordable price. Keep in mind I am paying it forward because these people have taken classes from me all year. It is small way to say Thank You and it is so appreciated.

Every artist has to make their own decision as to what is their goal. My goal is to Connect Creative People through ART.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I have been at this business for over 40 years. There were many obstacles that I had to overcome.

I have a chronic and painful illness that many times prevented me from painting, but I knew this would just be a temporary thing.

My kids school activities were No, 1 for me and that meant I had to make up time painting at night to keep up with the orders I was getting.

Many times there were artists that would no approve of me “undervaluing” the cost of my work. What they did not realize was that I was always selling my art and when you look at the bottom line I was probably most successful at getting my art out in the world than they were.

I never gave up. Life is not perfect and as they say life happens. You have to learn how to work around it. Paint every day. When I could not paint every day I usea sketch book where I write down ideas. I made a sign for my door that said “Mom is busy at creating beautiful things” knock before you come in.

I am open to opportunities available to teach, whether it is at a large women’s group, or an organization that wants to do something for their customers. Art is to be shared with others.

During Covid I taught myself how to create YouTube videos. Upload/download, edit. I wanted to do little 10 to 15 minutes lessons so my students could paint at home. I even offer on my website the pattern, picture and line drawing so they can paint it home. At this point I have over 80 videos on my channel.

You cannot just do one thing as an artist, you have to lean where are your customers and how to reach them. It makes me proud that I have created a brand that people know is reliable, professional and very well organized.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.chriscruzdesigns,com
• Instagram: Chris Cruz Designs
• Facebook: Chris Cruz Designs
• Youtube: Chris Cruz Designs