We were lucky to catch up with Kelsey Huckaby recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kelsey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I can’t imagine any other way of living life and doing things than to be creating art. I’ve always found ways to make any work or jobs I had relevant to the arts throughout my career, whether that be working in galleries or curating events. Even when money got tight or life felt rough, I could never see myself giving up and pursuing any other path. I believe if you’re meant to be an artist, and it’s in your heart and you act on it, you’ll find the right people to meet and places to be. There’s been times that I feel like I’ve had my faith in the journey tested, but such is life and you learn as you overcome the obstacles that are thrown at you. The rewards are always so great and having a solid of community in the arts where we all support each other as artists, as I’ve found, make the whole experience all the sweeter. The highs are so high that the challenges are so worth it. I’ve made the best friends and found the best soul family through my years painting and connecting with the world I’ve been woven through along the way.

Kelsey, 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?

As an artist myself, I was always looking for opportunities to show and sell my work. I was participating in different markets and pop-ups where I would vend and live paint at events that I took a lot of inspiration from. I loved the communities I was getting involved in and meeting all the other artists and people who organized the shows. One particular group I got in with was Create Culture, now based out of Austin. They had a warehouse space called the Space Lab in San Marcos where I first live painted. They also hosted monthly events in Austin at Empire Control Room up until Covid called Create Culture. These guys were heavily involved in the visionary art scene and electronic bass music scene and have done so much to bring this culture to Austin, bringing in visual artists and music producers from all over the country and even beyond to perform at Austin venues as well as festivals they’ve put on. Chance Roberts of Create Culture is the man who first invited me to live paint at these festivals, which absolutely changed my life. Chad Tolentino and Jackson Know Matter also make up CC and are still cooking up schemes to this day.

It was these guys who inspired me to start event coordinating myself, approaching venues to host more pop-up markets to give creatives more avenues to meet a broader audience. This led to my becoming the manager of the monthly downtown art market Art Squared in San Marcos and even curating The Gallery of the Common Experience at Texas State University. I had an incredible network of artists from all over central Texas and was very happy to serving the community through art.

One of the wonderful things about San Marcos is that we have a flourishing art community with no shortage of creative eccentric people that like to call themselves “San Martians,” hence our name. One day a dear artist friend named Tony Belmonte asked me if I would be interested in collaborating with him in a business space he had been renting. It had been a makeup studio but he felt that it could be more, so with the help of Rachel McCartney and Ethan Ramirez, we brought some more artists together and we made this space into the first iteration of Studio San Martian in August 2018. We were an artist co-op that would host events with live music, fire spinning, tea service, and of course lots of art of all styles. We started keeping shop hours, all volunteer based, where we sold paintings, prints, drawings, natural locally made body products, plants, and seeds.

Within our first year of being open, we had a lot of changeover in partnerships, who was involved in the shop, location and more until Jason Sherman got involved and we ended up in our current space, location #3 at 1904 Old Ranch Road 12, #108 in San Marcos, TX. This space proved to be the best fit for our versatile needs of hosting everything from open mic nights to classes and workshops. We experienced a lot of growth until of course Covid-19 hit in 2020. It was hard to know what to do at this time, for everyone of course. It was such a hard hit for everyone, but we were determined to keep things going, for everyone. We had an outdoor stage built and held outdoor, socially distanced/live-streamed/masked events where vendors could still sell their work and people could still hear and enjoy live music. It was really beautiful to see the community still coming together and supporting each other in a time of so much uncertainty and fear. We had to keep up the love and good vibes and encouragement as we all made our way through.

As we’ve been making more of a comeback, the classes and workshops have been flowing strong! We’re still mostly volunteer based at this time but growing the aspects of the studio that are proving to be most beneficial to the business as well as the people who keep the whole thing going. I personally moved on in June 2021 to pursue my own art career in Denver but am still heavily involved in the management and promotion of the space. Rami Stein has stepped up and been a tremendous part in assuring the success of the studio. The array of events we continue to host keep expanding and the community bond has been growing. Keeping the dream alive has been nothing short of a labor of love. If all of our hearts weren’t in it, I don’t see how we could have made it this far. Studio San Martian continues to collaborate with other organizations and venues in town putting on events and bringing art and music to the people. We’re always encouraging new artists and music-makers to get involved to share their talents and passions and strive to create safe space for community and expression. I’ve been in awe of seeing how things continue to unfold for SSM even without my being so directly involved as I was in the beginning, and I couldn’t be more proud of all my friends I love back home that make the magic happen. It’s been a humbling experience that I’ve learned so much from and been so grateful for and feel so much joy to witness and be a part of. No matter what challenges the team has faced over the years, I’m always reassured that Studio San Martian is meant to be here.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There’s so much fear and doubt that can come with pursuing your artistic path. We don’t always have the encouragement or the resources it might take to feel capable enough to follow your dreams and make them a reality. I’m so grateful to my younger self for allowing myself to grow my artistic abilities and share them. I’ve been painting for about 16 years now, making art since childhood, and it’s just so amazing to see how far I’ve come, not only in my skill level but in my personal growth. My time spent painting has been time spent reflecting, critiquing, improving, correcting, changing, and really seeing. It’s a process that can be so private and internal, it’s interesting to have something tangible that can be extracted from it all and interpreted by others, often in ways that can be helpful or inspirational to them. It’s like being in a dream and putting something in your pocket that you want to bring back from the dream… and then still having it when you wake up. You get to bring this thing back and share it. It’s something that comes so naturally to me that serves not only as a tool in my personal evolution, but also a catalyst for change in perspective for others. I can’t imagine much else that can be so pure. I feel blessed to be able to channel in this way and in turn receive validation in the response of my audience.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

It’s funny how the eccentricities in an artist’s lifestyle can make other so uncomfortable. I’ve found myself in situations where I’m moving along in my typical adaptable ways that make sense to me and feel like the natural obvious answer that have made the others I was with feel like I was taking crazy risks or seeming careless or irresponsible, when I might see them as being fearful or uptight. There’s a flow that artists know how to work with and exist with that you learn to trust and see the patterns of. It’s the same flow that guides you through as painting that can be taken past the canvas and applied to the bigger picture. It comes with trusting oneself and the universe and knowing oneself that artists know how to tap into. It might lead us into strange places that would seem undesirable from the outside, such as the story of the starving artist. I see it as a right of passage. Much like the hero’s journey, the artist has to go through challenges to achieve what it is they’re striving for. You have to experience the hardships to make it through to celebrate the victories. This is the source of building more character and expanding the emotions for the development of deeper art.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @studiosanmartian @kelsey_psililoqi
• Facebook: facebook.com/studiosanmartian facebook.com/kelseyhuckabyart

Image Credits
Photos taken by Studio San Martian Crew and Christopher Paul Cardoza