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

Liese, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I am a 48 year old, self-taught oil painter specializing in Surrealism. I have been a full time fine artist for 11 years and a gallery owner for almost 9 years. I have always loved to create. My original goal wasn’t to be a full time artist, because in the beginning I had no confidence that such a thing was possible for me or even have the foggiest idea of how to begin to achieve that goal. This path is so different for everyone, and for me it was one baby step at a time.
My journey began because I had lost my job in retail management in 2006, so while I was looking for work I tried to get some of the paintings I had at home into a gift shop or gallery. It didn’t go very well since my drawing and painting skills were very weak and I didn’t really know how things were done in the field. Boy, did I embarrass myself a lot looking for representation! I did meantime land a job in sales/management in a gift gallery and the owner agreed to show a few of my acrylic paintings. I worked there for several years and I was able to absorb so much about what people were looking for in the art they bought and how to speak about the artwork that I was representing. It also taught me the finer points of running a small business.
This job paid minimum wage, so that was an excellent motivator to learn to create art that people really wanted to buy. I started out by producing local landscapes and decorative arts. This actually went well for me in terms of sales, but I longed to create artworks about the human condition since that is the type of art I am attracted to myself. The main thing holding me back was that I wasn’t very good at depicting the human form and that was a huge stumbling block for me. I felt so inadequate, so incredibly frustrated.
The only answer was study, of course! I gradually learned over a few years of book study and practice to begin to tell the human stories I wanted to share in a more attractive way. It was incredibly rewarding to be able to create art that I could talk about passionately. I was able to to connect with my clients in a personal way that I had never experienced before and I was totally hooked. Hooked on the triumph I felt at improving my skills, the thrill of connecting to a stranger on such a personal level, hooked on the study and the challenge and the idea that I could continue to improve as long as I pursued the study of art.
I was making art full time by 2012 and in 2014 I opened my first brick and mortar gallery in Colorado Springs. I have never once looked back in terms of a career choice. Not to say that my job has been particularly easy because living on commission is challenging, but I can’t imagine doing anything else as long as I live. Of course I do wish that I had found the path to doing this for a living earlier, but we get to things in our own time. Besides, I know for a fact that I didn’t have the self-discipline to take this particular road when I was younger.
For me it has been a process of trying and falling down and then trying something else when I have dusted myself off. I don’t know quite how I could have sped things up or made it easier to become a full time artist, but I have learned that determination is much, much more valuable than that thing they call “talent”. I don’t believe in talent as a path to success. I believe in dedication and the ability to keep plugging along no matter what.
I am about to move to another state and begin a new chapter in my career, starting over in a new art community knowing no one and nothing at all about how to make things work in a totally different environment. But I am certain that if I keep at my studies and do my best I will find my place as I have always eventually done. As Walter Elliot said, “Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.”

Liese, 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 have always been drawn to artwork that tells a human story. Fairytale, fable, myth, legend, images that give a glimpse of what it means to be alive and full of emotion have fascinated me since childhood. These types of visuals cross language barriers and show us a reflection of who we are inside. Because of this passion my work would best be described as Narrative Surrealism. Each of my oil paintings tells a visual story, sometimes humorous, sometimes unsettling, but always with a dream-like quality that draws you into strange and beautiful worlds. I delight in depicting the resiliency and tenacity of the human spirit. My subjects are often strong females finding power or humor in a less than ideal world. These themes are designed to remind us of our strengths and help us keep our sense of humor when things just don’t go as planned.
I study regularly to expand my knowledge of layered oil painting techniques for creating delicate flesh, so that I can depict how fragile we are, as well as how fierce.
I have been running Chavez Gallery in Colorado springs for nearly a decade now. I am reincarnating in California as Magic Mirror Gallery in 2023, If you’d like to hear about upcoming shows and art giveaways you can sign up for my weekly newsletter at http://www.magicmirrorgallery.com/newsletter

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My business has undergone many changes over the years, but sustaining a brick and mortar during Covid has been one of the most challenging and frankly scary upheavals for me so far. When The Plague hit I still had 3 years left on my gallery lease and I wasn’t quite sure at first how I was going to stay afloat with my doors closed. The overhead of a physical retail space is huge and completely based on the idea that you are paying for being in a location where people will stroll in and discover what you are selling. The monthly Artwalk events are also a huge part of generating sales and to have that taken away just as tourist season opened was quite a blow. Fortunately we have the internet, so I jumped right in to researching other ways to reach out to the public. I already had an online store and a bit of a social media following built up, but I had been mainly focused on doing sales in person for so long that I was a bit behind in learning about all the tools at my disposal. I started adding original art to the online store where I had mainly sold prints. LieseChavez.etsy.com. I began recording lots of videos to bring people into my world. I started hosting virtual gallery openings where I physically walked from painting to painting talking about each new piece for sale. Streaming live videos of me painting became a weekly thing in order to offer more engaging content on social media. I opened a Patreon account where people can subscribe to monthly rewards. I offer coloring pages, Postcard and Sticker Clubs, and dibs on new original artwork. https://www.patreon.com/LieseChavez
These are just a few examples of things that I implemented or tried out to bring new revenue streams to the business. Combined these adaptations allowed me to keep the business healthy and will serve me as I transition to a new state in 2023.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

By far the most rewarding aspects of my job are the personal connections I get to create with the people who support me and the fact that I can continue to improve my skills each year so that there is really no limit to what I can achieve if I give it my best effort.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MagicMirrorGallery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liesechavez
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liese.chavez.1
• Other: https://liesechavez.carrd.co/