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

Alexandra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

As you’ll hear from most visual artists, I started drawing at a young age. I didn’t start painting until Middle School and was thoroughly terrible when I first started! I was lucky enough to have a great AP Arts program in my high school and took as many of the classes that they offered as I could. In my free time, I would watch videos of artists I admired most working on their art on Youtube. This was definitely something unique to my generation that previous artists would not have had access to when they were young. I’m a very visual learner (obviously, hah) and being able to actually watch the movements of the tools they used and how it created certain effects was invaluable to me. When it was time for me to head off to college I naturally chose a Fine Arts University. I figured out pretty early on that who was TEACHING the classes was actually a huge deal. If you don’t like the style that your teacher works in, how will you learn the specific skills you are interested in? The art world is so big and broad, there’s tons of different styles and genres to choose from. At that time I was very interested in Hyperrealism and colleges were more focused on contemporary styles, so I made the difficult decision to leave and pursue a degree in Arts Management instead. One of the biggest obstacles was finances. Painting materials in particular are an extremely costly expense for a broke college kid! Luckily my parents were extremely supportive and invested as much as they could in my creative pursuits.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Alexandra Verhoven, and I’m an oil painter and illustrator living in New Jersey. I’ve always been fascinated with intense lighting effects and the way that they can evoke emotions. A few years after college I discovered a genre of art called Imaginative Realism and immediately fell in love. It was the perfect mix of the focused and detailed realism that I loved with dreamy, whimsical elements that transcended reality. I discovered a convention in my neighboring state of Pennsylvania called Illuxcon and attended the show in 2019. The entire community there was immensely welcoming and informative and I set out to improve my skills further by taking classes (SmArt school in particular was absolutely amazing). I signed up for a table in the Showcase the following year. Unfortunately, that’s when the world fell apart and Covid hit. But, the show runners of Illuxcon were amazingly adaptable and created an online platform to have a virtual show that year. And that’s when I made my first real income as an artist and it felt AMAZING. I now show my work in galleries and have some fantastic collectors. I still currently have a day job working at a library and it has immensely helped me to balance my life financially while still allowing me time to pursue my dream. I am very proud of the body of work I’ve developed over the last few years, and I hope my work inspires positive emotions in my viewers.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think the biggest pivot I ever made was my choice to leave the fine arts university I was attending and pursue something slightly different. It was something I had my heart set on for so many years, and the decision came down to a few factors. Financially, I couldn’t justify the amount of debt I was going to be in, in an already difficult career path. The other nagging thing I couldn’t get out of my brain was the business side of things. I knew that to be an entrepreneur like I wanted to be, I had to learn business practices. I’m honestly not sure if things have changed since almost a decade ago now when I made this decision, but I didn’t feel like the art schools were focusing enough on this aspect. This was the driving force behind my decision to pursue my B.A. in Arts Management. The school I attended was not only much more financially viable for me (even though I am still in debt as are most people in my generation), but also seemed to align more with my goals. In the end I’m extremely happy with the decision that I made.

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

I think being an artist is a very romanticized career. I’ve even been guilty of thinking this way when I was younger, myself. It’s not just sitting in a studio all day painting, in fact that’s actually just a small part of it. It can even be physically taxing at times. For instance, when I was working on my largest piece to date which was four feet long, I didn’t have an easel big enough to support it so I had to hang it on a wall and I spent hours upon hours standing on my feet. I was completely sore at the end of the day. This actually was when I committed to a permanent exercise regimen for the first time in my life which I still continue to this day. But mainly, I want people to think about all of the hats that artists need to wear in order to be successful. If you don’t already come from a background of money and you’re starting from zero, as most people are, you can’t hire people to do a lot of the things that businesses normally hire workers to do. Besides learning your creative skills, you need to learn how to be; a website designer, a social media marketer, a product photographer, a content creator, an accountant, a data analyst, an ecommerce expert, a framer (if you have physical works), an expert at networking, a packing and shipping expert, a merchandiser, etc. etc. You have to be EVERYTHING. It really is mind boggling when you think about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.alexandraverhoven.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandraverhoven/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexandraverhovenart
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexandraverhoven
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/AlexandraVerhoven