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

Alexandra, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

Creating has always been an important practice in my life. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I decided to take my passion for acrylic painting from hobby to small business. As a teenager, I had pursued smaller selling opportunities like creating clay earrings and even offering custom embroidery on jeans when that was a trend. I even made the attempt at starting a nail art business, but that never fully took off (laughs). Painting with acrylic paint has been my consistent practice over the past couple of years, and what has truly inspired my business.

For as long as I can remember, I loved to paint. I began to seriously commit to painting post-college on quieter nights in or when I sought a stress reliever. During my days, I would go out and explore, taking lots of pictures to later create as paintings. A few years later, same story, until one day my mom goes “why don’t you start selling these?”

BUT I DIDN’T. I painted and painted, let a couple of canvases accumulate, then decided to start “showing them off” on my Instagram page. I wasn’t very serious about it, but actually very shy about showing my artwork. About a year later- I finally created a separate Instagram account for solely my artwork. Thus, Alexandra Wuyke Art was born.

This was 4 years ago. One would think that 4 years is a lot of time to fully develop a creative career but that is an ever-changing, ever-learning experience. Had I initially started much earlier, who knows where my business would be. Would I be more successful? Would I be in the exact position I am now? These are questions that we’ll never know the answer to. Do I wish I had started earlier? Yes. The one thing I would change about my experience would be to silence the voice in my head that was shy about putting my work out there. Honestly though, regardless of the stage of where I’m at, I’m happy to be showing off my work!

Alexandra, 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?

The core brand of Alexandra Wuyke Art is to capture travel and wanderlust through bold and vibrant color. I am a self-proclaimed travel artist- combining my two passions in life: art and travel.

In my childhood home, we had a lot of paintings depicting my birth land of Venezuela. Landscapes, paintings of food, and scenes of fishermen in vibrant colors were up on our walls. Little did I know that these paintings would serve as inspiration in the future.

As an adult, pictures in my camera roll began to stand out to me as possible paintings. I found that images from adventures and travels held deep meaning for me, which is why I felt compelled to paint them.

Fast forward to present day- I decided to niche down to creating “travel art”. My travel art is artwork comprised of the sights, sounds and tastes that one encounters in their travels. For me, it means more than just capturing a notable building, but encapsulating the cultural aspect of that location. For example: a conglomerate of colorful fruits at a street market in Cambodia, or an icy cold beer that was ordered on a hot afternoon in Colombia. Moments in time captured in acrylic paint.

Not only do I create original work, but customs (commissions) as well. With custom artwork, it allows my client to request a moment that is meaningful to them. I’ve created an array of commissions ranging from one’s favorite national park to a heartfelt moment of one bathing elephants in Thailand.

My style is that of vibrant colors with chunky, textured brushstrokes. My brushwork is inspired by artists such as Van Gogh, Monet and Matisse.

I believe that when you have your own moments artistically captured on your wall, there is no greater artwork to proudly display. Being able to recreate these moments for my clients is why I love being able to call myself a travel artist, and to be able to connect with those clients on our shared love of travel.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when someone connects with my work. I sell frequently at artisan markets and love when people come into my tent and instantly recognize the location of one of the pieces.

“OMG that’s the (Chicago) Bean!”

“Wait, that’s the Don CeSar, right?”

I once had a couple who had visited the majority of the places I had displayed and they told me the stories about each one of those trips. We even joked about how we probably have shared the same itinerary!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think one of the aspects of a creative career that non-creatives struggle to understand is pricing. I get it, as a consumer, one wants to find the best price for items and as a small business, unfortunately we cannot price our products as low as mega chain stores.

It can be a bit upsetting sometimes to hear someone pick up one of my pieces and say “how can you charge this much?”

What non-creative consumers don’t understand is that there is a lot that goes behind that price: the cost of materials, time it took to create that piece, and the experience I have developed over the years to get to that artistic point.

These prices aren’t just pulled out of thin air, but carefully calculated to reflect our artistic ability.

Contact Info:

• Website: alexandrawuykeart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrawuyke_art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alexandrawuykeart