We recently connected with Ali Kay and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ali thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I know that artists find their creative voice at all different stages in life. I knew from the very beginning that this is what I was created to do. As a child, all I really needed were crayons and markers to make me happy.

I received my first commission from my 6th grade teacher. He asked me to draw a portrait of his daughter and grandchild. He paid me $20 and I was thrilled!

I took every art class my high school offered. I went on to study fine art in college and at the same time, I founded my mural painting business. This was really the beginning of my professional career as an artist.

Ali, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

After nearly a decade creating custom painting on walls, ceilings, and floors, about 10 years ago I dove into teaching painting.

I was invited to teach at several conventions in different cities around the US. As a result, artists started asking to come to my studio to study with me. I actually began offering a few online classes before it became the norm in 2020. The pandemic forced me to cancel my in-person workshops and really expand my online platform. It was a silver lining during a hard couple of years. Teaching online has allowed me to connect with thousands of artists all over the world who would never have the ability to actually visit my studio.

At the beginning of 2022 I launched my membership group Fresh Paint.

This is where I’m now teaching new lessons every week to my global community of creatives. I love that the group has transformed into so much more than a place to follow painting tutorials. Our members support and encourage one another, share their tips, struggles, and grow together. It is such a positive and accepting space!

Nothing gets me more excited than to check in with the group and see students posting their paintings that they are so proud of. I get messages all the time about how these classes have helped them find a new passion or get back to doing something they love. It’s really a gift to be able to have this impact.

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

When the world shut down in 2020, I was forced to cancel all of my in-person workshops. I had students that were going to be coming from all over the country to come take classes with me here at my studio in Chattanooga and those were all canceled.

The building that my studio was located in, which was the artistic home to about 40 artists, also shut down permanently so I had to move out.

With live workshops canceled, nowhere to go, and small kids who were home all the time, I decided to lean into teaching online. I had already created a couple of online courses, but I really just wanted to connect with my audience immediately and not produce these really planned out courses.

So, I just started going live on my Facebook page. Every Monday evening I would flip on and paint live! People would watch and I would talk my way through the painting.

Then, I started realizing that people were really interested in painting these with me. So we called them “Paint Alongs” and I started selling individual $10 templates for my paint along sessions. This was really the beginning of my live teaching career, which I have grown to love. I love just hanging out with my students, live, in the moment.

Eventually, after doing Paint Alongs for about a year and half out of my bedroom (because we didn’t have a space in our home for a studio!) I found a new studio space to move into. Then I launched the weekly lessons as my Fresh Paint membership in February of 2022.

Now, our primary focus is the membership and serving our students that way. It’s been really fun to see how we can reach so many more people, and have such a bigger impact, all because we were forced to make this change of discontinuing the live workshops here at the studio.

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

For me, the most rewarding part of being an artist is really the teaching, because I can see what an amazing impact we can have on people’s lives by removing the fear of creating and providing people with the tools to create things that are more than what they thought they could do.

We can take away those things that stop people in their tracks. We help them to learn skills to make painting easier and more fun. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I could be using my art and my message to be changing the lives of thousands of people all over the world.

There’s just such a ripple ripple effect from it that’s so much more dramatic than what I’ve been able to do simply by just making beautiful paintings in my studio for people who could afford to buy them. Now I’m able to create all the time, but I’m not just creating the physical painting, I’m creating the message and that’s reaching far and wide.

And, it’s not just impacting the students, it’s impacting those that they bless with their art, those that they share their message of being inspired to paint. It’s impacting all those people throughout the world. It’s truly so exciting.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alikaystudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ali_kay_studio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AliKayArtStudio
• Other: Fresh Paint membership waitlist: https://alikaystudio.com/the-fresh-paint-tribe/ Loose Tulips intro class: https://alikaystudio.com/loose-tulips/ Top 10 tips to painting loose: https://alikaystudio.ck.page/2eabba3cc3