We recently connected with Alicia Tubbs and have shared our conversation below.
Alicia, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Unlike most creatives, I didn’t realize that I had a love for art until much later in life. The first part of my adult life, raising four children and serving in the church took up most of my time. Once our children were old enough to care for themselves, my husband and I found ourselves even more involved with the non-profit world. Traveling all over the world we enjoyed encouraging and serving leaders of missions in Africa, Poland, Romania, and Thailand. This was quite fulfilling in multiple ways. However, there was a longing in my heart to fill an undiscovered void. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I knew there was more.
On my 51st birthday, my daughter bought me a present. It was a basket filled with goodies. In the bundle, a watercolor set and art paper caught my attention. The next morning I got it out to play. A light switch turned on inside of my heart! It was like creativity had been lying dormant inside just waiting for this moment to be unleashed. Imagination spilled out and couldn’t be stopped. It’s an understatement to say I was hooked!
After gleaning all I could from YouTube and Skillshare, I wanted to learn more. I wanted something that would expose me to multiple mediums and learning disciplines. With much research, I found an online art school that fit what I had been searching for. Without hesitation, I enrolled in a year-long online immersive art program. I loved every second. While engaging this course, several people purchased original art pieces from me. Upon graduation, I determined to open Alicia Tubbs Art and lean into a full-time art career.
Since then, I haven’t put the paintbrush down. I continue to learn, practice and play with paint.
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?
All of my life I’ve grown up around creativity. Both grandmothers were artistic. One wrote poetry, knitted, and made jewelry. The other could play the piano, paint figurative pieces, and crotchet. Even though I admired their skills, I was too busy thinking about what others needed or wanted from me to tune into my own desire to create.
Through the years I had many clues that I was a future artist, but I only noticed them in more recent years. For example, as a young child, I entered every grocery store coloring contest; In junior high school, my peers would pay me a quarter to draw a cartoon figure on their folder; I would light up when I was given a map assignment in geography; and mostly art was my favorite class.
After graduating, I married my high school sweetheart. We had four children. We chose to be a one-income family. I was a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled our children for much of their education. Faith has always been a big part of our lives. Along with raising four children, I volunteered at our local church teaching children’s church, VBS, facilitating Bible studies, and singing. It wasn’t until our children became more independent that my husband and I began traveling. We began partnering with a non-profit network that supports and encourages ministry leaders in different parts of the world. Even though I truly enjoyed this, I knew deep down there was a part of me that I had yet to tap into. It felt like I wasn’t living up to my full potential.
As mentioned earlier, I started painting on my 51st birthday, I’ll be 54 in May ’23.
In my initial year of painting, watercolor was my medium of choice. In fact, it was the only. medium I had tried. It was wonderful watching the pigment respond to water, alcohol, and salt. I easily painted over a thousand paintings in that first year. Much like a child who wants to show their parent what they have colored, I wanted to show my work. I was a little shy at first so I opened an anonymous Instagram account. It was too embarrassing to think of my family or friends seeing my work. However, perfect strangers began to purchase my work online and request commissioned work. When that began, I started to think I could make a business out of this.
It wasn’t until after using watercolors for a year that I decided to enroll in an online art academy. Because of my love of creativity, I had a natural aptitude for whatever was being taught. More and more of my work sold. After graduation, Alicia Tubbs Art was officially launched in September of ’22 with a solo show titled “Unlocked”. The solo show was a huge success in several ways – many people came, over half of my work sold, and I was filled with the courage to pursue a career in art. Several of the “Unlocked” pieces are available for viewing on my website aliciatubbsart.com or Instagram account. Each piece in this series included a lady and a bird delivering a key. The birds represented the angelic or heavenly delivering a key to unlock a specific treasure for the lady. Each one needed a different treasure. For example hope, joy, inheritance, contentment, etc…
After being exposed to so many different art supplies, I enjoy using different materials in my process. Typically, I use a combination of graphite, spray paint, art crayons, markers, ink, acrylic paint, and finish with oil paint. Color is fascinating to me. I intentionally use color temperature to cause the illusion of some objects to recede and others to seem as if they are closer to the viewer. Vibrant pigments are my standard “go-to” palette choice. The bright color stands out as if the image is saying, “I deserve to been seen. Notice me.”
I am a storyteller at heart and appreciate images with a narrative quality. It’s nice when the viewer wonders “What happened just before this moment?” and “What will happen next?”. It’s my desire that the images will hold unique, personal meaning for each viewer. When my art hangs in a home or a commercial space, my hope would be that it evokes feeling and thought. Above all, I choose subjects that communicate encouragement, hope, peace, and belonging. Every person has a deep longing to be seen, valued, and loved. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the art that hangs in your space to emanate with encouragement to anyone who sees it? This is what Alicia Tubbs Art is all about.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Just before I launched my business, I imagined days filled with painting one canvas after the other. Dreamy right? I would spend forty hours a week sloshing colorful paint around and playing with art supplies. Sigh;) That would work if painting was my hobby. Instead, I’ve launched a full-fledged business – the business of making and selling art. It was a big reality check when I had to learn how to set up my own e-commerce site and figure out how to create artful products that could be drop-shipped directly to my clients. I rolled up my sleeves and took it on, but it was a slow road.
Then it hit me, one of the most valuable resources I’ve known in life is community. When have I had major things going on, my friends and family have always been helpful. Why couldn’t I ask them into this “major” event as well? After this revelation, the first thing I did was send out an SOS to my closest friends and family members and invited them to brainstorm with me about my art business. Several jumped on the bandwagon and helped me pull off my first solo show. They have been a vital resource for me. Not only have they helped me troubleshoot issues, offered much-needed encouragement and constructive feedback, but they have literally given me physical manpower at exhibits. Looking back, I would not want to do this without the help of my people.
Creating art can be a lonely space, even for introverts. You don’t have to do it alone. It’s so refreshing to know that others will come alongside the vision you have in your heart when an invitation is extended. People enjoy being involved with those that they love.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One lesson that I’ve had to unlearn is that failing to please others is failure.
First off, it’s impossible to please everyone all the time. That’s easy enough to understand logically, but I found myself continually trying to be liked by anyone I interacted with. My parents moved our family around from home to home during my formative years. Before I graduated, I had been enrolled in thirteen schools. Because of this, I was unable to feel rooted in friendships. I always felt on the outside looking in. I desperately wanted to fit in, so I learned to read people and become what I thought they wanted me to be. I was so in tune with this method of coping, that I never really tuned in to who I was as an individual. In addition, I made every effort to be on the good side of parents, leaders, and teachers which chained me to perfectionism. It was not a life I would want for anyone.
Now I realize that the ability to conquer insecurity comes from knowing your true identity and living it out. There is a hidden beauty in failure. It gives us the potential to learn, grow and become more of who we were meant to be. It’s impossible to please everyone. Don’t try. Instead, tune into your internal compass and live to your fullest.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.aliciatubbsart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciatubbsart
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliciatubbsart
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@aliciatubbs.art