We recently connected with Alisha Reckamp and have shared our conversation below.

Alisha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

Hi! Having my coffee while I write to you, I hope you’re doing well! :)

I’ve been painting for 2 years, so I’m still a very new artist!

When we moved here last year (military), I was excited and terrified by La Conner’s Art community! I felt like a very small fish in a huge pond. I’m a self-taught artist and built a business because people online were asking to buy. I’m still in my beginnings of whatever this is. However, the artists here flaunt a life’s work, their high education in fine art, and some of the prettiest oil paintings I’ve ever seen!

I had to find peace within myself that I DO belong here, I’m doing something different, something that isn’t fine art and isn’t trying to be. And over time, I’ve been warmly embraced into the art community here.

So about that risk… I’ve been working at a local winery (Skagit Cellars, I would like to name them if possible). The winery rotates the house artist every month. Both of my managers kept urging me to hang my art. But here’s the thing…. most of my art (at the time) were portraits of opossums. Yes, you read that right. Opossums. And this place has award-winning wine! I didn’t want to cover the walls with trashy, hungry critters.

I agreed to hang my art in May, right in tourist season…
And my risk I’m taking is building a new set these last 6 months, reflecting on local things that I connect with. Landscapes, flowers, some local critters, even a human portrait. I’ve totally branched out!

It was risky for me financially to devote so much of my time to these 20 something paintings.

I’m now working 2 jobs and still running my small business, picking up slack from the time I spent painting over the winter.

So here I go, about to plop my paintings in a high-traffic tourist town.
I know it’s important for to me to take up space, but it’s scary.
I want representation for women, for my generation (not many Millenials here for the demographic), and for being a mil-spouse fighting to have prospects in spite of the instability in our lives.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Okay great, thank you for asking such thoughtful questions.

My name is Alisha Reckamp. I’m 31, from Tampa, FL, currently living in La Conner, WA.
I have type 1 diabetes. I’m a military spouse. And I’ve spent most of my adult life working in bar and restaurants (and I still do!).

If you asked me when I was small what I wanted to be, I would have said artist. Easy. However, in my younger years, I was really skilled in math and kindof pruned into that space. Nothing against it, it’s just the way it was. My mom was a single mother of 2 and had us when she was young. I think in her mind, if we did well in school we wouldn’t have the struggles she did.

I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when I was 9 years old and that has been a heavy overtone in my life… It’s important to mention here, because that has been the main decision maker in my life about income, what I do for work.

I was going to college to be a math teacher and 2 months before graduating, I had to drop out. I was very sick with my diabetes, working 60 hour weeks, and borderline DKA (which means hospital-level sick). I chose my health over my education. The main reason I never went back, however, was that I wasn’t passionate about the field.

Since then, I’ve been working bar and restaurant jobs. It pays better than teaching did and it’s enjoyable work for me. I love meeting all types people.

In 2021, I was back in America. Wait what? Yeahhh got married and moved to Japan with the guy I had a crush on in high school. Would you believe that didn’t go well?… so anyway, I was putting my life back together. I was working at a fine dining restaurant and doing marketing on the side. I was insanely stressed and tired. I needed surgery on both hands, so all of the sudden I didn’t have access to my outlet at the time, dance and circus arts (hoop, silk).

It was my only day off and I had this urge to do a “wine and paint” thing… maybe just a desperate need to feel anything human besides “live to work, work to live”… ya know? But I was broke.
Then I remembered, my friend Erin Meyers gave me this beginner paint kit. So I got a cheap bottle of wine, put on my disco light, and painted with that, sitting on the floor. My first opossum. It became kindof a ritual for me on my only day off.

Now I’m gonna pause because currently, I’ve done over 30 opossum paintings and people always ask why. During my divorce, the opossum memes on my phone were sometimes the only thing that would make me smile or laugh for days. They’re anxious, and became my perfect muse in expressing that part of me.

A special thanks to my friend Erin, who gave me the key I needed, not just the paint kit, but helping me bust down my mental blocks. I told her “I’m not an artist, I can only paint what I see” and in her absolute urgency, she exclaimed “ALISHA DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE CANT DO THAT? YOU ARE AN ARTIST!”

Online, as I shared my art, people were offering to buy it. I had no avenues available for that, so I figured that out how to in order to meet that demand. I have been operating under the name “Joyful Opossums” and selling original paintings and art prints for the last year. Joyful Opossums was born because I didn’t want my ex husband’s last name on my art during my divorce, so I named the art after WHAT it was instead of who.

The name Joyful Opossums has been really helpful to get visibility online, to help people find my art. However, I have realized over time that I accidentally put myself in a box with that name. When I paint anything that’s not an opossum (more than half my work nowadays) people get confused. The name just doesn’t fit anymore, though I plan to paint many more opossums in my days. So I am actually in the process of re-branding.

My new business name is Joyful Chaos Art. Keeping true to my roots, but coming forward in a more honest way. About the art, for me chaos is literal… as my work space is extremely messy. But mainly it embodies the spirit that I don’t want to have an “aesthetic theme” as an artist. I see it so often and I just know it’s not for me. I will paint an animal, a human, a flower, a landscape, a galaxy, an automobile, architecture, an abstract dump of emotional color, or whatever object is in front of me… ANYTHING that I want to explore, in any color scheme. That’s the brand I’m cozying into. Plus, the name “Joyful Chaos” is about who I am. It’s about my life. I’m constantly rushing through my responsibilities to make any space for art in my life. I have all the responsibilities of womanhood, of any adult maintaining a home and a working life, the constant needs of chronic illness, the duties of being a supportive and loving wife, caring for my dog, being a friend, keeping in touch with my people back home, running a small business, trying to get to the gym, painting usually 3 paintings a week, and also I am a volunteer firefighter. I’m a tornado woman, always fighting to get back to my easel.

The thing I’m most proud of is my upcoming art showing (Skagit Cellars winery, La Conner, WA). I’ve only been painting 2 years! It’s completely wild to me to have an opportunity like this. I’ve painted over 70 paintings total, and I’ll be bringing about 20-30 of my best that were born in this town! The vision I have for it is things that are local, but from an outsider’s perspective.

Thank you for letting me be vulnerable here.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

This one is important and has been the backbone of my business. I hope this can help anyone. 1) Find spaces online that are relevant to your art and will be accepting of you! Those spaces keep getting less and less, but they’re there! Don’t give up. Keep being authentically yourself and if people aren’t responding, it’s just not the right audience… Like if a jazz band opened at a metal show, some people might just walk out! Find the spaces where people will love you.
A few (off the top of my head) “Weird Art Group” and “Break Away From The Everyday” are 2 great ones for artist networking. Don’t knock the artist groups- artists buy my stuff all the time! And I’ve made some great pals.
I’ve also had alot of success using the right hash tags and going into groups (read the rules, some allow self-promotion and some are super against it). For example, the people in “Hardcore Opossum and Possum Group” allow opossum-related businesses to share! I’ve met alot of great people there. Squirrel groups that allow it, I share squirrel themed art, etc.
Be creative, the world needs your art!
2) Use the “invite” button! Maybe 1/10 people are responsive to it, but that’s totally fine! It took me from 150 followers up to 1000 in a few months. People who like your art will come along!
3) Get to know the algorithm. Avoid using certain words. “Buy, sell, store, shop, sales” just to name a few. Those words really hurt visibility. I sub them with “bye, sail, sails” etc.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes! This is quite a literal answer, but can I talk about my favorite tool!!? As a self-taught artist, unfortunately I’ve learned alot of things the hard way…
I wish I would have found Posca paint pens sooner. I have a deep love for them. They’re acrylic paint, in a marker format. and I use them in every painting… sometimes just my signature, sometimes re-touch, sometimes whiskers, sometimes the entire painting.
If you work in acrylic, I recommend the PC-1Ms for fine lines. I started with just a black and a white, because my budget was tight. I expanded and have a larger kit now and they make painting travelable, which is a game changer for me.
And because they’re acrylic like all my paint, I can varnish like normal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joyfulchaosart.com
• Instagram: Joyful.chaos.art
• Facebook: Joyful Opossums: the art universe of Alisha Reckamp (switching to Joyful Chaos Art in May)

Image Credits
Photography by Nessa Aurora