Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alma Alonzo. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Alma thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I began my professional life as an educator in early childhood and public education. As an educator of young children, I chose to emphasize the practices of creativity, observation, and connecting with the natural world as valuable skills that any child needed to be happy and whole, they were, after all, what helped me to feel happy and whole! I still believe this today but in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone to teach virtually, my mind and body needed a less stressful life.
Instead of jumping right in to another career, I took a break and spent close to a year simply taking nature walks, drawing, journaling, and making art for my own enjoyment. These combined practices helped my mind and body heal. This is is how the idea for my business was formed. I asked myself the question, “What makes me come alive?” The answer was art, nature, and teaching. Starting my own business allowed me to do the things I felt most joy in doing while meeting a need I saw in the world.

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.

We are all facing a world with complex problems and to solve these, we need people to show up every day as rested and restored as possible. The practices of nature journaling, walking in nature, and creativity are easy ways for many to find rest and restoration. I learned this first hand after resigning from more than 25 years as an early childhood and public school educator. I offer classes that teach adults and young people, how to start drawing and nature journaling. Two things that I take great care to emphasize in my classes and which sets me apart from other instructors are 1. Befriend your inner critic. Drawing is a skill that is learned, much like writing, if you have learned how to write your letters, you can learn how to draw. Your skills will improve with practice and the thing that is between what you can do now and how you hope to draw (or paint) is practice and acceptance. 2. When we are seeking to connect with nature, always keep in mind a decolonized framework. This means remembering that we are part of nature not apart from nature. We can learn much from observing the natural world and because nature has so many gifts for us, we can show our appreciation through making sure to do as little damage as we can. In other words, it is important to shift from an extractive mindset (what can nature give me?) to a reciprocal mindset (what is my role in the web of life around me?).

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest pivot I’ve had to make in life was resigning from my professional career as a public school educator. It was the most difficult decision I had to make up to that point. Looking back, I was utterly burnt out, and had been for a long time, but I kept pushing and pushing myself to “find my why” or life’s purpose in public education because it had become such a strongly ingrained part of my identity and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. Who was I if not a teacher? Being an independent artist and running a business teaching adults to find connection in nature through art and nature journaling never occurred to me before resigning. My decision to resign was prompted by a serious health scare. So without knowing the answer to “but what next?”, I took a leap into the unknown and quit. I was (and still am fortunate) to have a spouse that supported me financially and emotionally while I took the time to rest. Only after giving myself permission to rest did I come up with the answer to “What next?”

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think my reputation was built in two important ways. One was being vulnerable about being on my own learning journey. As a public school teacher, I had a personal ethic: never ask my students to do something that I myself wouldn’t want to do. In other words, I want to walk the walk.

In my classes, I suggest to students that even the wonky drawings are wonderful because they document a moment when they gave something scary a try. To model this, I share my own personal nature journals. They span many years of development and I invite my class participants to page through them so that they can see that not every attempt at a work looks great. There are mistakes and even abandoned drawings. After all, the most important part is the action of drawing or painting and giving ourselves a break from life stressors. On social media, I take care to show work that is loose and spontaneous.

The second way I think that my reputation was built was by word of mouth, starting from just one acquaintance of mine who introduced me to a program coordinator. That person in turn gave a positive review to another program coordinator and so on.

Contact Info:

• Website: [email protected]
• Instagram: @awildbraid

Image Credits

All photos rights belong to me.