We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amanda Goodwin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amanda below.
Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Choosing the most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on is a lot like asking someone to choose their favorite child. I have limited time to create, so most of what I do has purpose and meaning. I love doing commission paintings for people. Learning what’s important to people and finding a visually creative way to help them remember something special is a challenge I really enjoy. I feel honored to be asked to paint something important for someone. I love finding a way to incorporate special bits of info into a piece that gives it even more meaning than what meets the eye. Giving a piece hidden meaning makes it more fun for the owner to tell others about the piece. When others view it and learn the secret info, it makes them feel like part of the story. Who wouldn’t love that?
One of my favorite things to do is travel. My love for travel began as a child. By the time I graduated from high school, my parents had taken me to 48 states, Mexico & Canada. While I raised my children, we traveled as often as possible and I was able to visit my 49th state. Once the kids were grown, I began painting a series of pieces based on transportation. A submarine, for my grandpa that fought in WWII for the Navy. A firetruck, for my son that’s a fire fighter, a cruise ship for my daughter that always wants to go somewhere. And several trains, as I love to ride the rails. This got me thinking about my earlier travels. For several months after that, my Dad & I devoted a few minutes each time we visited to going back through his journals to create a timeline of my travels. I guess you could say my childhood travels are at the core of the Globetrotter Adventure series I’ve created.
Speaking of Adventure, remember the painting of the ship I mentioned? That ship has become the logo for the Globetrotter Adventure Collection! This project means so much to me. So many of the books have special meaning. Book #1, Let’s Go Somewhere Together, was the first project my husband and I did together. Book #4, ‘Let’s Go Somewhere Together for Christmas’, is a book near & dear to my heart. The story is about Christmas adventures riding different modes of transportation to spend time together as I did or wanted to with my kids, along with my favorite christmas candy recipes from my grandma’s collection. Book #7 ‘Let’s Go Somewhere Together ~ An ABC Alliteration Adventure’, didn’t actually become meaningful until the very last page. As I was finishing up work on this one, I was officially informed that I had a grandson, so I created ‘Tucker’s Treasure Hunt’, a seek and find activity following the story. Later that year, my nieces from out of state came to visit and attended a storytime adventure event in a local library with me as my assistants. They helped paint props and seemed to really get into the theme, so Book #11 ‘Let’s Go Discover Globetrotter Games Together’, include cameo appearances by my nieces, Seri & Addy.
This is the point in my story where things really get good. If you’ve already read about how Book #12 came to be, feel free to skip ahead, but it’s so good, I have to tell it every chance I get! Anyways, it was a Saturday morning and I had just a half day’s work left on the ‘Games’ book. I woke up knowing precisely what Book #12 was meant to be about, that it needed to be written and that it might be the most important book in the whole collection. This book wasn’t one that I had planned to write, I have a spreadsheet full of those kind! So I finished #11, had some lunch, and got to work on Book #12, ‘Let’s Go Discover Our Mission Together’. I feel that we can all do something to make the world a better place. Volunteering doesn’t always require a huge effort in order to have an impact. The goal of this book was to bring awareness to people about doing small things to help each other. I hadn’t completely figured out the specifics for the ending, but the best part was when I had picked out the images for the ‘Mission Clues’ and placed them on the same page together. The answer for what the world needed was staring back at me and couldn’t be ignored… That moment gave me goosebumps!
In a round about sort of way, this book paved the way for Book #15, ‘Let’s Go Discover Gigi’s Christmas Mission Together with Tuck’. I know, it’s a long title, but all the words are important! This book showcases my Grandma Gigi’s own personal mission. Before she passed in 2009, she spent several years from Halloween to Christmas making many different varieties of Christmas Candy to share with Everyone she knew & even people she didn’t know. Spreading Christmas Cheer everwhere she went. The story follows Tuck, Liam, Jade & the rest of the Globetrotters as they continue Gigi’s Mission with her Love to guide the way. Readers will learn how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in several languages, have Gigi’s complete collection of Christmas Candy recipes, and see what can happen when you work together to complete a mission.
With the books has come several opportunites for public events. Sometimes I’m a public speaker for civic groups, sometimes I’m a paint session leader and sometimes I’m the Tour Guide on an Adventure around the Globe at the Library. But my favorite & most meaningful event project was my wedding on Leap Day in 2024. I married my best friend and the theme of our wedding was ‘Let’s Go Somewhere Together for a Wedding’. Such a fun and memorable way to share my passions with my loved ones.
My current project is pretty high up on the Most Meaningful scale. When I was a child, I moved around every couple of years. Then I spent 15 years living on a farm. After 5 years in a shoebox size apartment, I have the opportunity to build a house! I am designing my Forever Home, top to bottom, inside & out. A cute little cottage where an industrial vibe meets a British farmhouse theme. I’ve planned a secret passage for Tucker to play hide & seek with any new cousins he might have in the future, and Studio space to continue creating all the projects in all the formats that cross through my brain. I’ve even created an animated cartoon video of our house! I’m hoping to have what will be another meaningful project ready this year, a Globetrotter Board Game people can play Together!
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?
A handful of years ago, my daughter and I moved into an apartment, just the two of us. While being the perfect size, it was severely lacking in color. We had white walls for days. Being someone that loves color the way I do, I struggled to obey the rules of the establishment and refrain from painting them. However, it did inspire me to purchase blank canvases, in bulk, to paint and cover those stark white surfaces. I was home a lot those first few months and I painted every chance I got. I really enjoyed abstract art in my younger days, so I started with that. I love patterns & shapes, so I set about creating ‘sets’ to adorn our bright white surroundings.
In the next few months, ‘Art’ took on a whole new meaning for me. For the first time in my life, ‘Art’ became more than just a hobby. I was gifted a canvas larger than I’d ever painted before from a couple of the nicest people I’ve ever met. I was invited to participate in a First Friday event in Kansas City at Mod Gallery to display my paintings. I met some friends for drinks after work one night. The owner of the establishment heard us talking about painting and asked if I would be interested in doing a commission piece. I was shocked and elated and in complete panic mode! This was the first time anyone had wanted to pay me to paint something! Then I started painting things that go. A couple of airplanes, a submarine, several trains, a rocket and what would eventually become the cruise ship logo for my business. I was soon commissioned for a few more pieces. I wasn’t sure what to make of this new situation, but on the off chance it might lead somewhere, I went ahead and took the steps to start a business.
And so, A.line.n.da.Paint was established in January 2022. By June, my commission orders were stacking up. I had painted pieces for several people in the Eye Care industry, a couple of musicians, and a few others that heard I was starting to add some color to the world. I had even been asked to lead a paint session for an adult group in the area. I had attended First Friday in Kansas City that month with some friends and was really starting to feel like I might actually belong in the ‘Art’ world! In between commission orders, I had continued to work on what I now refer to as the ‘original transportation series’. I had been posting the pieces on Facebook for my friends to see as I finished each one. I was soon approached about illustrating a children’s book. I ordered the canvases and set to work. The idea of having my work in a children’s book really appealed to me. Eventually I ended up not only illustrating the book, but writing it as well.
My artwork is colorful and bright. I love color, making people smile and sharing just enough interesting information with others that they’re inspired to find out more about a new topic. By the way, in the midst of all that painting, my dating life came to a crashing halt. I’m sure you were wondering about that, lol. Two days after agreeing to paint illustrations for this book, I met the love of my life. And so, when I seemed to be at a stand still with the completed canvases in hand, he says to me, ‘Let’s write a story!’ So we did. After several weeks of research about publishing, my first book went Live in May of 2023. In June, I did my first Book Event in Anaheim, California. It was scary and exciting and all the emotions that people that aren’t comfortable in public speaking situations have. I sold one book that day to a cute little girl named Lucy. The people were friendly and the librarian invited me back for the next week just before my train was scheduled to leave.
Since then, I’ve gotton past my stage fright and presented at several events for all different ages and group sizes. Sometimes we go on adventures through the books, sometimes we paint, sometimes we talk about writing, sometimes we do a game show and sometimes we just wing it. No matter what we do, you can bet it’ll be colorful! The drive to continue creating children’s books continues to be strong and I constantly have new ideas brewing. My spreadsheet is full and I have another set of canvases in progress for the next series. The theme in my books is learning through travel and spending time together. The original dozen titles are colorful, full size and packed with info for all ages. ‘Tuck’s Trio’ is a three book series that is travel friendly size, has helpful language translations & makes holiday travel a little sweeter for everyone. As of November 2024 I’ve published 15 titles appearing in paperback, hardback & kindle along with themed playing cards, t-shirts & custom sunglasses coordinating with the book collection. Creating these Adventures is my happy place.
The main goal of my stories is to encourage readers & listeners to keep spending time together and celebrating the little things with those that are important to them. I hope people are entertained, informed & inspired after reading my books. As a Mom, I thought about what it’s like to read the same book over and over each night when your child has a favorite. So the structure for this series is such that the reader can jump around to different parts and still enjoy it without needing to read the whole thing start to finish every time. Life goals for me include leaving the world a better place than when I arrived. I believe whole heartedly that bringing color to the world is how I’m meant to make a difference.
I could talk all day about these books and how I love giving them to children, watching their eyes light up when they get excited about learning something new. I’ve even seen older people reading them and the same thing happens! We’re never too old to enjoy new information. I want to empower kids by helping them feel good about knowing more than just what is taught in school. I want them to be interested in something to the point that they want to share that interest with someone important to them. There are children in every country learning & growing. I want them to know there are kids just like them all around the world and even though there might be miles between them, if they can learn from each other & work Together, even kids can make a Real Difference in Our World!
The next few Adventures focus on mealtime fellowship and will include a variety of topics such as healthy eating, mealtime manners, world traditions, recipes and more. The first Adventure in the new series features Liam, Tuck & Papa collecting clues in order to Devour the ‘Perfect Picnic’. Plans for this year also include a board game in addition to the playing cards currently available and an interactive Globetrotter guided mobile app game that will availbe for download on the Play Store and my website! I love creating these Adventures & sharing them with people of all ages. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share them with you!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
My Mission is to Entertain, Inform & Inspire. I want to share my Adventures with Everyone. I want people to be curious, to discover new things, to see what’s outside of the walls they live in, even it’s just going on an adventure through a book. Spend some time together and enjoy the journey to somewhere new & different.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
I recently sent a gift pack of my books to a children’s book club in the UK. I’ve always been fascinated with the British for whatever reason, and knowing I’ve shared my work with some kids over there, just makes me happy.
One of my favorite things to see is people connecting with my work. Watching the light come on when they discover something interesting to them in a piece or book I’ve presented is one of the best feelings ever. Being able to share something interesting is a small thing, but when it instigates a smile, laugh or conversation, it has the potential to take things to another level, making for an experience that could turn into a connection that turns into a friendship for a lifetime. It only takes a spark.
One of my other favorite things is donating my books to the local children’s center. I never directly come in contact with any of the children that are gifted my books, but just knowing I might have brightened a child’s day during a tough situation in their life, makes me feel like I’m helping in some small way.
Bringing color to the world and helping make life lighter & brighter for people makes me happy and I like sharing that happiness with others.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://alinendapaint22.square.site
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a.line.n.da.paint/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.carullo.31/
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