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

Hi Amanda , thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I spent 20 years in marketing and graphic design allowing my art to be my favorite hobby. I found it too exposing to identify myself as an artist, often responding to compliments with, “Oh, I am just having fun.” My inner nag crippled me with classic questions like, “What if I never paint anything of worth?” and “What if I am not good and I am too delusional to see that I’m terrible?” So, I would simply post my painting on social media (not even mentioning it was for sale) and hope that someone would ask me to buy it and then magically I would become a great and worthy artist. After decades in marketing, you would think I would know that magic doesn’t just happen!

In 2024, I began a mentorship program with abstract artist Katia Krecicka and two other incredible women/mothers/artists. After several meetings together, my ideas surrounding life as a solvent artist began to change. Armed with the knowledge built during my years in design, branding and strategy, I launched my first collection, “Resilience Repeated” out into the world. In one week I sold almost every piece. It was thrilling and invigorating…but you know what, I woke up with the same nagging questions about my incompetence.

Being a creative takes daily nurturing of my inner artist, determination to stay curious, and practice being less precious about the things I make. So, the decision to be a professional artist has been a life-long decision, a becoming, a lovely delusional decent into the fact that it is all I have ever wanted to do and be.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Oh hi!

I am an abstract artist inspired by the movement of nature, both in shape and action. Using acrylic, pastel and charcoal I paint organic shapes representing movement, to feel connection between myself and my audience. My recent collection, “Resilience Repeated” launched in December 2024 and I have new works coming soon to awoodscreative.com.

For nearly 20 years, I worked in marketing and graphic design, most recently as the Director of Marketing for an event company. During Covid, while balancing virtual school for my four very young children and my full-time job, I would hide in the closet under our stairs (like Harry Potter) to find my only solace in the day–painting. Fun fact, I went to college on a ballet scholarship and graduated with a Journalism and Fine Arts Degree. So, the arts have quite literally made me.

Today, I paint, quite messily, in my garage where amidst the delightful chaos of pets and family bustling through, I found my artistic sanctuary. I currently sit under Polish artist Kasia Krecicka’s mentorship, have been published locally and internationally, and have appeared in Nashville gallery shows. And I know, my best work is ahead of me.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Having time to appreciate texture, research art history, study color and cultivate my inner artist is a privilege I am still learning to allow for myself.

We are taught from a young age that we are made to produce and over-consume. I have had careers where every moment of my time was billable and profitable. In art, however, I cannot produce at a pace so rapid it drains my creative well dry. I need to be able to slow down and feel life in new and different ways, sit in the experiences, and then see how they come alive on the canvas.

When I first began selling my work, if I found something that sold, I would paint it over and over so I could make enough money to keep painting. While a good way to make a living, this churn and burn approach to art does not lead me to deeper truth, love, knowledge or expression.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Buy art that YOU love! Don’t worry about whether you think it is good, or famous, or renowned to a collector. Buy it and put it up in your home (or office or business) because it interests you, make you feel something, makes you smile, or cry, or get angry. I have never met anyone who regretted curating a beautiful home by buying things they love.

Support starts with understanding! If you want to go a step deeper, visit a gallery, go on an art crawl, try and paint something yourself just for fun! Also, I highly recommend reading “The War of Art” by Seven Pressfield for a peak inside the mind of an artist.

Also, universal childcare and healthcare and give women bodily autonomy…. :)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://awoodscreative.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awoodscreative