We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brianna Guerra a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

My mission in starting this business is to bring light to what I have found can be a very dark industry. While much of the artwork that people create can come from a source of pain, I wanted to use those painful experiences that I have gone through personally, but from a place of hope and how I made it through. All of my artwork is centered around scriptures and biblical truths. With each drawing, I have a blog that coincides with it where I go in depth on what I have learned through the Bible and how it applies to me personally. My goal is to offer encouragement to people and that every person who buys my drawings can have a constant reminder of their hope-filled meaning. I truly would not be here today if it wasn’t for Jesus saving me and I am blessed to be able to tell people about the person that saved my life. I was an angry and bitter person, going through life with no hope or purpose. Even when I wanted nothing to do with Him, God met me where I was and completely transformed my life. I can now carry with me a peace and hope that I didn’t think were possible before. Even on my darkest days, I can still rest in the fact that the Lord will never leave me nor forsake me. I have Him to walk through life with me so I don’t have to go through it alone. Jesus died as an atonement for our sins, was buried, and raised on the third day and all we have to do now is receive this gift and believe and follow Him. The Lord accepts us with open arms exactly as we are, imperfections and all. It is only through His redemptive work in our lives once we accept Him that we can be transformed. If the God of the universe did all of that for me, how could I not want to tell everyone the good news of what He has done for them and that they can walk in this hope too?

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

I have had a love for drawing since I could pick up a pencil. This love further developed through my middle school and high school art classes. In my time in High School, I found a love for realism charcoal drawing. Seeing how other artists were able to look at an image and draw it so perfectly and effortlessly amazed me. It was then that I continued to practice and teach myself new techniques. I never thought anything would come of it, but near the end of my time in college, I started to get asked to do pet portrait commissions. They started coming in pretty steadily and I started to think that this may be a career worth pursuing. After college, I started my art business and it has been changing and transforming into the type of art I make today as I slowly began finding my voice as an artist. I create realism charcoal and pastel drawings that are centered around the Bible. I also write about the meaning behind each one so that people can be encouraged and to offer hope to their situations where I can. In creating art, I wanted to do something that enriches people’s lives in a deep and meaningful way. Centering it around the thing that transformed my life and gave it meaning seemed like the obvious choice.

The thing that I am the most proud of is overcoming my depression and anxiety. I have dealt with severe depressions and anxiety for a lot of my life. It made just functioning day to day virtually impossible and plagued my life for years. Life circumstances had left me angry at God, bitter, and hopeless, and feeling stuck. When I reached the point where I couldn’t take it anymore, after shutting God out for years, I finally turned to Him for help. Slowly as time went on and I continuously pursued my relationship with Jesus, I was healed and my mind was no longer clouded. Although the healing process was one of the most painful things I have had to walk through, I am proud of myself for going through that journey and making it to the other side. It is a blessing to be able to tell people through my art about the hope that I found and what God has done in my life. I’ve come to be thankful for what I have gone through because it made me the person I am today and I would have never come to create the art that I do if I hadn’t gone through it.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

My most effective strategy has been to go out and meet people in person. With all of my art fairs, gallery receptions, and events, I have been able to meet so many people who have been nothing but encouraging and supportive. My business has grown by word of mouth, and new ventures and opportunities have come about just by having conversations with people. When I started, I had no clue what I was doing and had no business experience at all. By being able to talk to people in the same field, I have been able to learn so much about growing a business and what events and opportunities are out there as well. It also was beneficial in having a very strong support system. My friends and family are always sharing my drawings, future events, and website with everyone they know. This helped me so much in initially trying to gain traction and growing my clientele.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

In addition to my personal works and fine art prints that I bring to galleries and events, I also have commissions available. This has mostly been for pet portraits in the past, but I am always open to new ideas that clients may have. Receiving videos of people opening portraits of their pets is by far my favorite part of doing these commissions. Seeing how much it means to people and how happy they are is very fulfilling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.drawingsbybri.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drawings_by_bri_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrawingsByBri23
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-guerra/