We were lucky to catch up with Daisy-Anne Dickson recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daisy-Anne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I have always wanted to be an artist. In fact, my first college degree was in studio oil painting from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, GA. When I graduated, I quickly got the job I needed to pay the bills, rather than one that was creative or related to my field of study. A sacrifice I was reassured by everyone I knew, was necessary. “You’ll have time for your hobbies in your ‘off’ time”, I was reassured by friends and family. I quickly climbed the ranks in the corporate world for about 8 years, before deciding I was too miserable to continue on this path.
By this time, I had convinced myself that being a full-time artist was a pipe dream, and wouldn’t provide the income I needed for myself and growing family. So, I pursued another passion of mine: nursing. I graduated nursing school while raising a family and as I grew from a baby nurse into a seasoned ER and perioperative nurse, I once again became restless. You see, I never stopped creating during all this time. It was few and far between, but I slowly worked on small projects for myself and took commissions by referrals and word of mouth. Now, I was weighed down be the feeling like that just wasn’t enough. My family and financial situations had stabilized. I suddenly had more time and energy to dedicate to my creative pursuits. In the fall of 2019, right as the whisperings of COVID first began to trickle over to the US, I decided I was going to make it my mission to become a full-time professional artist. I never looked back.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a painter just outside of Atlanta, creating intuitive and expressionistic abstracts that convey stories of brokenness, healing and restoration. I incorporate salvaged materials into my work to emphasize the concept that beauty can be found in anything–even the broken, neglected and discarded. For me, that act of creating is a process of healing, reflection and meditation that grounds me. I often describe my work as abstracted narratives, as they are all rooted in stories of my own life and experiences. Each abstracted narrative is comprised of multiple layers with rich texture, movement and balance.
My proudest moment, by far, was hearing my daughter tell me how proud she is of me. I am proud of myself, also, for pursuing my passion and dream–setting that example for her. That there is no expiration date on dreams, and we are never too old or “too late” to try. I think this is all part of what sets me apart from others.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn is the limiting belief and stereotype of the “starving artist”. For whatever reasons, perhaps mostly generational thinking, I was raised to believe that being a full-time artist was–for the vast majority–a life of near poverty. This idea has been completely turned on its head, especially over the last few years. Ironically, I attribute a lot of this change to COVID, alongside the growth of the internet and social media.
More and more people have turned to entrepreneurship, and small businesses–often in the creative fields. Not only is it easier than ever to access resources and materials, but there has also been a huge collective mindset shift. More people than ever have become comfortable making online purchases–even large dollar purchases. I think a lot of this is a testament to the improvement and expansion of internet access, photos, and videos for improved accuracy of representation. I also think it has built trust in the process of online monetary transactions. A lot of this I attribute to COVID, where most people who had been reluctant to purchase online, gave way out of necessity.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
I have gradually been forming more solid opinions on the topic of NFT’s. In an effort to better understand NFT’s and the whole process, I did mint an list an NFT for auction on OpenSea. I admit, at first it seemed a very abstract concept to me. While there are still some ideas surrounding NFT’s I am not quite crystal clear on, I do like that the artist retains royalties for their work for each subsequent sale. Similar to musicians, I would love to see this translate into the world of tangible physical art–not just NFT’s. Especially as artists have worked hard to grow and nurture their careers. Artists should be rewarded when their artwork resales at a much higher price than what it did originally.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.daisyanne.art
- Instagram: @daisyanne.art
Image Credits
Daisy-Anne Dickson