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

Elizabeth, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

Pre-Covid I worked in cosmetics for the flagship Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas promoting products and performing facials for clients by appointment. It was technically a sales job with very high goals and expectations. I worked hard to maintain clients and formed lasting relationships with them so I could help in any way possible through the years. I would follow up with notes and samples, and kept current files on everyone. Learning these basic fundamental business skills helped immensely when Covid came and my day job at NM was completely dissolved. Having created artwork professionally since college on the side, my dream was to be a full-time artist one day, but was never quite brave enough to make the leap. Newly single and having JUST purchased my first home by myself one week prior to shut down, my finances were at their limit. I was terrified to suddenly be without steady income, but knew I had to have faith in God’s plan and work to make art become my sole source of income. With the extra time outside of a day job, I was able to create one painting a week which had always been a goal, maximizing my time and creating as much work as possible. When things started opening up again in the world, I was able to travel doing shows and festivals with a booth of my work, and gaining gallery representation across several states. Rather than promoting and selling somebody else’s creation, this time the product (artwork) was my own personal work from the heart. My career has never felt more gratifying and I am able to use the tools I learned at Neimans to create a much more personal solution to my clientele needs. To me, art is a language all in itself, and for others to understand your work and want it in their homes, from a personal and professional level, is a feeling that cannot be compared to.

Elizabeth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an artist who creates contemporary western, mixed media paintings. Having always loved to create art as a little girl, I discovered I had been blessed with a unique skillset through art classes in school growing up. In college I had attempted studying to become a vet due to my love of animals but quickly realized my lack of left brain skills and decided to stick with art.. After majoring in Art Education from the University of Arizona, I had various jobs, always painting on the side as a passion and selling pieces here and there. After creating a “pet portrait” business where people would send in images of their pets and I would paint them, I was unsure of what direction I wanted to take the future of my art. A trip to Marfa, Texas in 2015 would forever be a source of inspiration that formed a path and a purpose for my art career. The combination of the “old west” meeting the “new west” was a concept that really resonated with my interest for the history of yesteryear. The Wild West converging with my current life living today in the modern world was an unexplored source of inspiration.. Western art had for the most part in years past been traditional and I discovered how fun it could be changing it up using mixed media and bight colors to create western themed paintings. As a distant relative of Buffalo Bill Cody, I have discovered my recent love of painting buffalo in various colors and scenes, with my latest piece being a honky tonk scene with cowboy buffalo shooting pool behind the neon signs. It has been an honor over the past several years to have designed the first pair of women’s commercial boots for Dixon Boot Company, “The Yellow Rose” boot, an album cover for a country musician, a book cover for an author, and an upcoming adventure this year designing wild rags for Fringe Scarves which showcase my work. I am excited to see where the next adventure in the art world takes me!

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I try to offer something unique to my clients. Something that comes from the heart and that they won’t find elsewhere. I believe connecting and communicating with clients and followers on as many platforms as possible is key to staying relevant and in touch, and trying to add in several unique ways to reach new people every year. Having a strong social media presence, showing my process as an artist, and including my followers along on the journey with me to artshows and the completion of new work has created a lasting connection that I want them to feel a part of. These relationships also provide a network of support for me as an artist as well. I enjoy creating interactive situations on social media, such as creating a competition to who can come up with the best title for a new painting. Then the winner receives a small print of the painting with the title that they created. Also random drawings for a print from a new print release are always exciting. Keeping it interesting, fresh, and consistent, while letting relationships form organically is important to fostering loyalty..

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson learned in my previous corporate sales jobs that I needed to unlearn were the sole focus on sales, sales, sales mentality. Stressful and often unattainable monthly goals with risks of losing your job if not met created a pushy environment, which made clients not want to be a part of you or what you were selling. Being able to create my own business and brand has shown me that it is all about how you treat people and how you’d like to be treated. The sales will always follow. I want the process of buying art to be a fun and a joyful endeavor! Art is not an every day purchase for most, and my goal is to make it a very personal experience, one in which every time someone looks at their painting they can remember the positive way they felt when they purchased it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elizabethdrydenart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabethdrydenfineart/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edrydenpaintings/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-dryden-3707b113/

Image Credits

Profile pic credit: Jon King and Cyndi Dawn