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

Kaleena, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

To be honest, many of my projects have been quite meaningful to me. I often draw inspiration from meaningful moments and special circumstances. I can more quickly and easily “get into the zone” when I work on something that is not only meaningful to me, but that I hope will be relatable and meaningful to others as well.

However, the project I’d love to share with you is my fine-line floral illustration titled, “Listen to Your Heart.” It wasn’t even a month after I started my business kaleeLu (November 2020) that the formulating of this anatomical floral heart started taking up most of my creative brain space.

A little rewind: It was at the end of summer, 2019 when I picked up the pencil and paintbrush again after over a decade of allowing them to collect dust. Little did I know that that call to “Listen to My Heart” was, in small part, to prepare me for a little over a year later. Prepare me to be in the right place mentally, emotionally and artistically to create this healing piece.

An anatomical floral heart filled to the brim with intention, meaning, symbolism, time, and tears. A piece meant to encourage others to Listen to their own hearts, and start creating space for healing in whatever capacity they may need.

“Listen to Your Heart,” is a floral, anatomical heart design born as a fundraiser for my brother and sister-in-law upon finding out at their 20 week ultrasound that their first baby has a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. The profits from each item that sells with this design printed on it help my brother and SIL with medical bills and other related costs.

My niece was born February 2021, which is when “Listen to Your Heart” debuted. My niece, now almost two, has already had three open heart surgeries in her short lifetime. And although she has luckily been receptive to these temporary fixes, and is healthy and growing beautifully, her heart journey is not over yet.

As I contemplated the design of “Listen to Your Heart,” I took a lot into consideration. Ultimately I incorporated characteristics that remind me of my brother and sister-in-law while weaving in bits of myself along the way. I did a flower study to pin-point botanicals that I felt would, as a whole, portray the essence of STRENGTH, PEACE, HEALING, and the DELICACY of LIFE.

White Poppy: relaxation, recovery, peace
Lavender: calming and soothing
Echinacea: strengthen immune system, improve anxiety and inflammation
Marigolds: wound healing and antiseptic properties
Gladiolus: strength
Echinacea: immune boosting, stress and inflammation reducing, heart protecting
Hawthorne: physically strengthen the heart, emotionally assist in developing courage

The many hours I spent researching, hand drawing, then digitizing this floral heart design were healing for my own heart as I processed what my loved ones are experiencing. It is my hope that all who lay eyes on “Listen to Your Heart” will be filled with peace and be able to find space to begin healing within their own heart(s). Hearts all over the world are in need of healing on a myriad of levels and they need to know they can and should make space for that healing.

It was during the creation of this piece that I had an epiphany of sorts, a realization that I have actually been using my “creative-bone” as an outlet and therapy to process big life events and difficult situations throughout my whole life. So, even though I thought I had discarded my creative side years ago just because I hadn’t been drawing and painting in a “conventional way,” I realized that my creativity had been surfacing in so many other ways over the years! It’s a big part of me, and in fact one of my favorite parts of me. But I just never had the confidence to admit it.

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 background and context?

My business kaleeLu aims to Uplift, Encourage, and Inspire. So with everything I create, I try to keep those words in mind! I’m a life-time creative but never felt comfortable and confident in calling myself that until I started my business two years ago, lol. I realize now that it was major “imposter syndrome” that never truly allowed me to believe in myself, (and something I still have to constantly battle and overcome as a creative) but I’m so glad that I am where I am right now on my journey in creative entrepreneurship. By taking that simple, yet difficult step to just START on the Creative Business path has encouraged me to keep taking that next step each and every day since then. It might sound a little dramatic, but sometimes creative entrepreneurship kind of feels like that song Anna sings in Frozen 2 about doing the next right thing :). There can be some dark and lonely days, but pushing forward a little at a time, setting goals, but trying not to look too far ahead, the small pieces start to connect into something beautiful and become something bigger than you.

I am endlessly inspired by nature, children, and my life experiences. I love all things vintage and am one of the most nostalgic people you will meet.

Most of my current works for sale are watercolor and/or ink, which is kind of ironic because I have always been so intimidated by watercolor, but I knew that was the medium I wanted to pursue first when I picked up the paintbrush. I also enjoy using a variety of other mediums including oil and soft pastels, gouache, paper, acrylic, and have slowly been improving my digital art processes. I have always felt a connection to patterns and am currently working on my first few repeat surface pattern collections. It feels like such a dream to say that!

I have very much enjoyed doing client work in 2022 at the personal and business level and hope to help even more clients in 2023!

I offer a FREE printable art print to my email supporters that says “Cherish the Little Moments.” And, let’s be real, I partially made that as a reminder for myself ;), but It’s also another value I try to emphasize through kaleeLu. Some examples of products that I have available that encourage this phrase are: a variety of encouragement greeting cards, printable activity packs for the family, Crystal Crane DIY kits, and custom paintings or lettering pieces.

In the spring of 2022 I released my first DIY kit, Crystal Crane Window Charms! This DIY kit is a mindfulness craft that symbolizes faith, hope, love and renewed perspective. Each and every aspect of this kit was thoughtfully and mindfully pulled together by myself and even includes some kit exclusive artwork. It was such a passion project to bring mindfulness and healing through creating to individuals and I hope to help it find its way to even more homes in 2023!

A special way to “Cherish the Little Moments” is with “Moments in Time” custom watercolor illustrations that I just recently started to offer. Think, house illustrations with a magnifying glass. I love seeing all of the beautifully painted house portraits, but, I thought, maybe there’s something a little different I can offer. Something that narrows down a “Moment in Time,” a memory, to a single little piece of that house. Oftentimes it may not even physically exist anymore. Sometimes you have a special memory, small moment, or big event, that resides in a single room, a little corner, a piece of furniture, heirloom etc. that is just waiting to be captured in painted form.

You can find me sharing tips on lettering, how to find inspiration when in a rut, what inspires me, works in progress, client work, new designs and patterns, and even more on my Instagram account and email newsletter.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I took every art class possible in high school. And…that’s where it stopped. Well, except for the random generals art class freshman year of college. I loved creating so much, and if you had asked elementary school Kaleena what she wanted to be when she grew up, she likely would have answered “Artist,” (in fact I’m pretty sure that’s what I “dressed up” as on career day several times).

Life took me in a different direction though. I naturally thrive from caring for and helping people, so I kept being drawn to experiences that allowed me to fulfill that part of myself. I eventually landed myself with a degree in Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education. I worked as a Speech Language Technician in rural schools for four years after graduating. I loved this job so much and got to be creative everyday trying to make speech and language therapy fun, engaging, and worthwhile for my students.

When I was pregnant with my second, and the opportunity arose for me to be a stay-at-home mom, I jumped at the chance to shift all of my caring, helping, and creativity to my favorite role as mom. This was, and continues to be one of the most fulfilling roles. However, the time came when I realized there was more I could be doing/sharing. So here I am today, still in the midst of figuring that out: how to use my creativity to help people.

In a college Speech Anatomy class our professor gave us extra credit if we made clay models of what we were studying to help prepare us for upcoming tests. I remember walking in with my clay models and being borderline embarrassed when many of my classmates would comment on the elaborate detail of my clay model and the level of my creativity. As a natural introvert doing her best to be extroverted, I did not love that attention. This is just one example of when friends, family, acquaintances, and even sometimes strangers would compliment me on my creativity and I would immediately dismiss it. So many people were trying to cheer me on along the way, but it wasn’t until I decided to cheer for myself that the ball started rolling.

I’m curious and excited to see where my creative journey takes me. I can’t help but think that eventually all of my worlds will collide in some way.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I am a mom to three Littles, and actually, took my first real step on this journey 3 weeks after my youngest was born. It had been an emotionally and physically challenging pregnancy and delivery, I was feeling the weight of some postpartum depression setting in and I just woke up one morning and knew in my heart it was time to start painting.

I had been contemplating taking a creative career path for a couple of years but the timing never felt right. My husband and I had had several discussions before and during our youngest’s pregnancy about some of our joint, and my personal goals and dreams. As all of these ideas collectively danced in a never-ending parade in my head, I was constantly thinking about what that journey might look like. Ultimately, I realized that most of my big goals and dreams were going to take several years to reach, so, the sooner I gathered the courage to start, the sooner I could realize my dreams! That’s so much easier to say than actually do, haha!

My story of resiliency isn’t any one grand event that took place. As I look back on the last couple of years, there were so many times I could have just thrown in the towel and called it. However, I always decided to keep moving forward because I would remember the joy of the good days and try to get myself hyped up about the goals and dreams ahead. What’s that saying? Never quit on a bad day.

That first year of lettering and painting I did at our small kitchen table. I had dug out some decade-old art supplies and kept them in a little tote that I could haul in and out of my bedroom once kids were napping or in bed. I was recovering from major surgery, postpartum emotions, and trying to stay on top of varying things going on with my kids – and being a good mom always a top priority. I was constantly having to find ways to keep at it from day-to-day, hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute.

The debilitating fatigue of that first year of improving my skill makes me need a nap just thinking about it. Sometimes I’m still not sure how I kept bouncing back and dragging that tote bag around to squeeze in practice 5 minutes here, 15 minutes there. I’m a stay-at-home mom with no consistent childcare so I am always trying to get creative with my time! I definitely need to say that the support of my husband kept me going on many days as well!

A major thought process that has been helpful for me to continue on my path, even when the going gets tough, is to encourage and uplift myself the way I would encourage others. We tend to be the hardest on ourselves, and truthfully not always the nicest to ourselves. So once I throw myself a mini pity-party, I think of how I would encourage my close friends and family and give myself a good pep talk. Throughout that first year, I lettered several encouraging words, quotes, and phrases. I didn’t know what to do with all of them at first, but they slowly filled the inside of my closet door, becoming a wallpaper of colorful morning affirmations.

I also started my journey knowing that I wanted/needed to take it slower than many others in order to maintain the balance that I needed for good mental health in fulfilling my other life roles. There are many times I try putting the pedal to the metal and I reach burn-out so quickly because it’s not my time to rush things. One day it will be, and I’ll be able to push as hard as I can. But for right now, I have to constantly remind myself that slow and steady is okay. Keep taking steps forward however big or small.

Contact Info:

• Website: kaleelu.etsy.com
• Instagram: @kaleelustudio
• Other: email: kaleelustudio@gmail.com

Image Credits
Ashley Grace Photography