We recently connected with Kaylee Corey and have shared our conversation below.
Kaylee, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I’ve been in love with creating and expressing myself artistically since I was a little kid, but my awakening to take my passion further came to me during my second semester of junior college. Science was my favorite subject in high school and I excelled academically, so it made sense in my mind to pursue a career in the medical field. I can understand it and make good money right? After graduation I started at Tyler Junior College in the direction of radiology. My grades were great, but my mental health was not. I was unhappy and always stressed because I couldn’t work on jewelry or artwork while trying to get assignments done. After a breakdown or two during my second semester, I decided I would change my major to small business management and all would be right in my world. I had to have emergency surgery Memorial Day weekend that 2022 due to a ruptured ovarian cyst. This set me back a bit, mentally and physically. The thought of school in the fall made me sick to my stomach while recovering, so I took it off. A few bumps in the road later, I start classes on Monday at TAMUC to pursue teaching art. I’m thankful for every trial and that I had the realization so young.
Kaylee, 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?
When I was tucked away in my room with all of my art supplies everyday during quarantine 2020, I got the idea to attempt to make some earrings with what I had. I took a tiny nail and my hammer to make a little hole in the top of a couple guitar picks, then used parts from earrings I didn’t wear anymore to make my first pair of guitar pick earrings. I made some for family and friends before posting them on social media. More and more people wanted some and offered to pay me, so I kept on experimenting with other pieces of jewelry. After a month or two of working on jewelry, I wanted to try to make a dreamcatcher like the one I had hanging in my car that I bought from a travel stop. It took some hours of YouTube videos and practice to get it down, but after awhile I got my technique and style down. Just like the jewelry, I had many requests for dreamcatchers too. Groovy Dreams Art came to me out of nowhere, but it’s a business name that has stuck with me and I wouldn’t change it for anything. I put my jewelry and dreamcatchers in my mom’s store, The Picket Fence Canton, in December 2020 for people to shop and I’ve grown every day since then. I’ve increased my skills and craftsmanship over the years by learning what customers prefer, what might be trending in the media, and honestly by comparing what I do to big, mass production brands. I do what I can to make my work unique, personal, and affordable. I try to make a lot of one-of-a-kind pieces, but even my duplicated things have their own special features. I am most proud of my progression in quality. I do extensive research and testing to make sure my artwork is at its absolute best potential for the buyer. I don’t want to be known for cheap or tacky work, because that’s not who I am and that’s not what I want people to have. I love selling my work to happy customers, and I love doing custom work for them even more. Getting to put your dreams into a reality that’s even better than you imagined makes my art heart happy. I guess I could say that I want to make your dreams groovy!
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started out with an Instagram account in August of 2020 with my first post being one where I introduced myself & told everyone what I do and my intentions. I would post all of my finished products and some process pictures to show customers the kind of time and thought process it takes for me. I always enjoy when other artists give the viewers an insight on how they do it, not even necessarily a tutorial but just a start to finish breakdown. I created a Facebook page in December of 2020 to reach some more people. It’s a good way to share your work since some people may not have both, or if some do they get to see it twice! When you make an Instagram post, you can link your Facebook page to that account and there’s an option to put the same post on your Facebook page so that you don’t have to do go through the process of switching apps and making a whole new one. Your following can be like a rollercoaster. Sometimes you’ll get 20 new people in a day or maybe 20 new people over a course of a few months. You will gain some and you will lose some. It takes patience and optimism to keep building it up. This will be my third year of Groovy Dreams Art and my Instagram currently sits at 314 followers. My Facebook page is sitting at 308 followers, but with the way its algorithm works, people you know can share your posts and tens of hundreds more people that don’t follow you yet can see them. Another good social media platform that I’m still working on creating on is TikTok. How I said I enjoy seeing an artist’s start to finish breakdown, this is the place to really find things like that. I get lots of inspiration and pleasure out of seeing everyone’s styles and what might be most popular. TikTok is also definitely easier to go ‘viral’ on, so I would recommend it for sure. A very important word of advice to everyone trying to make it on social media, whether you’re just starting out or have been on it for awhile, your artwork is most certainly enough to be put out in the world and you are going to do an amazing job! Comparing your work negatively to someone else’s will not benefit you. Stay positive and have faith in yourself.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is the joy I can bring other people with my work. Their joy brings me joy. I always wonder who the piece I’m working on will go home with. Selling my things through The Picket Fence is fun because when I’m the one behind the counter and the customer doesn’t know I’m the creator yet, they’ll already be excited to purchase it and say how beautiful it may be. Then when I get to tell them, “Oh thank you, I’m the creator!” and see their face light up even more, it warms my heart. I really get to feel this way when I do pop-up events or festivals with my canopy, banner, tables, and all of my work on display. I get to have my own little spot for people to stop by and shop. The gasps when they find something they can’t live without or the comments like “I’m going to go broke if I keep looking at your stuff” give my soul a boost and remind me of why I do what I do. I may love something I make, but to get the approval of strangers is a feeling that’s incomparable.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @groovydreamsart
- Facebook: Groovy Dreams Art