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

Korrine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

Firstly, I believe all artists take a risk by putting themselves out there into the world. The world can be a scary place and to open yourself up to harsh critics can be personally damaging. Back in 2018, I went back to school for small business management, survived a divorce and battled with lots of debt. How was I suppose to come back from that? Why was I even going back to school for business, when I wanted to do art? Art was my therapy and helped me heal a lot trauma, nothing else could touch. So, I decided to take the risk of pouring money into starting an LLC, putting my artwork out there, going to events to sell, selling online and opening myself up for the critics. Thankfully it ended up paying off and I was able to live more comfortably. Not stressing out about mass amounts of debt weighing me down and able to enjoy my healing through art.

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 back background and context?

I’ve been very artistic my whole life and no matter how much I tried to push that career away, I always was brought back to it. In 2012, I had joined the military in hopes of making a career of it and becoming a personal trainer after it. Sadly, my career was cut from an accident while serving and I was forced to retire out early. I had fell 20ft off of a helicopter I was working on, acquired a traumatic brain injury and many other injuries/issues. I was pretty much a walking vegetable. I was completely lost and a mere shadow of the go getter overly motivated person I once was. Military doctors had no clue what was wrong with me or what to do with me. I start pouring my money into holistic therapies to try and recover my old self back. I battled with myself daily, hating the person who looked back at me in the mirror. I felt like I woke up a totally different person and I hated them. It took me years in different therapies to overcome this. Art was one of those therapies. The very art I kept pushing away over and over again, throughout the years. I decided to just let it consume me and see where it takes me. I literally had nothing else to lose, since I had already lost myself. Art helped heal me, and brought the old me back out slowly. Years later, I chose to go back to school for my BFA, mostly because the doctors told me I would never be able to do it. During that time I painted a serious called, Unwanted Events. I shared the horrors of my accident and months after in four paintings. These paintings not only helped me by making peace, the paintings spoke to others, especially my fellow disabled veterans. It made them realize they weren’t alone in this and it made them feel heard and seen. I put into images what they struggled to put into words. For this, I am beyond proud of myself and it motivated to me to keep going. To create art that spoke to people, either bringing them joy and/or to feel seen with the hard things in life.

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

I have many loyal and wonderful collectors now and I still find it incredibly hard to believe. I feel very lucky to even be able to say that. I think what has made my growing is successful is being completely transparent with everyone. Many have been moved with my story and the fact that I refuse to quit, no matter how many times I get knocked down.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I feel like the best source for me has always been at events, mostly comicons. There is a different connection that is created between the artist and the client. They meet you and learn the person behind the artwork. They are able to ask me questions about my artwork and share stories. I honestly don’t think of my collectors as clients, I see them as friends. They are so much more than a number.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/korrinemaher
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/korrinemaherdesigns