Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leo Ferreira & Daniel Owens. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Leo & Daniel, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I love the adventure of travel and capturing the experiences through photography with my husband and foundation, Justin. He helped inspire my drive to enter international photo contests and galleries while supporting my creative endeavors. While experiencing galleries, I discovered my passion for creating art. Through the guidance of my dad, Tim, I began to explore multiple art forms. He instilled the courage to get messy, make mistakes and try something new. Soon after, through a random friend request, I met Daniel.
As I introduced him to my new world of art, he became intrigued and involved in the creative process. We formed a fantastic friendship through many late nights of hands-on creativity and phone calls. So now, I’ve created unique pieces of art. How do I sell them? With encouragement from the Mobile Arts Council through Art Walk, I got my business license and officially formed Love & Adventure Photography, later to become Love & Adventure Studios LLC. This is where we began participating in art markets. When traveling out of town and state sometimes, we had poor experiences and heard terrible stories of experiences from other artists and crafters. Since starting, Daniel has been present for all but one art market, and the idea became clear. Let’s start our own art market where we focus on the customer’s experience and the experience of the artists and crafters. The lack of support from multiple community members and “close” friends at the time motivated us even more. Through days of blood, sweat, tears and burns, we persevered to host our first Love & Adventure Art Bazaar on December 2nd, 2023, and this would later become Arts & Crafts Bazaar.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Leo Ferreira, and my passion for art and photography has inspired me to create Love & Adventure Studios. As a mixed-media visual artist and photographer, I draw inspiration from my travels and the people I meet. My art and photography celebrate my love for colour, medium, and perspective while striving for balance.

I am motivated by the highs and lows of life and am always reminded to keep moving forward. I strongly believe that we should never miss an opportunity to learn something new, as we never know when we may need those skills in life. This belief in continuous learning has been a cornerstone of my journey.

I am inspired by this quote from W. Churchill: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It’s the courage to continue that counts.” I owe a great deal of my personal growth and professional success to my dad, partner, best friend and business partner. Their unwavering support has been constant in my life, helping me overcome obstacles and achieve my goals. I am incredibly grateful for their presence and the role they play in my journey. Through this, I am able to create art through photography, mixed media and resin. Event planning and event consulting is now a big part of what we do and who we are.
What sets you apart from others? We focus on building personal connections and introducing artists and crafters to each other, while hosting and promoting local events around the Gulf Coast to strengthen our community.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Late one evening, I received a friend request from Daniel on social media. I didn’t recall having met him before as his profile said he lives in the greater Mobile area. So, I sent him a message asking if we know eachother. He replied no, but he had seen my profile and thought it be cool to know me. Daniel had just moved back to Alabama, a few months prior, after living 20 years in Connecticut and said he was having trouble making new friends. So, I replied “Welcome home!” For the next few days, we messaged back and forth before we exchanged phone numbers. So much was going on in my life at the time with art and home projects and I wasn’t sure I could manage making a new friend, but Daniel didn’t care. He said none of that scared him and he’d be more than happy to help where needed. So we decided on a whim the next week to meet for coffee. I had so many errands to complete that day, but decided this may be worth a chance. I was running late, but that still did not phase him. We had coffee and things took a turn for the worst when we decided to talk about all the things going worng in our lives….and so we sat there and just laughed about it. It was a the seed that has now grown into an amazing best friendship and business partnership.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

It was a mixture of things. It began with selling of stocks and tapping into my savings. This is where the foundation was laid. Soon after I was able to use the prize money from a photo contest and the sales from my photography dispayed in an art gallery.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.loveandadventurephotography.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovexandxadventure/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovexandxadventure
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/love-and-adventure-studios/
• Other: Link Tree
  https://linktr.ee/lovexandxadventure?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=07f22242-8f37-42fe-a0f2-ae04c012d1cc

Image Credits

These all were photos taken personally by Leo Ferreira and logo was created by Patrick Reid.