We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lindsay Horton and Mimi Ryan. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lindsay Horton and below.
Lindsay Horton and, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I have been painting for as long as I can remember. Back in 2012, Mimi was hired to work as a machinist apprentice running the manual lathes at the same machine shop in which I was employed as a welder. She had seen many of my paintings and one day asked if I could paint something for her. She presented a playful elephant painting idea. I offered to teach her how to make her idea come to life. That week, she came over and sat beside me. We each painted a separate elephant canvas as I guided her through the step-by-step process. Fun fact, she still has those paintings up on her bedroom wall. From then on, we came together often to get creative and brainstorm new art pieces. Shortly after, the business plan for Georgia Girl Art Paint Parties came to fruition. Our main focus has always been to be a mobile art studio that travels and teaches others how to create whimsical masterpieces in a fun, easy, encouraging, and humorously entertaining environment. Here we are, many years later, just celebrating our 10-year small business anniversary! We have traveled throughout more than a dozen surrounding counties. We have met so many amazing people along the way. We have shipped orders from Maine to Hawaii and several states in between. We have even shipped internationally. We are humbled at where we are today and how far we have come from mere “shop talk” banter.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Georgia Girl Art Paint Parties originally started with canvas art and canvas art instruction. As most readers may know, there were several canvas party franchises popping up in 2013 when we began. It became a challenge to find a new way to bring customers in. We needed something that set us apart from the rest. We now specialize in mobile paint parties, where we can come to your location, set up, and instruct versus the customer having to come to us. We also now specialize in hand-cut door hanger paint parties, which is something no one was doing at the time we began. Customers can choose just about any shape in our template inventory. Then, we will guide and instruct throughout the painting process so that the customer leaves with a custom, hand-painted piece ready to hang on their front door.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Oh, we have faced our share of obstacles. Throughout the years, several similar paint class franchises have popped up. This was a bit intimidating at first. Because of this, we agreed to strive to be ever-growing and ever-changing. Choosing to go with the ebbs and flows, we do our best to always look outside the box and maintain fluidity in our niche. Choosing to be a mobile studio has always kept us one step ahead, but we needed to do more. One obstacle was finding something to teach beyond canvas art. This is how all of our door hanger, ornament, magnet, car charm, cabinet hang, attachment, porch leaner, and bogg bag accessory ideas were born.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
Being small business owners in the art/creative world has afforded us the ability to be flexible with our scheduling. We also enjoy that we are able to teach our craft in such an entertaining and enjoyable manner. Our painters don’t even realize they are learning because we just have a way of teaching that is carefree and fun. For both of us, the true reward is seeing the look on the faces of our customers when their art work is complete. That look of amazement in seeing what they have created along with our guidance. We just love it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgiagirlartpaintparties/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/people/Georgia-Girl-Art-Paint-Parties/100063725222773/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/georgia-girl-art-paint-parties-fleming
- Other: TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@georgiagirlart?_t=8dql6KUU2e2&_r=1 Google – https://g.co/kgs/hVWJ5Mq