We were lucky to catch up with Liz Garcia recently and have shared our conversation below.
Liz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
I always played around with a paint brush. I remember from a very young age using a sand pail full of water and a paint brush to “paint” on the concrete. I participated in school art classes but at some point I thought I needed to ‘grow up’ and do what I thought was more practical. If I had to do it all over again, I would have kept at it and made painting part of my daily practice. Learning to create for myself has been the most rewarding as it’s a distraction from real life and nearly meditative. The biggest obstacle or setback to learning more has been raising children and taking care of elders but I have now found a way to utilize online classes and meet fellow artists virtually.
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 started my furniture painting business when I ran out of things to paint in my own home and I felt like my life was too chaotic to calm down. My parents were ill, I had a child that was really struggling and I just needed time for myself but I needed time to be productive, not lost in my own thoughts. My artistry business is called “Flipping Distractions” for a few reasons: I was flipping furniture at first, and I also needed a “flipping” distraction. I slowly began painting discarded or thrifted furniture in single colors, then tape design, decoupage and free hand designs. I had been doing that for 4 years when I started taking some online acrylic painting classes. The furniture is wonderful because not only does it save high quality pieces from the landfill but I’m able to turn them into functional art. I feel good about this. I prefer to work on cocktail cabinets and I love bright colors. My smaller pieces are often on thrifted purses, repurposed wood and boards for the same reason. When I’m not painting, I am supporting other adoptive parents as a parent coach at The Simplified Struggle. It’s important for other parents to understand their child’s behaviors, choices and how to love their job as a parent again. In my situation, distractions helped my own struggles. You could say that I found art again when I needed it most and now I create and help other adoptive parents from feeling like a failure.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is being able to share my pieces with others and reduce items that would end up in a landfill. I have collaborated with other artists on a very large piece to raise awareness, I’ve donated pieces to charities, gifted it to friends and have seen joy on my customers faces. I want my art to have a function. That function may be to bring a bright spot to your space or it may bring joy and function as well.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
My furniture art has been featured on some crazy mean social media pages created by trolls. Don’t get me wrong, I like attention but the negative attention it brought slowed me down a bit. I was hurt by the comments and it got in my head, especially when my pieces were not selling. I had to stay resilient and keep creating. I paused sharing on social media for a bit but eventually I went back to posting. In my personal life, I have become an expert at being resilient. I have experience with learning to parent in a much different way than I knew. My adopted children needed to know that I wouldn’t give up on them, even when things were difficult. Together we learned to be resilient and forge our own way forward as a family.. .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://TheSimplifiedStruggle.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FlippingDistractions
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlippingDistractions
