Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria Deely. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maria, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had two dreams growing up. One was to become the first female quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the other was to be an artist. I am living out my dreams at least one of my dreams. My first art experience was drawing on the back of my Moms work papers. I loved to draw my family or different experiences when I was really little.
When I got a little older I was honestly embarrassed for liking art as much as I did. Being in sports they were two completely different worlds and I had come to realize that not everyone was able to draw and that it wasn’t sought after. So for a long time I didn’t do any art due to insecurity.
I happened to be placed in the homeroom of the head of the art department at my high school and in my junior year he forced me to take art.
Secretly I was happy but also nervous at the experience ahead. I wasn’t sure if I was still capable.
I sat down and decided to “draw what I saw” and realized that when I finished I wasn’t half bad. I focused on the highlights and shadows and realized I was on to something.
At that time I was in a bad car accident and found that art was one of the only things I was able to do physically, so I dove in.
I turned my room into half of an art studio and worked on something anytime I could. I used different mediums and practiced different forms of realism and narrowed in on colored pencils.
My senior year of high school I had really built up my portfolio and received a full ride scholarship to attend West Virginia University for Fine Arts.
It was a scary decision because not everyone in my life approved. I would hear things like, “art was just a hobby”, “how could I ever make a living doing art”, “why don’t you get a real job”.
With the support of my immediate family and God I decided to take a leap and go into art.
At the end of my Freshman year of college I had decided to start my art business so I had something to build and do full time when I graduated.
All in all it has been a bumpy road, but I decided to listen to the heart of my young self and fulfill one of my lifelong dreams.

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.

I started getting back into art my junior year of high school. For a long time I was too focused on what others thought and art was considered “weird”. I didn’t have the confidence I have today to do what I loved. My homeroom teacher happened to be the head of the art department and encouraged me to take his art class, and secretly I was excited to get back into a creative mindset. At that time I was in a bad car accident and art was one of the only things I was able to do. I had turned my room into half of an art studio and practiced with so many different mediums to build up my skills and portfolio. It was when I took AP studio art my senior year when I decided I wanted to go into art when I attended college. It was a scary decision, but after receiving scholarships that covered my tuition I knew it was the right road for me to take. I narrowed in on using colored pencils as my primary medium when I went into college and really dove in. I had projects at school, but I would go home to continue to work on things that I liked to do to help my portfolio. I would even take my art to work on during my desk job while in college. It was all of that behind the scenes work where I was able to start my art business all at the age of 19.
The materials I primarily use are prismacolor premier soft core colored pencils, Strathmore toned tan paper, a metal Staedtler hand sharpener, and a drawings brush.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I am an artist who lives everyday with my chronic illness, Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS) CVS is an episodic brain gut disorder where someone gets sick for hours or days on end without the control of their body. It is as if being in a conscience coma and not having the ability to move your body or speak.
In late 2020 my illness had really taken a turn for the worse. I was bed ridden everyday, had countless hospital visits, and had lost over 50 pounds. All of this occurred in the heat of Covid and while I was still a full time college student running my art business. I had to get surgery and had many procedures done at the time so it was very debilitating.
Any chance I could get out of bed I would sit and work on my art. It was an outlet for me in such a difficult time that really strengthened why I do what I do.
I still live with my illness day to day, but even with all of the difficulties it may bring I still strive to accomplish my dreams.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I had started my Instagram account @deelydrawings back in 2016 as an outlet for me to share my artwork with my friends. As time had gone on I made small connections with other artists and had met people where I started to believe I could make a real impact sharing my art journey and life story. At less than 500 followers I started posting reels and pictures of my work everyday. I also started sharing personal sides of my life on my story where my followers could see my “day to day”, while also keeping some things private.
It was weird at first and I had people who’d make fun of me for sharing with such a small following.
I had made high quality content where larger brands started to notice and that helped me to receive payed partnership deals.
After over a year and a half of consistently posting my work seemed to have payed off and my following skyrocketed. Since then I am currently just shy of 50 thousand followers.
The best advice I can give is to be authentic, consistent, and positive. Starting out posting to a small following will feel weird, but at time goes on it will become second nature. Social media is also a full time job in itself so be sure to stay focused on your work! There will always be negative people out there, but it is important to never lose sight of why you do what you do. People love to see authenticity, so stay true to yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.deelydrawings.com
• Instagram: @deelydrawings
• Facebook: Deely Drawings