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

Hi Mariah , thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?

When I was in high school, I really enjoyed doing pencil portraits of family members and friends and would occasionally get someone to request a portrait. After finishing school though, I stopped doing art for a while, 5-6 years actually. And it was when I was on maternity leave with my youngest daughter (now 5), that I was feeling called to start painting. I felt like I was basically starting over as a creative, and I wasn’t at all comfortable sharing my art. But I made the decision to start an art Instagram around a year later, which was in 2018. The first painting I sold was a watercolor piece (to one of my online followers) out of my sketchbook in 2020 right after the world shut down. That was the start of a new chapter in my art journey in a way that it made me realize how special it was for me to share my art with someone who related to it just as much as I did.

Mariah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a visual artist who paints “emotional self- portraits” through whimsical, unearthly characters. The paintings are not my physical self, but I love the way I can capture emotion through them. My favorite part of any of my pieces is really conveying feeling through their expressions, as well as exploring movement and color. Art is something that I try to do daily- whether it’s adding small touches on an existing piece, spending time on a watercolor painting, or quick doodles that’ll never meet eyes other than my own.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to reach as many people as I can along this journey, and to be able to help people through my art- whether it’s by helping people feel less alone in their feelings, bringing hope to people through my characters, or being able to bring a vision to life through a commissioned piece.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Funny story. So when I actually first started posting my art on social media, I was so nervous about people in my everyday life seeing it and having any opinion on it, that I blocked everyone on my main page from seeing my art page. This gave me the confidence to post unapologetically, and it also helped me to grow a page of people that were only there because they truly enjoyed the content that I was posting. The first year and a half I don’t think I exceeded 50 followers. And while I still don’t have a very large following, I feel great knowing that the people that are there, are genuinely there for the art.

Contact Info:

• Website: InhaleArtz.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/inhale.artz
• Facebook: facebook.com/inhale.artz
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariah-leggett-a9bb9b234/