We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marie Awn. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marie below.

Marie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

While I was in college earning my BFA in painting, I worked in the salon industry as a makeup artist. I never intended on staying in that career for as long as I did (21 years!) and I often wonder where I’d be in my painting career had I started out of college. But I believe things happened the way they did to make me hungry for it. I don’t think I’d be as motivated to paint every day if I didn’t have my previous life not creating the way I do today. Taking care of a home and a family is also really challenging as I’m trying to carve out time for painting, but again it makes me want it even more. So when I show up in my studio, I’m ready and willing. I wouldn’t change a thing.

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’ve always known I wanted to be in the arts. As a shy kid, my drawing ability was often an ice breaker and helped me to make friends. I’ve always been grateful for that. I pursued my art degree in college and received my BFA from Wayne State University in Detroit. While I was in school, I worked as a makeup artist. I kept my job after graduation because I really didn’t know a clear path to making a living painting pictures. Life happened and years went by. Twenty years later I thought if I don’t try to be a painter now, I never will. So I shifted careers with support from my encouraging husband and started painting every day. It was hard! I felt out of practice and a lot of days I felt discouraged like it was too late for me. But with an open mind and support from my friends and family I kept going and I still am going. I feel like my authentic self now more than ever.
When I thought it was too late before, I now know it’s never too late to start something and to learn new things.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

As a forty-five year old woman living in America and with a Middle Eastern background, I’ve had to tear down the rules society has set for me as a woman and I am constantly trying so hard to shed those pressures and expectations that were put upon me growing up. I am a wife and a mother but I am also so much more. I want to continue to create until my dying day.
I want women to know they deserve to want things and to make those things happen for themselves. I want women around me to thrive and to live fully.
Women do not deserve to disappear as they age. We are the original makers. We are life givers.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I am indelibly grateful to have an outlet for my innermost thoughts. It’s the way I make sense of my surroundings even if it doesn’t make much sense to anyone else. It’s like when you are in a certain mood and you put on music that matches the way you’re feeling. It has a way of calming my nervous system.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @marieawnart

Image Credits

Jenna Essa