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

Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The most Meaningful project I have worked on, is a series that I am currently still creating.
I found a gratitude practice in painting an outline of something in my life, and filling it with fruit.
When I started, I had no intention of doing more than one painting, and yet, here I am, about 60 paintings in.

To share an example, I am a mother. I have 4 biological children, that I grew in my body. This process of making a person for 9-10 months is soo so beautiful, in so many ways, and it is also really hard. My body has changed, it has been so tired, so worn, and sometimes I felt like my body really let me down.
But, when I look at my painting, of a pregnant woman, and I am filled with gratitude.
I can remember that even though my body has been through so much,
it has done this miracle of a task, and there is fruit and growth in the experience.
I also have been a foster mom to 10 really beautiful kids. The time I spent learning how to best love these kids in my care, and just as importantly, their families, did change me. When I look at a painting I made after one of our kiddos went home, I feel so many things. And the fruit, filling the silhouette of this child I love, being held by her mom, it fills me with gratitude.

I started these paintings in 2020, early in the covid days. I think a lot of us were looking to find glimmers of light to carry us along. I am more of an introvert so I really just soaked up all of this new extra time I seemed to gain. My husband’s job slowed down, gifting me extra childcare, and I just went for it. My creativity was over flowing. A friend of mine owns a boutique downtown Las Vegas, and she encouraged me to show my work in her store for a few months.
I remember the night we were hanging all of the pieces, I just really wept. I was overwhelmed. This is a piece of my heart, my gratitude journal, here for everyones eyes. I felt so vulnerable.
But, the good people did not let me down.
They showed up day after day.
I met so many new people who found themselves in the fruit, they felt it.
This power that connects us through creativity and color and gratitude, it is addictive, and I don’t want to quit.

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 grew up in a small farm town outside of Springfield, Illinois. It was so petit that we didn’t even have a stop light, or a football team at our high school.
But there were a lot of parades, familiar faces everywhere, and my dad was the pastor of the church in the middle of town. My childhood sits in my memory like a family movie from the 90s- waiting by the radio on a snowy morning, squealing with delight to hear the DJ announce, “SNOW DAY!” Or laying back on the 4th of July blanket, my bangs glued to my forehead with sweat, swatting away a mosquito, as the loudest fireworks “boom!BOOM BOOOM!” over our heads at the community event.
One of my favorite memories, was watching my dad draw. It was so easy for him. He was a super hero, he could (and still can) draw anything. My mom lovingly packed us brown paper bag lunches on school mornings. While we ate breakfast he would draw pictures on those lunch sacks. “I want a rainbow!” “I want a dog!” we would request.
One day I decided to challenge him, “I want Abraham Lincoln, please.” I don’t even remember him looking at a reference picture, but my dad drew Mr. Lincoln perfectly.
The shading, the weary eyes, his dark hair… it was a masterpiece. I was thrilled to take it to school with me, so that all of the students sitting at my lunch table would “ooo” and “awwe” with delight. And they did, and I knew, my dad was the coolest. I wanted to draw like him.
He would teach us drawing lessons in the summers on vacations, always encouraging us to exercise our creative muscles.
He taught me that no matter what I am producing, I am a creative in my heart.
That lesson really stayed with me, and that is something I am most proud of.
Through my seasons of life, there have been years when my creativity is marketable, I have stickers, postcards, prints, and all sizes of paintings for sale. There are also years when my creativity is mostly in the ways I play with my kids, paint my house, wear my clothes, and craft for fun.

Right now, I am a painter. I prefer Acrylic paints, and the bigger the canvas the better.
I have painted murals, participated in chalk festivals, and I am working with a clothing designer to put my work on her pieces.
So I am trying to catch up with my brand as it moves along and grows.

Painting helps process what I am knowing, wrestling with, or loving, especially when I don’t have words about it. There are times when I just have an image in my mind, and I have to paint it. If I don’t get it out, I am haunted for days.
My goal is not to please an audience, but it is so good when people are moved, or especially when they feel seen in the final product.
If you connect to it, thats wonderful, if not, thats ok too.
Because of this, I really market myself slowly.
My work sells out of my friends store “ForTheLove” downtown Las Vegas, or through contacting me on instagram.
I truly love connecting with a buyer, knowing where my paintings are going to live.
I guess you could say, once a small town girl, always a small town girl.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative has been interactions with my kids. I have 4 biological, 1 adopted, and we have had the privilege of parenting 10 kids through foster care. The kiddos are always saying to me, ” I could never paint like this, or draw like that.”
I love showing them artists that make all different things, all different types of media and subject, all so important.
I love taking them to a museum to see Jackson pollock, Matisse, Frida Khalo, Joan Mitchell, Degas!
The children in our lives are the future of art, and they get to carry the messages of emotion and color forward into the future. I love to encourage them to create, and create anything. Theres no rules, the mess is okay, and not every piece has to be the masterpiece. Each creation moves us forward into the next one.
I love telling them that of course they are an artist, because creativity lives inside of them, just like my dad taught me.
I take this charge very seriously, to encourage kids to not stop creating.
It has been so rewarding for myself, and for them.

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

My goal really is just to continue to create work that I love.
I want to first create for me, as a way of expressing myself, and what I want to say, or feel.
I hope that in staying true to myself, I will continue to develop an audience that reflects that.
I want to be full of gratitude and generosity.
I want to be encouraging to other people who identify as a creative, that there is a place for all of us to be who we are.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://forthelovelv.com/collections/art
• Instagram: @dallammeg
• Other: [email protected]

Image Credits

image of Megan walking through gallery, taken by Dina Diaz Photography