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

Alright, Melanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I’ll be honest, I didn’t quite know what my mission was until somewhat recently… I never thought of myself as an artist that had a mission until I became a therapist. It was always clear to me that I wanted to work with (primarily) womxn with eating disorders and negative body image. It wasn’t until I was working in that universe that my art started to reflect on more diverse bodies. Because I’m an average person just like everyone else, I struggled with negative body image for years and found that therapeutic art making AND incorporating diverse bodies in my work allowed me to gain positivity about the body I was living in. Now, in my work as an art therapist and my artwork that is on display for the world, my mission is to make every person of every body size feel included, safe, and seen.

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 refer to myself as a multi-passionate artist because I’m willing to give anything creative a shot! I’ve loved being creative since I can remember- always drawing, painting, crafting, thrifting. Anything I could do to keep my hands and brain going! When I got to college, I couldn’t decide between majoring in Psychology or Studio Art and I remember my photography professor saying, “You know, you have that ‘left brain right brain’ thing going on… you should look into studying art therapy” and I never looked back!

Now, I work as an outpatient art therapist, a photographer, and learning how to tattoo! In all of these, I bring focus to bodies- whether I’m processing body image concerns with clients, doing boudoir photography, or (eventually) tattooing/putting art directly onto bodies. What I love most about my creative endeavors is that people feel safe enough with me to be vulnerable and talk about messages they’ve received about their bodies from society, social media, and loved ones. And as a result, I not only processed my own body image concerns, I’ve also been able to advocate and challenge society on the stigma of diverse body sizes. And I do so via creativity.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Crazy story, I met a girl in grad school (who I now know as my best friend and studio partner, Tori) who I felt an immediate connection with! I can’t explain how perfect the timing was, but I knew Tori was basically my other half (sorry to my husband, haha). We started dreaming about our future, and end up finding a studio together. We literally had the same dreams and passions and eventually even started working together at an eating disorder partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient facility. While both of us were working full time and commuting to Center City, Philly together every morning, we were also in the process of creating our dream- which would eventually become our studio; Healing Thyme Studio.

This space allows us to see private art therapy clients and make all the art our hearts desire. Our goal is to welcome the community in to experience the healing properties of art in all forms.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

As a creative person, I’m always looking for creative ways to bring in income outside of therapy sessions and photography. I have quite a long list! I’m the lettering artist for the Philadelphia-area Sweetgreen locations, I do lettering for various signage for small businesses in my area, I sell my art prints, I host workshops at Healing Thyme Studio, I’ll occasionally do business branding logos and graphics, I make digital illustrations, I create signage for weddings and other events, and the list goes on… “Multi-passionate” is the only thing I can think of to describe myself!

I have a lot of different ways I make extra income with my business, but my favorite revenue streams are with digital downloads. With digital downloaded files, I can create something, upload it to a website, and people can buy it without me having to do anything else. Of course it’s a lot of work up front so I don’t want to say it’s “easy money”. But after that initial hard work is done, I can collect income passively. I use websites such as Teachers Pay Teachers and Etsy to list therapy worksheets and resources, wall art, and design templates. Again, all passive income with digital downloads. Recently, I created a therapeutic art coloring book “Color Me Mindful” that is in the process of being published on Amazon! Finally, another thing I have in the works is an online and in-person courses for calligraphy.   

Contact Info:

• Website: melaniehowerart.com
• Instagram: @melaniehower_art
• Linkedin: Melanie Conway-Hower, ATR-BC
• Other: Teachers Pay Teachers: Artsy Therapist

Image Credits
Tori Mengel