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

Alright, Meleah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The smiling puzzled faces were the hardest. I understand now what caused those baffled looks. Because being a full time artist is a type of oxymoron; how in the world can you rely on art, a luxury at best, and self-indulgence at worst, to support you fully? Such a conundrum. I grew up with two Capricorn’s for parents. They were hippies in the most practical sense. That is, they lived how hippies tend to live, but for the most practical of reasons.

They were conservative anti-establishment – not the dreamy peace, love and happiness kind. We lived off the land, moved to remote locations and never used a bank.

Although in my family, art was applauded, even encouraged; when it came to money-making, my father, by nature an engineer and truly brilliant, really considered only the tried and true practical endeavor as a means to be successful.

Hard work , smart work, and a healthy dose of luck were the holy trinity of success ingredients.

So, I when I launched, I did everything but art. I earned degrees and became a biochemist. Followed by multiple children, and entrepreneurial ventures one after another. Owning and managing a convention center. Operating a music venue and bar. Renovating and flipping houses.

All the while, my suppressed artistry, squelched down to a few hours here and there, was never allowed to mature. In hindsight, I can see how it tried to find voice in everything I did.

On one very memorable occasion, I was riding my motorcycle on a long road trip to Alaska and the Yukon. Burned out from the music venue and feeling at odds with life.

I had just received an email with an hour long ‘natal chart reading’ from the great astrologist, Steven Forrest. He was in Australia holding a conference when he did the reading,, and I was in Alaska. We each were at other ends of the earth and that synchronicity was not lost on me. Readings from Steven can take as long as two years to receive and I had waited a long time.
I began listening to the reading via Bluetooth in my helmet, while passing Lake Louise in Alberta, when he began the reading by saying this:

“Meleah, I don’t know you or know anything about you – except what your chart tells me.
I have done thousands and thousands of natal chart readings, all over the world from famous to normal people, and I am, without a doubt, looking at the chart of an artist.
You have the signature of an artist all over your chart”

I would later listen to this again and again. Those words made my skin tingle. The world around me exploded with possibility. I held those words inside me, carefully protected, like a fragile glowing ember. I needed to KNOW this deeply for myself before I shared it with the world..

I needed to coax that ember into a flame. A flame of strong belief, deep knowing and resolution.

I came home, got my life in order, which took about three years, and in that time, made my first piece of real art. In the process, I developed a wood sculptural technique – totally unique and one I have not seen in the art world – and dove in head first to making my art.

At first it was my part time job. Then slowly became the full time self supporting work that I do now. That was 6 years ago, and I am mastering my craft every day, every year. My artistry is reaching far beyond what I even expected, both in mastery and in financial success.

I believed in myself. The whole way. And if I had not, those smiling confused faces who gave me their advice out of true concern, would have steered me away. It almost did many times.

What does believing in yourself mean? For me, it means, only only only listening to the inner voice that knows you have something to offer that is valuable. Not the head voice. The head voice will try to talk you out of joy. Healthy self talk cannot be overestimated.

So, the ‘moment’ when I gave art its proper place in my life was not a moment too soon or too late. Everything I have ever experienced gets poured into my process, into how I interact with clients, into my technique, into my vision.

Nothing is ever too late, and we are all deserving of a full expression of our gifts.

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 was not always a full time artist. A DNA repair researcher by education, and entrepreneur by nature, little did I know that becoming a self supporting artist needed all of my background, all of my skill sets and all of my self belief. My 25 year old self didn’t have all of that yet.

I am actually a woodworker of sorts.
My studio is not a romantic setting of me in a spring dress with unintentional paint marks enhancing my natural beauty as inspiration flows in an estatic dance of light and paint.
My studio is filled with wood,, sawdust, blades, saws, sharp things that cut wood and a giant workbench. I turn the most resistant gnarly wood into beautifully compliant wood sculptural mosaics. I give reclaimed and thrown out wood a second chance to become another something worthwhile.

Clients commission me to do works of wood art that fit their space, their life, and what they love most. I bring that vision into my studio space and somehow….something unique and beautiful and viseral manifests.

I read the grain of the wood, the lively knots, the scars…. all of those inform the mosaic. All of them find a place in the whole piece.

My techniques are unique and require a mastery of tools, a deep knowledge of all types of wood, and artistic vision to bring them all together.

Have you ever had to pivot?

It’s 2020. You’re an artist who shows their work in galleries, art festivals- basically places where people gather. But now, that doesn’t exist.

Such was my situation.

Honestly, I felt like the odds were against me…that I needed to wait it out, and do something else.

Why would people want to buy art at such a catastrophic time in their life? Art is not like food, water and shelter……or is it?

I had an eBay account from way back to find good deals on building materials for a project.

Sitting on my couch, I was like, what the hell, let’s give it a try. I listed on EBay two pieces I had just finished, that were ready for buyers.

Those sold. Las Vegas and California. I listed more art on FB groups, I ran ads on social media, created a LinkedIn profile. Sent photos to gallery owners who what an online presence.

Apparently, in the chaos of Covid, people were staying home and suddenly their walls seemed uninviting, or bare.

Turns out, art is essential to humans. We need it for our sanity.

I gave myself a week to feel sorry for myself, but didn’t give up and ingenuity created a pivot!

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Free is never free. I began working out of a friends barn. He didn’t use the space much and offered it. I gladly accepted, feeling like I couldn’t afford to pay for rent for a space at that time.
As time went on, I realized that the ‘free’ space was not free. There were hidden expectations that were unmet and unknown. I began to dread going to work on my art and the space felt unwelcoming.
When I made the decision to move, it was the best feeling of freedom I’ve ever had. I moved into a shop that I rented- all my own and feel so blessed every time I pay the rent.
The lesson was learned well. You always pay for free.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.meleahgabhart.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/meleahgabhart
• Facebook: Meleah Gabhart Art and Meleah Gabhart
• Linkedin: Meleah gabhart