We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melisa Beveridge a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Melisa, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
My life hasn’t taken the most linear path. I tend to swirl around and see what direction life points me in. For the most part, I trust that I am paying attention to what the universe is telling me and that I will go in the right direction. I had been thinking for a while (eight years to be exact) about traveling to animal sanctuaries and producing artwork based on the animals I met. In the spring of 2018, I started to think more seriously and began looking into resources to make it work. My timeline was a few years off and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could actually make it my reality. I had worked in the past as a scientific illustrator- drawing for magazines, museums, books, etc. More recently I had been working as a Registered Veterinary Technician in a busy clinic. I started to feel the emotional toll and burn out which began to wear on me mentally. I enjoy the field and I love helping animals, however 10-hour days full time was not ideal or healthy for me personally.
In the fall of 2018 I was in a really bad car accident. I suffered a traumatic brain injury in the accident along with multiple cuts and burns and bruises etc. I was amazingly lucky for someone who got hit by a semi-truck. One of my last thoughts before the airbag hit was “I didn’t get to do my animal project” and I felt real disappointment. That changed everything.
It was my wakeup call. I could have died with my last thought being of regret for the path I didn’t take. I could have died without the chance to do what I really wanted. I took this as a clear sign to make some changes. After my head injury started to subside and the doctor appointments lessened, I was able to think more clearly and I started taking steps to make my dreams into my reality. It may have taken a life-changing event to get started, and is still a work in progress, but it feels right. It sometimes feels like I’m living on borrowed time and I want to make the most of it. I now use my own unique set of skills to make a difference in the world.
Through Woollybear Travels, I go to animal sanctuaries worldwide and volunteer my services as an animal nurse, or do general volunteer work. I write about the animals I meet, and create bright, happy portraits of them. I have a line of cards, art prints, stickers, ornaments, etc that feature my new animal friends. Their story of a better life is included on the product. A percentage of the profits from my sales go directly to the rescue organization that helped the animal. My goal is to bring awareness to these special places to let people know how they too can visit and help these animals. Whether it gets these organizations more followers, volunteers, or just makes people think about animal welfare, or makes them smile, it makes me feel like I am helping in some small way.
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 feel like what I do best is bring smiles to people’s faces. I love more than anything when people look at my work in a gallery or in a store and they smile and tell their friend to come over and look. Then they read the stories I write about the animal on the back of the cards or prints and they learn about a rescue organization they didn’t know about. I want people to be happy, not to hear more about the awful conditions many animals are forced to live in. I certainly don’t begrudge the outlets that report on animal abuse. I am well aware of these things and it certainly has a necessary and important place to let people know about these awful injustices, but I personally have a very tender heart and it hurts me to hear about this kind of thing too often. I want people to hear the good stories, the stories that helped that one animal, and the possibilities that are out there for other animals to be helped. I want people to feel happy and in love with animals. I want them to feel like they can make a difference.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
At the end of February of 2020, I traveled to Zimbabwe to volunteer at an animal sanctuary for 3 weeks. They had baboons, Vervet monkeys, bush babies, zebras, a warthog, and lots of other amazing African animals. All was going great and then COVID shut down the world. The border to South Africa was closed almost immediately which is where I was supposed to fly through on my return home. It quickly became apparent that It would be incredibly difficult if not impossible to leave the country. The nearby airport closed down, and there was no one in the embassy to help. There was a military lockdown in place. I would have had to travel 6 hours north being stopped at several checkpoints to get to another airport. I decided with 2 other volunteers to stay. We actually had a fantastic time and had a lot of animals to care for. The animal feeding schedule was a bit crazy at times, and it was very difficult to have a veterinarian come out to help us. We did our best to help all the animals and made amazing friends along the way. At the 3 month mark, I took 3 donkeys we had rescued at the first sanctuary to a donkey-specific sanctuary and stayed there for the next 3 months. I worked very hard there caring for about 70 donkeys and horses that had been abused and neglected before their rescue, and they had many wounds that needed tending. I rented an art studio so I could paint the animals and was able to do an online job I have had for many years from there. I came to Zimbabwe with one suitcase full of summer clothes and left in the winter 6 months later. People gave me warm clothes. I figured out to get my passport taken care of and get money. (NOT AN EASY THING IN ZIMBABWE AT ALL). I learned about the amazing country and people there and made lifelong friends. It was sad to leave, but I was ready to come home. I made it 6 hours north as the South Africa border was still closed, and flew out of Harare. I did have the rows to myself on the 40-hour journey home as most people were not flying and the US was still in mid-pandemic.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have had many pivots in my life and careers. I started college right after high school. I was a fine arts major and didn’t particularly enjoy it. I didn’t seem to fit in with what the school was looking for. I dropped out after 3 years and was a wandering hippie type for awhile. Eventually, my car broke down in Montana and I stayed there for 10 years. I was very interested in organic farming and was considering buying into a farm. Then I had an accident while wakeboarding and broke my leg very badly. It wasn’t healing well and I couldn’t really do the difficult work of farming anymore so I decided to go back to school. I had become interested in scientific illustration and so I finished my art degree and got a biology degree as well. This enabled me to get into a highly competitive scientific illustration school. After school I moved to NYC and was doing great at booking illustration jobs. I was even working as an art director and Natural History Magazine and had been drawing fossils for the American Museum of Natural History. Then the recession hit in 2009 or so and I lost all of my jobs. People were not paying for art any longer and I was unemployed. This was quite disheartening as you can imagine, but what could I do? I started walking dogs in Brooklyn. Then I went back to school to be a veterinary technician. I figured I could always find a job in that field, and I wasn’t wrong.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://woollybeartravels.com/
- Instagram: @woollybeartravels
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/woollybeartravels
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisabeveridge/
Image Credits
They are all mine