Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa Mercilliott. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
Right now I’m working on creating a desert themed tarot deck. I Have been reading and collecting decks from other artists/authors for a long time, but I couldn’t find a deck that I felt represented the desert as I know it. Each deck has 78 cards, and there is a lot of historical tradition behind the symbolism of the cards. The goal is to honor the original Rider Waite Smith deck, but put my own interpretation into the art. It has been a major research project to fully understand the traditional meanings. It’s important to me to make sure that the end product reflects not only my personal understanding of the tarot, but the wildlife and seasons of this specific environment. The desert is a beautiful and diverse place to live and I want to help others see that.
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?
After years of teaching art, I decided to switch paths and create art full time. I started with commissions from friends, small local craft fairs, and then I opened an online shop. That has since evolved to larger fairs and wholesale orders. It started with me just making desert themed art, but then I recruited my husband to create custom wood shelves to sell alongside my stickers and hand-painted items. In the holiday season, we stay busy creating custom wood cut outs for yard decor. It has been an adventure of just saying yes to every project that come our way. Even our teenage daughter makes resin items, and I am proud to be being able to work for myself, and include my family in the process. If you stopped by our booth these days, you’d find vinyl stickers, art, cards, painted pots, wooden shelves and resin keychains. Someday I’d love to turn it into a full sized boutique, but who knows what adventure awaits us next!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
The journey of finding our way is not a straight path, but a winding road of obstacles and side quests. Even if I start a project with a plan, it will go off the rails, and I’ll briefly hate it while I work out a solution before it gets back on track where I’ll be happy with it again. If a painting goes too smoothly, I question why, and will probably end up redoing it. Basically, if it wasn’t difficult, I didn’t challenge myself enough and I will ultimately be dissatisfied with the outcome and will feel like its not good enough to share with others. Also, imposter syndrome is a constant problem no matter how skilled you are in your craft. You just have to decide that you are happy with what you made no matter what anyone else thinks.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
As a former public school art teacher, this is the hill I’ll die on. Stop taking away funding for the arts! That includes visual arts, music, dance and theatre. I also wish we could do away with the idea of “starving artist”. If the arts were valued for the skills that they are, artists of all kinds would be fairly paid for their contributions and not seen as a “fluffy”, optional extra. The arts need to be treated like the cultural necessity that they are!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mercistwodeserts.com
- Instagram: mercistwodeserts
- Facebook: twodeserts
Image Credits
IG @Samlynnphoto