We were lucky to catch up with Mika Brooks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Mika thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned how to twist when I first joined a company who had balloon artists twisting in restaurants. We had a week training and had to learn 10 simple shapes. The person who was training me forgot how to twist a couple shapes so she suggested we go on YouTube. I surprisingly picked up the techniques pretty quickly to the surprise of my trainer. I learned 10 shapes in about 3-4 days and started working the restaurant the same weekend. I wasn’t getting much tips or interests in the ballon’s I did make so I started trying to learn more. I started with shapes that people were asking me for. I went back to YouTube and started learning more shapes. Now I know over 300 different shapes and still learning.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I have always loved art and all things creative, I gained an interest in visual art after watching Bob Ross as a kid and trying to copy the paintings he made with the crayons I had. I went to an art magnet school then took a break from art during undergrad. I felt discouraged because I felt like I would be a “starving artist” and couldn’t find a niche that could make money with art. I majored in Sociology just to finish school because I didn’t want to waste time and money by dropping out.

I went back to art as an outlet and many people encouraged me to try and pursue a career in art again. I just had to figure out how I could make a decent living doing what I love, I didn’t want to resort to being an art teacher. I love all my art teachers who taught me along the way, I just wanted to be different. After a couple years working retail and other odd jobs I came across a Craigslist ad for balloon artists to work restaurants. I didn’t think it was something that I could learn. But after a week of training I got the hang of it and started working at a couple restaurants.

I got bored with the simple shapes and the children had started asking me for more complicated things. So I took that as a reason for me to look up other shapes and learn more complicated ones like Minnie Mouse. Once I started getting attention for my cooler shapes, I started doing birthday parties. After some time I started to incorporate face painting after paying attention to other face painters I would see at events that I worked.

It’s been about 7 years now since I started working for myself twisting balloons and I am very glad I took the leap of faith. A lot of the things I learned about this industry I learned the hard way through trial and error and some costly mistakes. Over the past couple of years I gained connections with other artists and vendors. I also gained repeat clients who’s children I have watched grow.

Many of the parents and event planners say that some of the things that set me apart from other artist is the cool shapes that I make and how fast I am able to make them. I get complimented on my patience with the children and how much I smile with guests. I like to speak with guests while I twist, often giving random facts or explaining to them how this is in fact my full time job and I love it.

I really love my job and I believe that makes a difference in the experience. If you would like to book me for your party or event, its much easier to text or direct message me with a quote request. I am a mom of 4 now so its much easier to keep track of bookings through text. I book very quickly so booking early as possible with me will guarantee I might be available for your event.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

In my opinion, society giving a little more respect to artists in our field will go a long way. We often deal with people not understanding our pricing and often asking us to lower our prices. We all have ourselves and/or families to feed and we need to make enough money to do that.

We often get told we will be a “starving artist” or that art majors waste their money. Not realizing that the very things we enjoy were created by artists.

Also, the issue we come across, is when we are trying to close our line so we can leave an event. Many people don’t understand when we say that we are done, that we have to go. If people could really understand that we are only human and need to be treated as such then it would make us feel a lot better about our day.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is making people happy with the things that I created. When I am twisting I love seeing a child light up when they see their favorite characters come to life. I love the amazement in the faces of adults when they see my hands moving and they see the balloon turn into a shape they didn’t think was possible. I just really love to make people happy and I inspire other creatives.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.MikaTheGifted.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/MikaTheGifted
• Facebook: Www.facebook.com/MikaTheGifted