We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Miko Johnson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Miko, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

Prior to the year 2020 I had not pursued any artistic endeavors since my Sophomore year in high school. Even then the only reason I was engaged in creating art was to knock out one of my elective requirements for graduation. So for me I had never focused on art for the sake of art but always as a means to an end. The year 2020 changed the way I viewed art and what it could add to my life and the lives of others. As the world was deeply entrenched in the throes of the the pandemic I found myself feeling lost. To add insult to injury my mothers cancer had returned with a vengeance and she called all the children home to finalize plans. After her passing, in the summer of 2020 I felt helpless. I had a deep hole inside and was clueless as to how to fill it. It was then that I picked up my daughters iPad and started to create mixed media digital art. I enjoyed doing mixed media digital art because the learning curve was not super steep. I could come up with an idea and pull in the required digital assets (public domain photos, design cut templates, scanned images I had painted on canvas, etc) and then use the painting tools in procreate and the various layers to create aesthetically pleasing works. As time went on I realized that I was gravitating more and more toward nature and more specifically flowers in my work. I embraced that pull and started to center my work around creating dynamic art with flowers. After testing the performance of various sized artworks I have found that my work is most successful when offered as a 5” x 5” giclee archival art print. The size and beauty of these prints led to some nice sales results locally and have prompted me to work on creating my online business. My first steps will be to launch my new instagram page @keepsakeartcards.

Miko, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

The need for a creative outlet is how I began my foray into creating art. In the beginning, I told myself I would create art everyday no matter how I felt. Thus on the good days I created art, as well as on the bad days. Eventually, it got to the point that I had to create and I became quite prolific in my production. My very first Instagram page is @lexireddart. So of course the obvious question is why is my instagram page listed under a pseudonym. Well it’s because I lacked confidence in the beginning. I had no idea what I was doing and was nervous if anyone would like it. I was not ready to fully step into my creative power and accept responsibility for what I was offering the world. As my ig audience grew and I began to really connect with people I began to value my artistic voice more and realized that my art spoke to some people and was something to be cherished. Where I am now is a far cry from where I began and that is why I am willing to put myself out there more and to create these powerful little keepsake art cards. These cards can be given as gifts to friends and loved ones. They can be purchased with a beautiful acrylic magnetic frame that can be placed anywhere in the home or office. They can be purchased without the frame and given out like all occasion cards. The beautiful water color paper has space for the person to write their own specialized message on the back of the card or for a few extra dollars they can get a handwritten message of their choice placed on the back in calligraphy. These cards make beautiful art accessible to the everyday consumer. These cards are keepsake quality and make a special gift for those who receive them or a beautiful collectible for those who want to start collecting art on a small scale.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I don’t mind NFT’s. I have actually done a collaboration of 15 NFT art designs for skateboards. The project was executed expertly and was done in conjunction with made by Sota and GameStop. I was approached via my @lexireddart instagram account by Sota and asked if I wanted to participate. There were no costs to participate and after the launch of the NFT’s on the GameStop platform the artist were paid the agreed upon payment in either cash or etherium, whichever one they preferred. The process was all above board and with established and legitimate companies. Both buyers and sellers understood what was being sold and clear and straightforward contracts governed the transactions. So if artist want to sell NFT’s my advice is to deal with reputable individuals preferably with established brick and mortar reputations.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

My initial capital to start my business was really just buying an iPad Pro of my own. I began doing art on my daughters iPad Pro but that was not sustainable as she is a graphic designer so I had to invest the $1000.00 into getting my own. Other expenses have been getting some templates from design cuts of various flowers that I enjoy using. I love buying design cuts because it means all of us get to eat. To clarify, artist create the templates on design cuts and they set their price and anyone can buy the templates. The templates come licensed for personal and commercial use. So if an artist has drawn a lovely rose that I would love to use in a collage work then I pay that artist to use that rose. Now I can take that rose and incorporate it into whatever design I want and have created something totally new. Now that artist can resell that same template to 1000 other people and get paid for each sell and those 1000 people will use that rose in 1000 different ways and create 1000 different compositions for the world to enjoy. I love when we create these small economies where 10 people eat off a a single item.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @lexireddart and @keepsakeartcards (under construction)