Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ron Purvis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ron, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I was in corporate finance for 25 years. I was pursuing satisfaction from this career by pushing myself to climb that ladder through additional education, taking on highly visible projects, and a willingness to commit a substantial amount of personal time to the companies I worked for. I got a bachelor’s degree, became a licensed CPA, and went back to school full-time and got an MBA. Shortly after getting a master’s degree and starting the next level of my career, I realized there was nothing left for me to do but get in the corporate queue. The ‘higher’ I got within an organization the more I realized I had to change or give up those qualities that made me unique and that I held valuable. It was this that made me realize I was never going to be happy or content working on a path that required me to be homogeneous with everyone else and repeat the same processes or run up against the same boundaries of change over and over again. I’m lucky in the way that I don’t have to wonder whether I’d be happier in a regular job, but it did cost me a lot of time and mental health to reach this point. I can wake up during the most stressful times as an artist and look back on how I felt during my former career and know that I’d much rather be an artist any day of my remaining life.

Ron, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve worked with wood for as long as I can remember. I was lucky that my dad was a hobbyist furniture maker and he introduced me to the tools, techniques, and materials. My dad and I started with making soap box derby cars together. I kept it as an occasional hobby throughout the years – working a 9-5 job in corporate finance making occasional projects for the home. I was typically following a pattern or had a preconceived idea about what the end project would look like.

As my wife and I started a family and time grew limited, I began looking for projects that I could finish in a day or two and turned to woodturning. I found that when working on a lathe, the wood didn’t always do what I wanted it to do. I had to learn how to let go of preconceived ideas and allow the wood to lead
– trusting the process and changing my expectations as I went along.

I’ve never been good at setting my career aside at night or on the weekends which became incredibly stressful. I learned that woodturning became meditative for me. The technique required me to fully concentrate on what I was doing at that moment or I could risk failure or injury. The meditative component, alongside working with a material I enjoyed, became very appealing to me. I was struggling with my mental health and woodturning became a respite and I pursued it more and more. I began exploring the artistic side of woodturning and this pulled me further down the rabbit hole. I looked at the form and balance in the wood and was inspired to pursue other skills of embellishment such as piercing, pyrography, and gilding metal leaf onto the wood as a way to capture a feeling or theme. It was both the internal stresses of working in a career that was destroying me internally along with the weight we feel from the surrounding world that led me to a theme or message that has permeated my work.

After spending 10 years doing this as a hobby, it became clear this was the path I had to pursue. During COVID quarantine I found myself with an opportunity to leave my corporate finance career and dive into an art career full-time. My work encompasses a message of balance, or the pursuit of balance, between both the internal and external stresses we juggle along with trying to maintain our ‘light’ as a human being.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My wife and I have 2 kids, a son who is 17 years old and a daughter who is 13 years old. When they were younger, during the time I was struggling in my previous career in corporate finance, there were 2 moments that solidified my decision to change careers and become an artist. Around the age of 7 or 8, we were having dinner and I was talking about something that I was unhappy about at work and my son stopped me and innocently asked me, ‘When are you going to quit your job and do something that makes you happy?’ I was taken aback and somewhat shocked. This was a pure, honest message, that my unhappiness was permeating the atmosphere of our household. 5 years later, the exact event repeated itself but this time it was my daughter asking the same question. At that point, I couldn’t deny the impact I was having on my family and I knew at that moment I had to make a change. This was the moment I knew I was going to make a career change to an artist. It was no longer a question of my mental health, but of my families as well.

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

The support of the artist community, 100%! I’ve never been part of a community that freely shares information and takes a genuine interest in my success. I learn new, valuable things every time I’m participating in a show or at a gathering of artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ronpurvisart.com
• Instagram: @ronpurvisart
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/ronpurvisart

Image Credits
Ron Purvis Ron Purvis Art