We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful SUMMER LYDICK. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with SUMMER below.

Alright, SUMMER thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’ve always been an artist. Since I was 2 yrs old, I was drawing and coloring and crafting. Making beautiful things seemed as natural to me as breathing. After graduating with my master’s in painting, I started my own decorative painting business. For 15 years, I painted murals, furniture, kitchen cabinets, and created custom plaster and painted wall finishes for clients while I tried to do my artwork on the side. My own art suffered as I worked tirelessly to create people’s dream homes, so I hired help with my faux finishing business so I could start a new venture teaching art. For 3 years I taught privately out of my home and publicly at Lamar University in Beaumont. This helped me find my own voice as an artist. When I moved to Houston 4 yrs ago, I began to focus almost entirely on my own art. The pandemic in 2020 gave me ample time and space to develop my website and my business vision with more clarity than ever before. I’ve been a full-time artist ever since.

My journey is only just beginning. As an artist and a business person, my skills are always developing. There is always more to learn, to master, and to achieve. Thankfully most of the information I need can be found for free online. There is no better time than now to be a full-time artpreneur!

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?

My name is Summer Lydick. I’m an Artist Extraordinaire. I remember using that term once to describe one of my first art influences, Robert Rauschenberg, in a college art history essay. My prof clearly didn’t approve. But this man, like all artists, made me believe in magic. Artists are magicians. We have the power to delight, excite, provoke, and inspire anyone with inanimate materials. We stir emotions through color and movement. We offer an experience of reflection, evoke childhood memories, or reference dreams just through simple brushstrokes on canvas.

I am an Artist Extraordinaire. I aim to capture hope, beauty, joy, and happiness through my bold, colorful depictions of flowers, most notably sunflowers. Sunflowers are such positive plants. They are heliotropic, which means that they keep their beaming faces to the sun all day throughout its arc across the sky. They represent confidence, courage, and cheerfulness, which is something we could all use these days. It’s been said, but I’m not sure it’s true, that when the sky is cloudy and they can’t see the sun, that sunflowers will face each other. This is a beautiful metaphor that reminds me to be supportive of others. This is what I capture in my artwork and in everything I produce.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The question I get asked the most is “how long did it take to make that?” Most people understand that skill takes time to develop. But over time, as skills develop, they become easier and easier, quicker and quicker, created with more efficiency and economy than if an artist was just beginning. Some times, people who are unaware of this will not understand the price of art. But truly, art is priceless. An original work of art encapsulates an artist’s entire life. Whatever thoughts I’m thinking, or music I’m listening to, or anything else that might be happening around me at the time is literally loaded into each brushstroke. Art is alive! It is a living memory of a moment in time. Sometimes when I visit with my collectors and see paintings I made years ago, I am instantly flooded with the emotions I was experiencing at that time or I can hear a few verses of whatever I was listening to. Because of this, I try to create my artwork with positive intentions only, so that only uplifting energy is being released from my studio. To create positive uplifting artwork that makes people feel good is my main objective everyday.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was younger, I thought I had to get my Master’s degree to be considered a serious artist. But you don’t need a degree at all! What you do need is a commitment to your craft, a steadfast belief in yourself and your abilities, and the willingness to never ever give up. I tell young people all the time that they do not need to go to art school to be a great artist. They just need time to be alone with their art. And if you do want to be a serious artist, go to business school! Once you make the shift from artist to business person, then your career will really take off!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.summerlydick.com/
• Instagram: @summerlydick.art
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/summerlydickart

Image Credits
Brionne Dunham