We were lucky to catch up with Tammy Gallant recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tammy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
Oh, if only I really could go back in time. I would have said no to that date with Kevin in high school. Ok, well not THAT far back. Maybe if I could just go back to, say, when I was in my early 20’s and tell myself to skip nursing school and just do what I love, I would take that opportunity for time travel. It probably wouldn’t have done much good, though, because my 20s-year-old self thought she had the world by the sack and definitely didn’t like being told what to do. However, I would still try to convince that younger version of me because for all the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial roller coaster, it’s been a great ride, overall. It’s one that I wish I had started much, much sooner than when I was almost 50.
Why, you may ask. Well, maybe you won’t ask but I’m going to answer anyway. Well, because it makes me happy. That’s the most important thing, really. Life is already full of so much stress, sadness, grief and disappointment outside of work. Why add more? Being an entrepreneur makes me happy. Very, very happy. If I want a day off, I take the day off. No forms to fill out, no one to ask, no begging or bartering with someone to take my shift. Vacation? Whenever I darned well please, thank you very much. Too sick to go to work? Well there’s no setting an alarm to wake my sick self up to call my boss. Really, to boil it right down, I get to do what I want, when I want. That’s pretty darned cool, I don’t care who ya are!
I have had jobs that made me so unhappy; jobs that made me feel physically ill and emotionally drained just at the thought of waking up to go to work. Ain’t nobody got time for that! Life’s too short! Really, I would love to have all that wasted time back, being miserable for a paycheck, to trade in on doing what I love, all the time. Plus, doing what I do means I afford myself the opportunity for a lot of travel. I prefer driving over flying just so that I can see more of the countryside and obtain a photographic journal of my journeys. You just can’t get that from an airplane. You also can’t get it from an office desk in a cubicle. I definitely enjoy life better now that I am a full time creative, even if days off aren’t paid and there are no medical insurance benefits. The other benefits I do get sure make up for those I don’t. I really do often imagine and lament over what more life memories I would have accumulated had I just started this journey sooner.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I have loved photography, wood, rocks and nature since I was a child growing up in a small town in Montana. That love just grew, the older I got. My journey as a photographer and rock hound really amped up when I was about 10. My dad got me my first camera, a little Kodak 35mm point-and-shoot and I fell in love, hard. All my younger years were filled with me getting in trouble for leaving rocks in my pockets and inside the car. I was always stuffing pretty rocks in every place that I could, to carry my booty home. Then once, while standing in the middle of a slow section of a river, I found gold. For that few minutes, I was filthy rich! As I ran to my parents, I (mentally) spent that money on a new bicycle, new shoes, a pony…oh, the things I would buy with my new riches. Then, my dad broke it to me that it wasn’t gold that I found, it was iron pyrite, or “fools gold”. My little heart broke for the money but man did it get even more fired up for the coolness of rocks!
Fast forward nearly 50 years and I have thousands and thousands of rocks and fossils. My favorites to find are agates, petrified wood and fossils. I also have a fondness for jasper and quartz. Ray, the loving and lovable partner I have been blessed with in life, asked me (exasperatedly, of course) why I would get bring more rocks home when I already have so many and said that I better find something to do with all of them. He didn’t accept “I already am, I’m decorating” as an answer. So, I hit the internet to find out what people do with the rocks they collect. Boy, I was not disappointed in the options. I then embarked on a crafting journey to make jewelry and gifts with them.
With so many photos of the Western United States just sitting on my computer and so many rocks and rock crafts coming out of every nook and cranny of our home, I thought my next step should be sharing them with the rest of the world. Thus came the birth of Majestic West, an online art gallery featuring art and artists from the Western United States selling affordable arts, crafts and images to the world. It’s still in it’s infancy, having just recently launched, so currently only features items made or photos taken by me but the goal is expanding to consign other local artists, crafters and photographers of all types, as well.
So, whether it’s beautiful custom framed and matted photos of gorgeous scenery and wildlife, Montana-made keychains and jewelry for yourself or a loved one, hand sculpted wood figures or other unique items made from rock, stone, gems and wood, the Majestic West Gallery has just what you are looking for, right from the comfort of your home, at www.MajesticWestGallery.com.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
In this age where the motto seems to be “cheap and convenient” and everyone wants to just shop for $2 items imported from China on Amazon, Temu, Wish, et al, I would highly recommend you reconsider. Those items are mass-produced by people making slave wages out of necessity. When you support a local artist or artisan, you are supporting someone who painstakingly chooses what they make and then lovingly creates it. They pour a bit of their own heart an soul into each piece and their art is very personal to them.
For example, the items that I make for Majestic West are hand collected by me in nature, then cut, polished and shaped into my dream for that item and then I create the item, itself. It’s a process that takes months. Each piece is a part of me and it means something to have it shared with someone who appreciates the art of it and how it represents the area that it began its journey in (I collect in Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana…mostly Montana). When you support that, you show your own love and respect for that region, not just for the artist.
That’s infinitely better than buying on shady Chinese sites where you don’t even know you will be getting what is represented (and probably aren’t). I dare say that it probably also means a lot more as a gift. Would you rather get a $2 Temu gift or something crafted over months from a piece of hand polished petrified wood?
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding part of what I do is seeing the fire lit in my customers. Sometimes it’s just the expression of joy in seeing what I created out of a rock or the sentiment of “I wish I was there” when they see one of my custom framed photographs. It’s even been the story that my art prompted as the beholder remembers something from their own past that they wanted to share when they saw my piece and it reminded them of it. It’s the “Awwww, that’s soooo cuuuute” when they see one of my “Rock Buddies”. It’s the sharing of what I love with people who appreciate and understand why I love it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MajesticWestGallery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/majesticwestgallery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MajesticWestGallery
