We were lucky to catch up with Volta Voloshin-Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Volta, thanks for joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

I created a popular workshop theme titled – Watercolor Meditation. This is a combination of simple and easy breathing exercises that are coupled together with a watercolor technique. The result is a relaxing experience that helps someone get out of their head and onto the paper. This concept has been a hit with my community (had over 900+ signups for a virtual class) and also my corporate clients like Michaels, Meta, Home Depot and others.

Volta, 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?

An immigrant from Moldova, Volta celebrates food with art and animation.

She is the founder of Color Snack and her mission to watercolor the world can be seen in the various projects such as custom illustrations and animated Gifs, brand activations and workshops that she leads for notable brands like Dallas Mavericks, Home Depot, Michaels Stores and others. She has taught thousands of students in her online and in-person watercolor workshops, where she encourages everyone to rediscover their inner artist.

Volta is the creator of Watercolor Meditations, a concept and online class that combines breathing exercises with watercolor techniques for a calming and relaxing experience.

Volta is also the co-author of Art+Affirmations, a creativity journal with prompts to explore and live a creative life. She has illustrated a paper weaving kids activity book that inspires a calm and centering experience.

Volta wrote and illustrated her first book, titled Watercolor Snacks, published in July 2021.

Volta’s live show, Watercolor Happy Hour runs weekly on Facebook, Linkedin and Youtube. On this show, she and her husband share cocktail recipes and then teach others how to paint them.

Most recently, Volta was one of the first 100 members to be part of LinkedIn Creator Accelerator Program, where she created engaging content on topics of creativity, mindfulness and food.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

1. Learn to rest, not to quit. A lot of things clicked for me when I first saw that phrase. Prior to that I was experiencing a lot of burnout and discouragement from trying to get my art business off the ground. I would keep overworking myself to the point of exhaustion, which a lot of times also led me to thinking that I should give up. When in fact, all I needed was a good rest to reset my mental state and then return back to work. Scheduling time to rest is absolutely essential, especially when starting a new business. No matter how much we want something to succeed, it won’t be possible if we don’t allow ourselves to rest.

2. Find a community. I remember feeling incredibly lonely my first two years into my creative entrepreneurship journey. At the time, I didn’t have friends or a community of people who understood the risks and challenges that you have to go through as an entrepreneur. Slowly, I started networking and meeting people that were going through similar things and that helped a lot in not feeling lonely. Eventually I joined a community of female artists, The Art Queens, where the intersection of art and entrepreneurship was the perfect place for me to find my people.
Remember that you don’t have to go at it alone, and developing relationships with people who are on a similar journey as you will help a lot when you encounter challenges.

3. Believe and commit. I came to learn that mindset is a huge component in succeeding. The belief that we have in ourselves and our abilities is probably going to determine our success. The commitment to our mission and journey has to be stronger than the excuses or challenges that will come up along the way. Building a resilient mindset will help weather the storms and provide fuel o to keep going. That is why the WHY of our business or what we do must be strong and rooted in strong emotion.

4. Networking is key. This might not be a point a lot of artists will like, because like myself, a lot of us are introverts and would rather spend the day locked away working on something creative. However, I’ve come to learn that networking is a huge part in growing your audience and opportunity for selling work or attracting clients. When we look at some of the most successful artists, those were all master networkers who went out of their way to meet and get to know people. Don’t use introversion as an excuse to build relationships and get your name out there. You never know who is watching and who will come to hire you for the next grand opportunity.

5. There are many ways to make money with art. This is something I didn’t understand at first. I thought there were only a few specific avenues of making money from art and that if they didn’t align with me, I would just have to get over it. However, the current technological advances and the internet have completely shifted how artists can make money. I encourage any beginning artist to try out different approaches to making money with art to see what resonates with them.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The mission that drives my creative journey is to share my the benefits of living a creative life with others. I feel super committed to making art accessible for anyone who wants to include a bit of creativity into their daily lives.

One of my most deeply aligned projects was writing my first instructional art book. I wrote Watercolor Snacks to help inspire future generations of artists and people who want to express themselves and have a deep connection to food.

I also created a highly popular workshop theme: Watercolor Meditation. In this workshop, I share various simple techniques participants can use and combine a visual cue with their breathing. The result and the phenomenal amount of positive feedback tells me that this is a very much needed tool for stress and anxiety relief.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.colorsnack.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colorsnack/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/voltavoloshinsmith/

Image Credits
Kathy Tran Photography Photography by Misty