Origins

Hello Beautiful Humans!

This is the owner of this website and artist for the paintings you see available in the painting section. I never added information about myself before other than when I first time when I originally tried to create this business with my partner and our roommate at the time, and it also didn't have anything to do with my art! We originally were trying to create mandala's to add to tee shirts, hoodies, covers, blankets pillows, I think I even tried to make leggings with them with an outside drop ship with the designs we made... But we quickly found out that the system we were using to make them ended up saving the designs in a way that if we tried to make them bigger, that it would blur pretty badly. So, with our first soft launch and no one purchasing our stuff, we ended up not doing anything with the business for like a year I believe.

Then, our roommate decided to move out with his partner at the time so that they would be able to finally get more space and feel more at ease with their surroundings as a couple. We have a kid, and he had been living with us while I was pregnant and then while my kid was a baby and toddler, so you can imagine how loud it could get sometimes, and how much space we took up, even though we were able to have a 3 bedroom house at the time. 

Any who, with this big change and in need of trying to find something else to help supplement, but also dealing with burnout from my then job, and previous jobs, I resorted to painting as my hyper fixation of choice. I have always painted as a Zen and calm outlet since I was young. If you can believe it, a lot of people in my family paint as a hobby, one family member is a famous painter. But, it's been quite common to use paint to express our creativity and even help us express our emotions during tough and even fun times. 

Because of my background, and the fact that, while I wasn't an expert at the time by any means and still don't fully regard myself as such, I did have a lot of practice in the art of painting, and even took a few classes in high school and college to get better. I was of course a little rusty at first, but I loved the feel of the paint all over me at the end of a session, and the act of smushing and pushing paint around on the canvas to convey whatever emotion and/or swirl of colors that came out. I started out with a focal point with white paint, and then blended with organic sponges and even an orange once, because it blended the colors in the background in an interesting pattern. After doing the backgrounds first and just playing with colors and finding the best ways to use it, I would think of what to add as the focal point afterwards. I usually never know what I'm going to paint before I paint it, so the outcome is always somewhat different or just kind of finds me after I complete a background of the painting. I started painting for this endeavor this way because I wanted to have fun with the painting and not feel shame or upset because the painting didn't come out the way I had envisioned from day or even weeks of planning. Over time, I have been more able to have a bit of an idea of what I plan to paint before painting, but still like to try and just paint whatever comes from putting colors on my palette and playing with the background colors first. 

After the first endeavor, this one started out with just paintings, and trying to sell that. I made sure to have at least like 25 paintings to sell, which meant painting them, waiting for them to dry, and then pouring resin over them. I also originally started on panel canvas as it was easier to paint on, on my kitchen counter, and also to add resin to... But I soon found out that people didn't know how to hang the paintings, so I also found a solution for that with command strips, and/or metal string added to the back, as well as getting some plastic painting holders so you could put the paintings on a table like a picture almost. I liked the command strips the best, because they didn't take as much time, also could be removable if necessary, and didn't take as much time for me to figure out, so I usually went with that option. Since I've been doing this more full time now for years, I started painting more on stretched canvas, which seems to be easier to hang up for people. I also hammer in a metal string into the back as well, because it makes it easier to hang the painting flush to the wall that way for people. I still have a lot of panel canvas paintings for sale by the way, but I do tend to prefer the stretched canvas now as I finally have an art desk and everything and am no longer having to paint hunched over on a kitchen counter! 

Okay, so with everything starting, my roommate no longer super involved, and my partner letting me just take the reigns, I ended up being the sole owner of the business in the end basically, with my partner helping me along the way. In fact, he had the idea of adding tea, tea products, and glass jars, and to partner with Piper and Leaf, to make that happen. It was so cool to be able to add that after I noticed that my paintings weren't as lucrative as I had hoped. And I also love tea, so it was definitely a win win for sure to add that to the website, and the collaboration just ended up so cool with our logo.

With all of the craziness though, I did notice that even though I priced my paintings at pretty low prices for the quality and time it took, not everyone could afford it. So, it led me to try and find alternative ways to get my paintings available for people and to get the art onto more practical things to make it even more special and affordable. So, if you look on the website, my art is now also on notebooks, spiral notebooks, tote bags, and even cell phone cases. I am always thinking of new ways to add my art to practical items because it just looks really neat to me, so there may be more in the future. Just keep a look out. I also take some requests too, if it doesn't take a lot of time, and I have the ability to add the item with the drop-ship service I use. They make really good quality stuff and make sure to let me know when something doesn't come out good with the resolution of the picture. And I should know, as I bought myself one of my phone cases, cause why not, and was super excited to see how neat it came out. I've added a picture of it to this blog for reference if you're curious to see how it turned out. 

In the end, it seems to have all worked out thankfully. I have some really neat stuff available to share in my opinion, and I don't fully feel like I'm working while doing it, which is amazing. I haven't super advertised my business though, as I haven't been in the best financial situations for the past few years, but I still love what I do and the products I have available. Thank you so much for reading this till the end, and I hope you have the best rest of your day after whenever you read this, and I also hope it helps you understand more of the origins of how all of this came to be.

Best wishes to everyone! 

Wandering Mandala by Sasha