Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Craig.
Hi Amanda, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My creative story began in college–I was at the University of North Texas pursuing a vocal degree in the music department. In short, that means I am a classically trained opera singer.
However, due to financial complications, I left my college dreams unfinished. In the workforce, every office job I went to for years, my business writing would capture the attention of my bosses. I was often transitioned to positions involving writing in some way. Eventually I also began obsessively writing fiction as a creative outlet outside of work.
However, where I finally landed was the visual arts as a mixed media painter. In 2018, I began creating in art journals. Eventually my love of art journals led to travel journals, and then to painting on canvas and wood panels. I have worked with a wide variety of mediums, including acrylics, plaster, inks, graphite, watercolors, gouache, pastels, paper, acrylic mediums, fabric, recycled objects, and more.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My biggest obstacle to my love of art has been my health.
Initially a series of digestive issues were identified that included food intolerances, such as gluten and dairy. I also developed absorption issues with vitamin D, B12, and iron, for causes unknown, as well as arthritis pain in multiple joints. In 2020, I tore a calf muscle just by walking up the stairs. Chronic pain and fatigue developed, and one morning I woke up on Thanksgiving day feeling like I had the flu, but it never went away. I was eventually diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
Living with chronic pain and fatigue has made it challenging at times to pick up a paintbrush–due to pain or lack of energy–and chronic exhaustion and brain fog are barriers I have to regularly work around that limit my creative mental energy.
In the last couple of years, I also developed an allergy to propolis (beeswax), and to the sun, causing rashes or lesions on my skin. The propolis allergy has affected my life as an artist, because it means I am unable to work with cold wax or resins, and my allergy to the sun means I am unable to paint outside, en plein air. As a result, I have had to adopt alternative mediums or change creative methods due to these health challenges.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an emerging mixed media artist with a focus on playful landscapes and florals.
My love and appreciation for the great outdoors came from my father, who was an avid outdoorsman and used to take me and my sisters on hikes when we were kids. He taught us to appreciate wildlife and to identify flowers. This also inspired a love of foraging and plant identification which I still practice to this day.
Today I am most proud of my floral abstract paintings that are full of color and life, and you will see more of these coming out of my studio in the coming months.
What makes me unique is that I’m truly not a creative. I am an artist, yes, but simply not like what most people think of when they imagine a world of creatives. I’ve taken certified personality tests and was identified as analytical, strategic, reserved, and introverted. For me, art and expression are about solving a problem–there is one “solution” and my brain is attempting to find the path to that solution. That path is not clearly marked. Sometimes the path is long and sometimes it is short. It is about adding and eliminating things until my brain “finds” the final painting; a sort of reverse engineering.
That may seem terribly logical, and I suppose it is; however, I hope that also gives inspiration to those who feel they cannot be creative. You most certainly can. You don’t have to be a free spirit wearing neon colors to be an artist or to appreciate art, and you don’t need to be able to draw a straight line. Art and creativity are about more than just one little corner of the creative world that meets a stereotype.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am open to collaborating with other artists in ways such as working together for an exhibit, although it would have to be with the right artist–with art that would “mesh.”
Some of the best ways to support artists include following us on social media and buying art when something speaks to you. It means the world to an artist to know that we have sent a message out into the world, and someone has read that message and wants to keep it because it spoke to them personally! It feels like the proverbial letter in a glass bottle floating in the ocean and being found against all odds. There is no better feeling, and it is why artists do what we do.
Many artists, including myself, have print on demand pieces that allow people to wear or display art in their homes or as clothing. Every time you wear that shirt or carry that bag, you are inviting comments from people who will stop you to appreciate it, and you get the unique opportunity to promote your favorite artist.
Perhaps the most powerful way to support an artist you love is to mention that artist by name when you visit galleries where their art is hanging, and even more importantly, by asking your local art gallery to source that artist in galleries where they are not currently on exhibit. This helps spread an artist’s name and reputation in ways that kind of rebel against the traditional flow of how galleries source their art. Tell your local galleries who you would like to see hanging on their walls!
I have art on display at Lost Pines Art Center in Bastrop, Texas, and it means the world to me when people visit that gallery and tell the docent they are looking for art by Amanda Craig.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://littlehavenartstudio.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littlehavenartstudio/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LittleHavenArtStudio/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amcraig/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TexasMixedMediaArtist
- Other: https://www.contrado.com/stores/little-haven-art-studio
Image Credits
Photo of me taken by photographer Erin Nicole. Images of artwork were scanned by me.
