Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Henry.
Stephanie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve always been an artist and an animal lover; when I was young I would trace the horses in my picture books, and I just kept tracing and drawing them until eventually, I got pretty good at it. I’ve been dabbling in some form of art or another ever since. I turned to craft and scrapbooking for a while when my kids were little, but the pull of painting and drawing brought me back. I joined the Academy of Art’s online Fine Arts program around ten years ago and received an Associate’s Degree, but I wasn’t sure how to turn that into something that could help pay off my student loans. I did some painting and got some things entered into some shows and even earned a couple of awards, yet I still couldn’t figure out a way that art could be a priority in my life without having to sacrifice in other areas, and as a single parent, that just wasn’t an option. I had stopped painting for a couple of years as I worked through some personal issues, but I got a dog, and he was just the best! Then a year and a half ago, I got a little Pitbull puppy for my daughter and ended up getting connected to the San Diego Pittie Parents Meetup Group. They helped me understand my new puppy and my older dog a little better and gave me a ton of support as a pet owner. One of the founders’ dogs was sick and facing some medical bills, so I drew up a little design for them to print on t-shirts to help raise funds for her bills. They ended up asking me to host a booth at their annual Pitties in the Park event in October, and the terms were so reasonable that I couldn’t turn it down.
There was only one problem, I didn’t have anything to put in my booth! So I drew and painted like crazy so that I would be able to show what I could do at the event. I started putting every spare moment into my artwork and I haven’t stopped in the past year. And what I learned is that I love painting animal portraits! I had already known that I enjoyed the challenge of a portrait, but in school all of my subjects were people. Now I was discovering that animal portraits are just as challenging and fulfilling, and I truly enjoy connecting with people through their pets. Their faces light up and they beam with happiness when they talk about an animal that they still have, or their face softens with their love for an animal that they truly miss. Either way, it is all love, and what can be better than that? The more paintings of pets that I did and that I posted on social media, the more interest and commissions I received. I’ve had a waiting list for my commissions all of this year and I have met some wonderful people and their pets through my work. The stories that people tell me about how their pet came into their life, and what they mean to them, are so heartwarming, and I just love trying to capture that relationship in a painting. And at the same time, I realized that not everyone is going to be able to commission a professionally painted portrait of their pet, yet so many people love their pets so deeply that they would love to have some artwork of them. I had been watching the Paint and Sip type business doing pretty well, and I really liked the business model, but I always felt a little “meh” about the paintings. Sunsets and palm trees are great, but not very personal, and that matters to me. I love the idea of making a creative experience so fun and accessible for people, but I wanted it to have a deeper connection for the painters.
And as I already know how to paint animals, I’m in the perfect position to guide people in painting their pets. I know how to get the various coat colors, how to create the depth in the fur, or to show the shine on the coat, and I know how to make eyes hold expression and personality. I’m able to teach and guide people through a lot of these elements so that they end up with a painting of their pet that they did and that they are proud to show off! I love it when I overhear my painters talking about where they are going to hang their painting as soon as they get home. I love the mix of the fast and fun paintings and teaching, along with my more deliberate and developed commissioned portraits. I get the interactions with my painters and those connections, and then I also get the deep meditation and soul stretching of pouring myself into a painting and doing my best work. I love both, and now I’ve started to branch out and teach more in-depth classes through the Poway Adult School, and I find that incredibly rewarding as well.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been as smooth as a road as I would have liked. I’ve always known that I wanted to be an artist, but I didn’t always know how to get there. I didn’t know anyone personally who was an artist when I was growing up, so there wasn’t anyone to ask for advice. I ended up working in the medical field as an administrative assistant to pay the bills. And art took a back seat when I got married and had my children. I struggled with the concept of needing to justify the time and expense that it took away from my family. After being married for about twelve years, my husband and I divorced and that was the start of a really difficult time. We had an acrimonious divorce with a brutal custody battle that went on for several years. I ended up developing a drinking problem during that time and fortunately, I clued in before too much permanent damage was done. I have been sober now for eleven years and have made so many positive changes in my life, I’m proud of who I am today. Another challenge that I have faced is being diagnosed with BiPolar II disorder.
I have always struggled with depression, but a few years ago, my therapist and I noticed a pattern in my behavior and realized that the same pattern had been happening over and over for a while – as far back as I could remember. I was already taking medication for the depression, but with this new knowledge, we were able to fine tune my medications to make a difference overall. In the past, I would get these great ideas and get all excited and gung-ho about implementing them, but I would jump in too far too fast and get in over my head. Then I would get anxiety over how I was going to make it all work, and when I finally realized that I wasn’t going to be able to and that the people around me were going to have to pay consequences for my rash behavior, I would fall into depression. With medication, I am more balanced and less rash, and yet, I still have great ideas. I just follow through on them in a very different way these days.
Please tell us about your business.
I have two sides to my business. I have the Stephanie Henry Art side where I do fully developed, high quality pet portraits on commission, along with works of my own for entries into galleries and shows, and then I also have the Pawcasso Paint Your Pet side that focuses on accessibility to art for a wider audience. Both sides celebrate our relationships with our pets and what they mean to us. Stephanie Henry Art paintings have a strong sense of color and detail and I focus on painting a portrait of the individual animal. I want people to recognize THEIR pet, not A pet. I often joke that I love making people cry as so many of my clients cry when they see their finished painting. The best praise is when they say that yes, that is their good boy. For Pawcasso, I love getting people in my classes who used to paint a long time ago but stopped for some reason, as I can relate. I love encouraging them to keep painting and I love seeing people be amazed at how well they do. So many people who have never painted at all come into one of my events and then go home with a painting that they are so proud of! That’s a great feeling. And in keeping with wanting art to be more accessible for people, I have begun to offer custom paint-by-number kits on my website. That way people can paint their pets even if they aren’t able to make it out to one of my events. I think we all need to access our creative and artistic side a little more frequently than most of us do. I often compare painting to meditation and say that it is one of the fastest ways to get into the present moment that I know. When you are focused on a painting, you aren’t thinking about work, your grocery list, or that you need to pick up the dry-cleaning. You’re just trying to paint that dang ear right!
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
He only thing so far in relation to my business is to have started much earlier.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.stephaniehenryart.com
- Phone: 6192190707
- Email: stephaniehenryart@gmail.com
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