Conversations with Sara Wilczynska

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Wilczynska.

Hi Sara, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Poland, loving to draw, cook, and create, but like many people I inherited the message from society that art wasn’t a “serious” career. So I chose a different path and became a software engineer. After years of working at an investment bank and later at Google, I had what looked like the dream career — good salary, stock grants, international travel. But inside, I felt the spark fading. I was moving further and further away from the kind of life I wanted.

So I did something that shocked a lot of people: I quit cold, without a plan, and took a sabbatical across Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. My partner and I lived for six months on a small island in Thailand, and with all that open space, I picked up a set of watercolors. I began painting what I saw every day: fish, corals, the scuba gear scattered on beaches, the quiet of the underwater world. To my surprise, people wanted to buy those little paintings as keepsakes. That’s when I understood that art could become more than a private practice, it could connect me to others in meaningful ways and allow me to make a living.

When we returned, I knew I didn’t want to go back to the life I had before. I kept painting, kept learning, and eventually founded Swil Arts here in San Diego. Today, I create watercolor and ink illustrations that invite people to pause, savor small moments, and reconnect with themselves. My work is inspired by everyday life and by California’s spirit of ease and openness. It’s shaped by my values: delighting in life’s small moments, living at a human pace, and creating with care for people and the planet.

It’s been an interesting journey. I started painting seriously at 39, completely self-taught, and the joy of creating and the connection it brings keeps me going. Looking back, that decision of quitting that once felt so risky was really the first step towards alignment to the life I wanted to live and that I get to live and enjoy now.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but it’s been fun. Starting out, the hardest part was leaving the security of my career in tech. I walked away from a stable salary, benefits, and the comfort of being on a well-defined path, with no guarantee of what would come next. Then came the steep learning curve of becoming an artist later in life, which meant facing a lot of vulnerability and trial and error.

There were also practical struggles, like a large commissioned painting that arrived damaged in shipping. I had spent nearly two weeks working on it, and then discovered that the insurance didn’t even cover artwork. It was one of those moments that could have made me give up, but I pushed through, found ways to fix the piece, and kept going. Experiences like that taught me persistence and problem-solving in very real ways.

And to add up, there’s the constant challenge of running the business side of an art practice. There’s marketing, sales, admin tasks, etc, things I never studied but had to learn along the way. What helps me is tending to my nervous system, and reminding myself that creative work happens in cycles. There are seasons of expansion and seasons of rest, and the road feels a lot smoother when I honor those rhythms instead of trying to push through all the time.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At Swil Arts, I create watercolor and ink illustrations that invite people to pause and savor small moments. I think of them as “snapshots of life”, like a lifeguard tower at sunset, the nostalgia of a surf van by the beach, the ritual of grabbing coffee at a favorite truck. California’s openness and everyday magic inspire me, and what matters most is helping people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and remember that their lives are already enough.

What sets Swil Arts apart is that the work isn’t only about the art itself but about the values woven into it. I’m self-taught and began painting after leaving my career in tech. That background gives my illustrations a kind of precision, but my process is intuitive and handmade. Everything I create is rooted in sustainability and care. From using paper sourced from responsibly managed forests and biodegradable packaging to shipping carbon-neutral and donating 5% of sales to aligned charities.

I’m most proud that my art resonates with people in personal ways. Someone might see a piece and feel reminded of mornings spent walking the beach with a friend, the place where they spent their honeymoon a long time ago, or they might hang a print at home because it brings them a sense of calm. Those stories mean a lot to me, because they tell me I’ve helped someone smile and bring joy to their life, and that’s what life is about.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
For most of my life, I saw risk like something reckless people did. That’s probably why I ended up in Big Tech. It came with a promise of stability. By the time I was at Google, I had what looked like the perfect setup: stock grants, visa sponsorship, even free kombucha on tap. It was comfortable and secure. But also out of sync with what I really wanted. The job checked all the boxes, but I’d lost the spark. Those golden handcuffs are very real. Walking away from them was the riskiest move I’ve ever made.

But that leap also taught me something essential: security can keep you stuck. Sometimes the scarier choice is the one that actually puts you back in touch with yourself. Leaving Google with no plan cracked my life open. It gave me space to discover watercolor, to grow a practice from nothing, and eventually to build a business that feels aligned.

Risk hasn’t disappeared now that I’m an artist. It just looks different. It’s sending out a commission and hoping the client loves it. It’s painting seriously for the first time at 39, self-taught, and deciding to show my work anyway. It’s posting something online and wondering if anyone will care. What I’ve learned is that risk doesn’t have to mean overwhelm. If you can tend to your nervous system, take a pause, signal safety to your body, then you build the capacity to move through it. And risk becomes less about white-knuckle leaps and more about natural cycles of expansion and contraction.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.swilarts.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/swilarts
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/swilarts.studio
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-wilczynska-swil-arts/