Life and Work with Megan Wyreweden

Megan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Sure! Like most artists, creating was a constant thing throughout my growing up years. I had many career aspirations through my childhood and teenage years, including mermaid, marine biologist, and video game concept artist.

I opened my online store in college, mostly as a hobby as I got my psychology degree. My Etsy store started really small, with just a few prints that I would get made at Costco, and it took me a month to get my first sale – a $5 mini print. But I kept at it, and I kept nurturing the shop throughout the many changes in my life – graduation, breakups, moving, moving again, etc. The shop wasn’t exactly booming for the first few years, however it was slowly but steadily growing. Fast forward to now, and my business is now my full-time career. Along with the shop, I wholesale products with over 20 different retailers, and I also travel to multiple cities in the country to attend conventions as an artist. My product line has gone beyond prints to a wide variety of stuff, including mugs, greeting cards, pins, clothing, and most recently, divination cards.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Well, I feel like any new shop isn’t going to be successful overnight. I think the biggest struggle for me in the beginning was self-doubt and just not knowing what to do. Those first few years, I was selling, but certainly not enough for a viable career (which was my ultimate goal). Things felt stagnant at times, and I couldn’t figure out what the next step was.

Nowadays, I think my biggest challenge is learning to turn my brain ‘off’ from work once in a while. I work 7 days a week, and I’m always on my phone or computer because I simply can’t tear myself away from it. It doesn’t help that my studio is also my home, where the line is blurred even more. While I try to establish boundaries, such as ignoring my inbox on weekends (which never works), the only time I’m truly unplugged from my work is when I’m with friends/loved ones or traveling abroad. I recently took a trip to Ecuador, where I was staying at a lodge in the Amazon rainforest for a few days. There was no WIFI, and I was hours away from the nearest town, which forced me to focus on the present and immediate world around me – which was this beautiful, lush, pristine jungle filled with a mind-boggling amount of plants and animals. It ended up being incredibly rejuvenating, and reminded me that maybe I should take more camping trips back home.

Please tell us about The Creeping Moon.
The Creeping Moon is my own personal little art brand. I’m an indie artist who creates artwork inspired by nature, history, nostalgia, and folklore. I create my drawings either on canvas or digital media, and print them on a very carefully curated selection of products.

My work is a culmination of the things that inspired and interested me from my childhood up til now – old museums, dusty attics, books about animals, beaches, video games, folk tales. Growing up in the beautifully gloomy Pacific Northwest, surrounded by nature, also really inspired a lot of my subject matter, as well as color palette.

My brand and products are an extension of me, and as all humans are unique, my brand is unique to me. I see this in a lot of artists and indie brand owners – it’s really interesting getting to know someone through their work.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve benefited from using?
Lots! I don’t have much in terms of ‘practical’ business knowledge, but I have a lot of literature that’s helped inspire my subject matter. I love learning, even though I’ve been out of school for years. I’m particularly interested in science and history, so a lot of the literature I consume nowadays falls under those genres, and they really help inspire my work. I’m currently reading “The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England” by Ian Mortimer, which is a history book written like a travel guide, and it’s incredibly fascinating. I listen to podcasts pretty extensively, especially when I’m painting or packing orders. My favorites are Missed in History Class, This Podcast Will Kill You (which is about infectious diseases), Lore, and I’ve recently started getting into Ologies.

Whenever I travel, I usually will make an effort to visit the local museums. In the past couple years, I recently visited London, Vienna and Dublin which all have amazing museums. In London I really adored the Old Operating Theatre Museum, which was a small museum in an attic-like space that covered the history of surgery and medicine. In Dublin I loved the Chester Beatty Library (a must for bibliophiles), and in Vienna, the Natural History Museum, and the Habsburg Imperial Crypt. The museum that has a special place in my heart however, would be the Field Museum in Chicago.

In more practical business terms, I’m part of a lot of Facebook groups that center around being an artist and running a creative business. The ones I participate in extensively are Artist Alley Network International, and One Fantastic Week. These groups are gold mines for people looking for advice, manufacturer recommendations, services, or just for networking and making friends.