CanvasRebel Interview: Meet Veronica Vale
Reblogged from CanvasRebel, originally published on January 26, 2023
Meet Veronica Vale
Stories & Insights
We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Veronica Vale. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Veronica below.
Veronica, we’re looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
Three years ago, I was working a job in an art museum. It was a good job, close to home, in a beautiful setting, and had a good salary, healthcare plan, PTO and more. I had every reason to be completely satisfied with my life, but, nevertheless, there was an incessantly nagging voice inside of me that knew that I was meant to do something else instead.
I had known that I wanted to be an artist for as long as I can recall. It had been my childhood aspiration and my lifelong dream, but I had a predisposition toward fearfulness, a natural inclination toward overthinking and anxious second-guessing. For too long, I had been too afraid to take that leap to strike out on my own and fulfill my lifelong dream. Then one night right before the New Year of 2020, I woke up from a nightmare, crying. I had had a dream where I was dying, and the last thought that flitted through my brain before I woke up was: “but I never became an artist.” It was just a simple thought, but it haunted and panicked me.
I knew then that no matter how safe and comfortable my life was, I would never feel fully fulfilled if I didn’t at least try to become an artist. So I wrote out a New Year’s resolution to quit my job and become an artist before my birthday that year. I wrote my resolution out on a tiny scrap of paper and signed it. I even made my husband sign it as a “witness,” which makes me laugh a little now. I hung it on our refrigerator as a daily reminder of my promise to myself to never give up on my dream.
Then in August of that year, two days before my 26th birthday, I officially launched my art business. It was terrifying and thrilling. In many ways, it still is. I am so proud, however, to now work full-time as an artist. It’s still scary to risk it all to pursue a dream, but ultimately, I’ve found that it’s scarier not to.
Wow, we appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
As a rock climber, hiker, and overall outdoor enthusiast, I’ve been privileged to follow adventure to many breathtaking scenes of inspiration. I’ve found joy in documenting these wild scenes along the way, from my former home in the alpine mountains of Utah to my travels throughout the Western US to my current home nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Using my photos and memories as reference, I translate the powerful beauty and gentle tranquility of nature into modern, stylized acrylic paintings.
Each piece combines acrylic paint, metallic paint, and pen and ink, to provide a balance of loose, painterly expression with elements of graphic design. The vibrant, expressive painterly strokes are juxtaposed against the alternating bold and delicate line work to better explore the intersections between nature’s range of wild ruggedness and structured delicacy and our own such range.
In this way, my landscapes present nature as seen through the eyes of an idealist – one who finds serenity and bliss in the subtle refinement and cultivation of nature’s rugged beauty, and yet celebrates the ways in which we and nature can also be wild and complex. Each painting then becomes a window into my mind, a postcard from an adventure gone by, and a happy, restful space for a restless mind.
Have you ever had to pivot?
When I first launched my art business, I didn’t have enough of a following or recognition to get by on my original landscape paintings alone, so I took a lot of commission work. With full sincerity, I can say that I have truly enjoyed every project and commissioned painting that I have ever worked on. Regardless of this, there came a point when I was accepting more commissions than I should have. It was my first holiday season, only a few months after my launch, and I had taken far more commissions than was realistically plausible. So to make up for it, I was staying up painting until 2 am every night in the weeks before Christmas. It was unhealthy, and I knew that I had to pivot or else risk burnout.
So after that holiday season, I began practicing saying “no.” The people-pleasing part of myself still struggles with this. Nevertheless, I learned to only accept a commission load that I could truly handle. I then carved out more time to paint more of what I wanted to paint, rather than what others wanted me to paint. I started making high-quality prints of my previous work. I entered the world of juried art fairs: an expensive, but ultimately, worthwhile investment.
All of this led to even more time dedicated to original paintings, which has freed me up to pursue my creative vision further than ever before. Now, going into 2023, I am gearing up to launch my first ever art product line with branded apparel, home decor, pillows, drink ware, and more. With this new line, I’m so excited to be able to share my work in such a practical, accessible way.
It’s always been important to me that my work be accessible. I want to make art for everyone and not just the select few who can afford the higher price tags of an original painting. This new Veronica Vale product line allows me to do just that. I could not be more excited to share my work with anyone who may treasure it. Keep an eye on my website for the launch soon: www.veronicavale.com.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I have found that creative careers are snowflakes: no two are ever truly the same. There is no set path and no guidebook, so we each must forge our own way. There’s a quote by novelist E.L. Doctorow that reads, “writing a novel is like driving at night: you can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” I feel like that’s a good metaphor for a creative arts career in that you never really see the full path laid before you, but you have to trust that it’ll get you to where you need to go. Trust your intuition, trust your instincts, follow what interests you, and follow your curiosity.
Because of the unique individualism of a creative career, however, it’s difficult to find the right resources for the kind of work you want to create or the kind of creative career path you want to emulate. So I have found that the greatest resource we have is each other.
Befriend fellow creatives and fellow artists. Learn from them, be inspired by them, bounce ideas off of each other. No matter how different their path may look from yours, you can still find inspiration from the myriad of ways to make it in the creative world. Now I know the importance and the value of that. Be wary of comparison though. Fellow artists and creatives are not your competition. Instead, they can be inspiration, role models, potential collaborators, and kindred spirits forging their own one-of-a-kind paths just like you. After all, nobody will ever be able to express your unique voice as authentically as you can.
Contact Info:
Website: veronicavale.com
Instagram: @veronica.vale.art
Facebook: @veronicavaleart
Reblogged from CanvasRebel, originally published on January 26, 2023. CanvasRebel’s mission is to create a space for artists, creatives and entrepreneurs to be able to learn from their peers through the magic and power of storytelling.