What’s your business name and what do you do?
My business name is Scribbles and Doodlez and I am a watercolor artist specializing in creating stationery products.
How did you learn your craft?
I actually am a self taught artist. I was always into the arts growing up whether it be dance, photography, singing, etc. I had my tonsils removed as an adult and the recovery was insane. I was super bored and made my mom pick me up a watercolor paint set and just started painting.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
One of my favorite things about Scribs is fostering connections with other creatives in the area, and fostering relationships with all the stores I sell my products too. I love bouncing ideas of each other, sharing what works and what doesn't work for me, and I love helping out new creatives with getting into stores, markets, etc. It's a really tough scene to break into and I truly believe there is room for everyone. The art community at times has truly saved my life when I have been in extremely dark places, and the friendships I have made are lifelong.
What do you enjoy least?
One of my least favorite things is admin work and actual business stuff which is funny because I am running a business. I work full time, on top of running Scribs so any accounting, administrative work, website updates, and stuff like that is my least favorite thing to do. I just want to paint and make cool art!
What’s one thing you wish people knew about your work?
I wish people understood how much time goes into creating a single design. It's often misunderstood that since I outsource the creations of my products to companies my craft is easy. I spend hours coming up with my designs, sketching various versions, painting them multiple times because watercolor is very finicky and the editing of designs takes HOURS. It's not just a one and done thing, and a lot of the time it takes many many tries to create something I truly like.
What’s one artist you look up to?
An artist I look up to and one that actually helped me get scribs off the ground is a local Maine artist named Wild slice. She approached the store I worked at to start selling her stickers back in 2017-2018. It was so inspiring seeing a local mainer, do something like that. She was super nice in helping me and telling me where she ordered her stickers from and it was a huge inspiration for me to start doing my own designs. In 2019 after a birthday trip to Europe I got scribs off the ground after thinking to myself, holy crap I can do that too!
What do you do when you’re not making art?
When I am not doing artwork I am working my other job, dancing ballet and tap, or working out at orange theory. I also love listening to true crime podcasts and I am always watching spooky movies when I am either working or not working.
Night owl or early bird?
I am def a night owl. I have pretty bad anxiety, which tends to get most bad at night that contributes to my insomnia. I try to listen to podcast, or read reddit to help me fall asleep, and lately I've really been into a rain soundtrack on spotify its been super relaxing.
What's your favorite place in Maine?
Gosh so many amazing places in Maine it's hard to choose. Honestly back in 2020 I went to downeast Maine for the first time and fell in love with that whole region. My favorite place up there is Cutler coast. It's one of my favorite hikes I've ever been on and I dream of it every summer. I'm excited to do a market up there this summer and mix some hiking in with my trip :)