Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Kemper Westbrook.
Hi Melissa, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have spent most of my adult life as a middle and high school English teacher and have always been interested in writing fiction and poetry and only recently became a painter.
When the pandemic hit, I was on maternity leave with my fourth son. Suddenly, I found myself home all day, every day with a newborn, a two-year-old, a five-year-old, and a seven-year-old. My husband was working full-time as a therapist in addition to finishing his doctoral dissertation. We had no childcare and stayed isolated. Then my dad became very ill and spent the next few months in and out of the hospital. It was an incredibly difficult time in my life. One day I picked up my son’s Crayola watercolors and found a much-needed creative outlet & self-soothing strategy in abstract watercolor painting.
When my beloved father passed away in November of 2020, I started combining painting, drawing, and poetry as an outlet for my profound grief. I think of the discovery of my artistic voice, which developed out of the pain of losing him, as the last gift my father gave me.
Since then, I’ve continued to write and paint, and as the world opened back up, I returned to my roots as an educator and began teaching creativity workshops, helping folks who may or may not think of themselves as artistic to nurture their creative spirits.
After my youngest son started preschool this year, I’ve shifted my primary focus to my lifelong dream of becoming a novelist. I’ve finished my first draft. My book is about a mom who accidentally gets magical powers and has to take her three unruly kids with her to a magical summer camp in an effort to tame her unruly magic. I plan to wrap up work on the novel before my 40th birthday in August. I continue to paint almost daily and still enjoy teaching creativity workshops.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It hasn’t been a smooth road. One of the struggles for me has been that I like painting way more than I like running a business.
There have been times when I have marketed a workshop and had it sell out quickly. Then there have been other times when, for whatever reason, only one or two people signed up and I had to cancel a workshop due to lack of interest. That part is a bummer. I love teaching but don’t love marketing.
It’s also hard sometimes to make room for art and writing on top of the demands of parenting young children, but I have fought so hard (with my husband’s encouragement and support) to hang on to my own creative identity and am so proud of the ways I have done that. I have a vision of helping other mothers of young children to prioritize their own creative aspirations and maintain their own identities when it’s so easy to be consumed by the demands of young motherhood.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m known mostly for my whimsical watercolor paintings, often paired with poems.
I think what I’m most proud of is how painting has helped me combat my perfectionism– my work is not technically impressive. I’m self-taught, and that’s evident. But I make what my heart wants to make, and I delight in the process of creating. My art is for me, but I decided to post it, and have been surprised and pleased that it also seems to resonate with some people. People began asking if they could purchase it, and here I am.
I’m a perfectionist in many areas of my life, but somehow it’s been different with my art. Instead of keeping my work private until it meets some arbitrary standard of “good,” I started sharing my work and am very comfortable with the idea that some people won’t like it. If they don’t, that’s truly fine. If it doesn’t do anything for them, then it wasn’t meant for them. But I have been so happy to learn that many of my paintings and poems articulate feelings and experiences that others do relate to and appreciate, and that is so meaningful to me.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Gosh. I had a really fantastic childhood. I could give a ton of examples of ways my parents encouraged my dreams and made me feel clever and important. At the moment, though, I’m thinking about a time when I was joking around with my brother and pretended to pour my bottle of fruit punch over my head. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize the cap wasn’t on, so I just actually poured a bottle of fruit punch on my head. We all had a good laugh about it.
Pricing:
- Collaborative Art Private Party (5-10 participants, great for children and/or adults) $200+
- Original Watercolor Paintings $75+
- Commissions $100+
- Art Prints $12+
- Creativity Workshops $35+/session
Contact Info:
- Website: mkemperwestbrook.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/m.kemper.westbrook
- Facebook: facebook.com/m.kemper.westbrook
- Other: https://linktr.ee/m.kemper.westbrook
