CanvasRebel Interview: Reconnecting with Veronica Vale

Reblogged from CanvasRebel, originally published on March 14, 2024

MEET VERONICA VALE

Stories & Insights

We recently reconnected with Veronica Vale and and are excited to share our conversation below.


Hi Veronica, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

All my life I’ve harbored this dream of becoming a full-time artist. That dream was my lighthouse, my cairn, guiding me through my life. When I was finally in a position to launch my art business in August of 2020, it felt like I had finally reached my destination. It was as if I had crossed the finish line of a marathon, flying under that archway with such excitement and pride in my heart and peace in my mind. Now three and a half years into my business, I’m slowly realizing that it wasn’t the finish line that I was crossing all those years ago, but the starting line.

Being a full-time artist is a never-ending pursuit. I think that was the biggest revelation for me: that being a full-time artist is less of a noun and more of a verb. It’s something that I work at constantly and consistently. It’s paradoxically rewarding and exhausting, exciting and terrifying, peaceful and chaotic.

A little over a year and a half ago, my husband quit his job in healthcare to join me full-time on this art adventure. It’s added an extra element of fun and fulfillment for us, but it’s also intensified the need for balance between doing something I love and making an income from it. It’s become a daily tightrope walk between passion and reason – one that I find challenging, but just as gratifying.

Fortunately, walking this line and navigating this journey has introduced me to such incredible people who are doing the same balancing act. One of my fellow artists gave me a piece of advice that I think of often – one that I think might help any artist out there struggling with how to balance it all: They said to make a Venn-Diagram of the art that you create. On one side, list everything you personally love and are passionate about creating. On the other side, list everything that you create that you know sells and that others clearly love. Then ignore everything but the sliver of overlap in between. That constant reassessment of what’s working for me in my heart and what’s working for keeping the lights on helps to prevent burnout and keep me running this beloved marathon for years and years to come.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a lover of the outdoors, 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 paintings.

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. 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.

While most of my works are acrylic paintings on canvas, I’ve started introducing mixed media into my body of work. These modern and minimalist mixed media “cloudscapes” and “mountainscapes” are acrylic paintings on custom, handmade wood panels with gold leaf accents and epoxy resin. In addition to my original landscape paintings, I also create limited edition prints, open edition prints, canvas reproductions, and a Vale Brand Line of 65 different art products. You can find all of my available work and all of the events I’ll be exhibiting at next on my website at www.veronicavale.com.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first considered this question in our last conversation back in January of 2023, I talked about how I had pivoted from taking too many commissions towards focusing more on my original work. I naively thought that this kind of business model pivot was a one-time story. Instead, I’ve learned that a creative career is all about pivots. It’s all about adjustments and recalibrations, constantly pivoting and evolving to accommodate changes in the world, in your life, and in your own personal preferences.

When I first launched my art business, I was selling some original landscapes, but my true bread and butter were commissions. Once I established enough of a base and following, I was able to pivot towards creating more of my original landscapes and creating prints of my work. Now I’m continuously introducing more art options and streams of revenue and limiting and reducing other less-successful areas of my business. I now offer original work, limited edition prints, open edition prints, canvas reproductions, Vale Brand Line art products, and more. It’s been exciting to see the evolution of my business, but I know that I’m not done. This business will look a little different every year, and I’m excited to see where it takes me.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I’m in the studio painting, humming along to my favorite songs with my pup snoring by my side, I feel in total and complete bliss. Creating offers me the greatest sense of peace and satisfaction. In rock climbing, we would call it the “flow state.” It’s when the buzzing of my mind quiets down to a soothing white noise, when I can truly lose myself in the moment. While I consider this one of my most rewarding aspects of being an artist, I think that if that was all I ever wanted or needed from art, then I could be satisfied with keeping art as a hobby. But I never considered art my hobby. It was always something to be shared. So while the act of creating is a reward in and of itself, it’s the act of sharing that art and finding connection through it that is the most rewarding to me.

It’s the moments when my work truly resonates with someone on a deeper level. It’s that time in Chattanooga, TN when a woman stood in my art fair tent and quietly wept in front of one of my landscapes because it reminded her of her late husband. It’s the time a young woman in Bethesda, MD gasped when she saw one of my pieces because it looked so fortuitously destined for her space. It’s the time a North Carolina woman commissioned a painting of my cloudscapes in honor of her late mother. It’s all of these moments and a million more that drive me, fuel my work in the studio, and give me a profound sense of purpose. The making of art is an act of inner peace and beauty, but the connection found through art is more profound still.

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Reblogged from CanvasRebel, originally published on March 14, 2024. 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. 

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