Mandy meets art

“When did you start art?”

My usual response to this question is “in kindergarten when my teacher showed my parents a detailed portrait of a woman I had drawn from my imagination during art time”. Truly though, I believe I started “arting” as soon as I remember talking. My parents have so many drawings and art pieces that I made even before I knew how to string words together coherently.

Although I participated in every art related activity at school, I never really saw art as a serious passion or potential career until I was twelve years old. At twelve, I sold my first artwork, a pastel portrait to a local beauty salon and was introduced to my art teacher who also happens to be the most kind, loving, and talented human in my world to date: Christine Pilkinton.

This was me painting at Christine Pilkinton’s art studio in Nashville. She was my childhood role model, art teacher, and all around amazing human! She fostered a love for classical fine art techniques in me at a very young age. I think I was about 14 in the picture above. This was a picture of my best friend at the time I was painting.

At the time I met Christy, my family was struggling financially and definitely couldn’t afford art lessons. Despite this, she insisted I join her classes and quickly became a mentor to me, not only in art but life too. She trained me classically, in the way of the Old Master Oil painters.

Every single day after school, I was painting. I thought artists like Leonardo DaVinci, Sir Frederic Leighton, and John Singer Sargent were true magicians. The way they created life with nothing but crushed minerals (paint), a stick with animal hair on it (paint rush), and a stretched piece of fabric (canvas) seemed like real life alchemy and absolutely captivated my curious twelve year old brain.

At fifteen, I started teaching art to others kids. At sixteen, I traveled to Haiti to teach art at an orphanage. The painting below is of three real beautiful orphans I met there. I named it “The Guardian” because the oldest child was forced to become the protector and caretaker of his younger siblings. Being the oldest child or three myself, my own story resonated with his. Sadly, I knew that there was a good chance that I might never see him or his sister again. So I wanted to preserve and honor their memory and a piece of his story in the best way I knew how, between layers of paint.

I hope you enjoyed a little insight into how I got where I am today! Though what I do for living may change, art making is and always will be my passion. I just feel thankful that it does put food on the table for me.

Thanks for tuning in!

To be continued…