To evolve is to develop gradually, to come into being.
January 2025 marks 14 years since I moved to Chicago from Atlanta. In January 2014 I gave birth to my son. Moving to Chicago and becoming a mother are two of the most significant adult life changes that have molded into the woman I am today.
The process and journey of evolving has been frustrating, exciting, confusing, thought provoking, enriching, and it has been positively life changing. Leaving a circle of comfort forces you to build new networks personally and professionally. These networks have helped me form new and lasting friendships. I have formed friendships have given me the confidence to cultivate an art practice and led to numerous opportunities to share my creativity.
Giving birth was like stepping behind a veil. There are things you can’t comprehend until you personally experience carrying a child for 9 months, delivering a baby (for me via c-section), and raising a young man. My son reflects both the good in me and sometimes the parts of me that still need to evolve. I’m grateful he is healthy physically and emotionally. I’m thankful he is intelligent, curious, thinks critically, and questions people and the world he has been thrust into. He is creative and competitive. I know he is going to be an amazing talent in whatever he chooses to pursue.
Evolving doesn’t always mean you stray far away. This year I will celebrate 25 years of working in the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry. A job promotion 14 years ago brought me to Chicago. I look forward to many more productive years in servitude to patients who are on life saving and life sustaining therapies. I started in the industry as an individual contributor and have grown to lead national teams. I have had the privilege of working for multinational, multibillion dollar corporations and small, innovative startup organizations. I love serving patients and have done so in numerous functions.
My creative endeavors have always started with me playing it safe and then boldly evolving or pivoting. I was a jewelry artist for years and still hear from many customers who are still rocking those designs. After taking a metal smithing class in early 2014 soon after giving birth, I reluctantly accepted jewelry was going to have a take a back seat. For a while all art making took a back seat. It felt like there was only time to take care of a family, work, and enjoy art by taking advantage of Chicago’s wonderful art culture.
In 2017 I started journaling about what I wanted Art CURES All to be. The journey has not been about executing what i wrote on paper, but something more amazing than I imagined. I never intended to become an artist, but I realize I have always been an artist. I resisted becoming an artist for years because of my own limiting beliefs, particularly what I artists to be. After overwhelming encouragement from friends and aspiring collectors in 2019, I decided to create an online storefront. Simultaneously, I began to grow my social media presence for Art CURES All.
While mothering and working full-time, I have had the privilege of selling hundreds of prints, participating in numerous exhibitions, cultivating relationships with galleries, amassing a social media following, and appearing in two books. I am still evolving artistically. There are more stories to tell and explore through collage and abstraction.
I have an upcoming group exhibition where the piece pictured in this post (“I Am Evolving” 2022) will be shown. Stay tuned I also have a new collaboration launching in February. The Art CURES All storefront will feature different prints, larger sized prints, and later this year some original pieces. I look forward to sharing new works with the galleries I’m represented by and new collectors emerging.
As I continue to evolve personally and professionally one of the most important things I understand more clearly is to appreciate each day for what it is and what it brings. Evolutions are not always BIG things, but a collection of small habits, events, and activities that we gradually allow to manifest. Over time we get to celebrate the significance and the culmination of what we have allowed.
Happy New Year! Cheers to your evolutions this year, may they be positive, productive, and prosperous. 🥂
Heather
