Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Quiet your mind. Go to your happy place.
For me, that place is something like a little slice of Switzerland I carried home with me. A memory, a dream, an ideal. Mon petit Valais. A magical place where anything is possible. It’s the joy I felt when I took this picture, rocking on a hammock with one of my sons, a poppy in his hand, his hair tickling my neck, surrounded by the sounds of birds singing and kids playing. A place to frolic, explore, and discover. A place to nurture the spark.
That’s all well and good, but this is America. So apply capitalism, and make this happy place a little more tangible and economically viable. Thus, Petit Valais Studios was born. She’s supposed to grow up to be an income-producing business based on creative endeavors. Fingers crossed. (She’s truly still a newborn, so don’t expect too much of her yet.)
Who’s speaking?
As for your author: I’m Carrie Suzanne, the artist and founder of Petit Valais Studios. Here are a few things you can expect to see here over the next several months:
- A regular cadence of blogs on a variety of topics within the cross section of creating art and running a small business. This will include posts on starting business in the arts, strategies for nurturing the creative process, arts & crafts walkthroughs and tutorials, and more.
- A place to find me on major social channels where I will be sharing new content, including Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and possibly some others.
- A small shop of original artwork and prints by yours truly. (Maybe someday we’ll have a whole network of Minnesota-based artists! That’s part of the dream, anyhow.)
- Links to find and buy my work on third party sites like Etsy, CafePress, and more.
A little something extra for my fellow ADHDees!
The one thing I can offer now is a little info about my Twitch stream. As an artist with ADHD, one of my biggest struggles is staying on task. To that end, I have a Twitch channel where I work from 10:30 am – 2:30 pm CT most weekdays. This is time I have dedicated every day to creative endeavors (although sometimes I do have business to attend to). Body doubling has been huge for me in my own ADHD journey; perhaps working along side your fellow artist Carrie will inspire you to get stuff done too! It keeps me accountable, anyway. Here it is: https://www.twitch.tv/petitvalais
I think that’s enough for today. See you next week for some more riveting content! Au revoir, mes cheris!