Daily Inspiration: Meet Amy Heyse

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Heyse.

Hi Amy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I graduated from Colorado State University with my BFA in Drawing and a BA in Art Education. When I first graduated from college, I worked as a middle school art teacher. It was awful (and I may still have post-traumatic teaching disorder, haha!). I applied for a job at Pinot’s Palette, a local paint and sip studio, thinking it would be a good stepping stone until I got another teaching job, but I loved it and never went back.

I’ve been a paint and sip instructor for 10 years and it has allowed me to pursue my art career while also providing me the flexibility to raise two little girls. I have had the opportunity to paint pianos and transformer cabinet murals for the City of Fort Collins Art in Public Places Program on multiple occasions. I do freelance portrait and illustration work. I have done illustrations for OSV Kids, a Catholic kids magazine, and recently wrapped up illustrations for my first children’s book.

The book is written by Colleen Pressprich and will be published by Our Sunday Visitor next year. It’s about the Jesse Tree tradition for families and depicts figures in the Bible with matching ornaments. I run an Etsy shop that sells prints and stickers of my Catholic-inspired artwork. I also recently re-launched my YouTube channel which has art tutorials.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When you’re a college art student working in a student environment, you take that time for granted. After I graduated and I started my first “big girl” job, all of my artmaking went out the window. I struggled with depression and anxiety after teaching and it took me a while to rediscover my artistic voice. When I gave birth to my first daughter, I continued to struggle to find time to create.

Back in college, I had hours at a time to create, but your free time changes when you become a parent. I had to get creative with my time. I was reading a cleaning blog where the author said, “You can clean anything for just 15 minutes a day” and I decided to apply that mentality to my art making. My time was limited, but I absolutely could put aside 15 minutes a day.

I started small and with watercolors (since they had minimal set-up and clean-up). I created a little bit at a time, one nap. It was like exercising a weak muscle. I found that I could accomplish a lot more than I expected in a short amount of time and my time limitations inspired me more than when I had hours of free time. I would think about what I wanted to work on during the day when I was taking care of my kids, and when they went to bed, the creativity just flowed.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is inspired by my Catholic faith. I create portraits and illustrations of Biblical figures and the saints, but all of my work touches upon my spirituality and prayer life. I love to journal, and a lot of what I work on starts as journal ramblings and turns into visually processing my prayer thoughts.

I primarily work in watercolors or digital artwork. I started with watercolors because the set-up and clean-up were easy as a young mom with limited time on her hands to create. I fell in love with the medium because you have to let go of some control. After all, watercolors just “do their thing.”

In 2020, I read a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron that inspired me to purchase an iPad. I use a program called Procreate to create digital artwork and it made me fall in love with drawing all over again. It’s incredible what digital art programs can do nowadays. It has been a great way to create on the go or when you have smaller pockets of time.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to create illustrations for Catholic publications. I had always wanted to do children’s book illustration, so it was a dream come true to be part of those projects. I’m also thankful for the experiences I have had doing painting projects for the city like the Pianos About Town and transformer box murals as well as having some of my work exhibited in art galleries.

Some highlights have been receiving an “artistic excellence” ribbon from a well-known art juror for a watercolor painting of my daughter and a first-place ribbon in watercolors for a painting I had created that was exploring my struggles with anxiety and depression.

What do you think about luck?
Synchronicity has played an important part in my life and business. When I first was getting back into art and dipping my toes into social media, a young woman on Instagram saw one of my posts and invited me to join a Catholic artist’s Facebook group. The group is full of women artists across the country who support each other in their creative pursuits, big and small. I had been longing for a community like that, so the timing was perfect and the encouragement helped fuel that creative fire.

There was a painting I created that resonated with a young woman on Instagram. When she shared my painting with her followers on Instagram, my phone kept lighting up with notifications, follows, and orders in my Etsy shop. At that point in my life, I was a tiny little account with a tiny Etsy shop. It felt like overnight my shop started to create a more consistent form of revenue. That one shout-out made a huge difference! The ripple effect is continued opportunities to create and connect.

One time, I felt called to step away from portrait commission work even though it had been a nice source of extra income for my small business. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling called to step away from that kind of work, but I prayed and discerned that I should stop. Shortly after deciding to stop making portraits, I got asked to illustrate a children’s book.

Had I not stepped away from commissions, something that was fulfilling both artistically and financially, I wouldn’t have had the time to say “yes” to the book project. Sometimes we have to allow ourselves to say “no” so we’re able to say “yes” to other opportunities.

Pricing:

• Prints starting at $15
• Stickers starting at $5

Contact Info:

• Website:amyheyse.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/amyheyseart/
• Facebook: facebook.com/amyheyseart
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzmBWoTE1VSVdJqDmYOWQVw/featured?view_as=subscriber
• Other: amyheyseart.etsy.com