Hello and welcome to the beginning of Tiny Pine Art! I wanted to start off with a little overview of the kinds of things I want to post here and then introduce myself a little so you can get an understanding of what led to me making this website and soon-to-be store.
I love documenting the world around me from capturing the seasonal changes to sharing my travels. I also love sharing the behind-the-scenes process of how I make my art pieces. This “Journal” will be my place for documenting and sharing it all with you. I also want the things I post to be purposeful. I plan to do several series where I give you the story of the place I visited, show you the pictures, and then let you in on the process of how I create an art piece that is inspired by that place (an Ireland series is imminent). It will also be a place where I announce when I’ve completed new pieces, have new products coming out, discounts and promos happening at the shop and when I will be selling at art and craft shows.
I’d be utterly delighted if you wanted to follow along and the easiest way to do that is to receive my newsletter! Here’s the deal, I hate spam and I know you do too. I promise not to spam you. You will only get an email every once in a while to give you a quick update and I plan to reward you with a 15% off discount code on your first purchase at my soon-to-open Etsy shop 🙂 If you’re interested, please sign up at the bottom of this post.
Now where were we… ah yes, the back story of Tiny Pine.
Since the very beginning, back to when I have my earliest memories, I have been doing something creative. It’s the primary mode in which I live my life. I am also a people pleaser, for better or worse. I love nothing more than making people happy and I attempted to achieve this by drawing things for them. I should mention here that I have an extraordinarily supportive family who were troopers and never batted an eye at the umpteenth Christmas present they opened to find yet another painting. They didn’t just support it either, they encouraged it. I should mention here that my mom is an exceptional artist who always made sure we had craft supplies on hand. My sister is an awesome artist also. When we were little, a specific craft she did with us comes to mind. She would recycle the cardboard insert used in the packaging of our stockings. We cut them into heart-shaped cutouts, decorated them and delivered them as valentines to our grandparents. That was the moment I fell in love with stationery design and I’ve been hand-making my thank you cards ever since.
Everyone knew I was always happy getting art supplies as gifts. Mom, Dad, and both sets of grandparents all had houses stocked with art supplies for my sister and I. One year, Dad got me a Chinese painting set with an instructional book… want to guess what he got for his birthday that year…? You guessed it, a painting (he framed it and hung it in the house with the zillion other things I’ve made him). My grandma has a gallery wall in her house dedicated to the art I make her. Mom never throws away any scrap of paper that I’ve drawn on. My stepdad proudly asserts that he “commissioned” my first art piece… it was this whacky space scene with an anthropomorphized sun complete with glitter glue on a foam-core board. I’ve made art for my step-siblings, high-school friends, college friends, my husband, mother-in-law, father-in-law, brother-in-law, and sister-in-law… and none of them have complained. Bless their hearts.
To say that I am supported is a grand understatement. I 100% would not be doing any of this without all of them. I hope they know how grateful I am for each and every one of them. (Shoutout to my husband, Kevin, who lets me inhabit a whole room in our house just for my art stuff and never complains when I frequently sequester myself there. Don’t worry, he’s got his own room with his own stuff too. I swear it’s a key to great marriage.)
Anyways, if you made it all the way to the end of this post then cheers to you! I’ll have a drink in your honor 🙂 Keep an eye out, cause I’ve got lots of stuff planned and I can’t wait to share it with you!
For more information on the meaning behind the name Tiny Pine and to learn more about the kind of work you can expect to see, read more here.