The journey as an artist into the retail world has been a very interesting one. Not sure who all is aware of a business called "Painted Tree". Basically it is a creative community of thousands of shop owners each under a single roof across various locations around the nation. The concept is each vendor is given a small booth that they will rent from the organization and have creative freedom to decorate and build out their rented space however they desire. Then they fill the space with products and add inventory into a backend system. As customers come in and purchase then sales are uploaded in real time through a point of sale which each vendor can login to and manage. None of the vendor are up at the location meeting customers and ringing up sales and instead they interact with and checkout with Painted Tree employees. Also each customer has hundreds of unique chooses at their fingertips within every few steps they take throughout the store.

Feeling confident in my artistic ability but not necessarily confident that the general public would connect with my art enough to make a purchase without me physically being present gave me a lot to consider but ultimately I decided I didn't have much to loose. I bit the bullet and went ahead and signed the year lease and then got to work. 

I opened my retail space in April 2024 at the Brodie Ln. in Austin, TX. This was the first Austin based location and it has taken some time to gain some traction and even almost a year later it is still not super well known. I've learned so much and love how much it has helped pushed me creatively. I have figured out how to offer my art on a wider variety of products like earrings, candles, stickers and bookmarks. 

If you are ever in the Austin area then I hope you take a minute to shop a wide variety of local, often times handmade, and very unique business offerings at Painted Tree, Sunset Valley and especially be sure to check out my retail art space, ColorBlend Art at Booth B18.