Welcome to AngelArts 2.0 and our new Website! This has been a long time coming and a long time planning! As primarily a print designer, designing a Website in WordPress was not something I felt comfortable doing, but it became apparent a complete change was necessary or our business would not grow. And our dreams would die.
That’s the thing. Without growth, things die. That includes plants, people, and business entities.
I started AngelArts in 2004 after years of dreaming and reaching for new heights in my life. My first product was my Victorian Rose Collection, various art notecards that I designed using my mother Ann Neal’s paintings.
Before starting AngelArts, though, and creating the cards, I taught piano and guitar. I called it AngelMusic and used a picture from my childhood as the logomark. It was a picture my mom took of me when I was a toddler. I was always reaching up to play our 1908 McPhail upright piano so that Christmas she put a little gold halo on my head and I was wearing a white dress. It’s been one of my favorite photos for years.
So when I expanded my business to include the art cards, that’s when I thought of the name “AngelArts.” To include all my various artistic endeavors.
Because ultimately, I wanted my art (graphic design, music, writing) to be a vehicle for God’s glory.
So since 2004, it’s been a wild ride of entrepreneurialism. I had no idea what I was about to embark upon. Or the challenges that would like ahead:
- Remodeling an old house
- Raising a child with Autism
- Moving to a newer house
- Homeschooling
- Experiencing a cut in my husband’s hours
- Losing our vacation rental property to foreclosure
- Various health issues
Through it all, faith has played an integral part of the ups and downs of our lives. There have been many times I have wanted to give up. But besides God leading me, one person kept me going.
My son, Sam.
He is the apple of my eye. The cherished child who continues to amaze me. Our lives have not been easy and there have been many challenges from that first day he chose to enter this world. On his own terms, of course. Because that’s how he’s always been.
I couldn’t give up because I have to prove my deep-held belief. That God gifts every child with gifts and my job is to help grow that gift. To foster an environment where he’s inspired to achieve his dreams. How could I inspire him if I gave up?
So I kept building and building my business, trying out different projects. Learning and growing. Becoming a certified Digital Marketer. Building networks. Overcoming feelings of inadequacy. Testing my faith like never before.
Because that’s what becoming an entrepreneur did for me. I’ve had to trust in Jesus, cling to Him, pray, do battle, and continually come to the end of myself.
That’s when I slowly came to realize: I can’t achieve this dream on my own. A dream that began in college when I started a Christian arts anthology called Roadways. An idea that germinated in 1996 as I received the idea of starting an inspirational healing and arts center called Blooming Originals.
And that was a literal dream. Early in the 2000s, I had a dream one night that I had started the arts center and it was a beautiful, grand old building made of stone. We had a tour of it and as we walked its fine halls, I saw people enjoying the arts together. I felt the energy in the dining hall as the students fellowshipped together over fine food. I saw the beauty from the balcony and then we went outside, got in our car, and it slipped away due to getting lost in the neighborhood.
It was a prophetic dream. I had it in my grasp, but I was too young, lacking self-confidence, lacking faith in God. It slipped away…
Until I started realizing that my dreams could not be achieved alone…
Read more in my next blog!
