Been doing some self-reflection below, warning!

I have spent the first part of this new year making space for thinking about where I am going on this art journey. Thank you so much for your sweet encouragements, promotions, shares, and kind words.

For me, creating beauty and interpreting the world around me through the lens of scripture is a lifelong pursuit. I hope you also gain insight and encouragement for you own pursuit of Christ as you come with me.

While its fun to pick out colors that communicate, here’s where the soul searching part really hit- developing the values of my art business. humm… this took a while. Where am I going? What do I care about as a creative and as a business owner? What honors the Lord?

This is what I came up with, I hope you can see these things growing in me already.

Values: 1. Community, 2. Craftsmanship, 3. Expression, 4. Beauty, 5. Timelessness

Value Statements:

1. I believe art should be shared

2. I believe art should be made with care and intentionality

3. I believe art communicates

4. I believe art is intrinsically beautiful and reflects our Creator

From there, I created a Brand Statement. This will be my beacon to keep me on course. It’s like a guiding principal to help navigate decisions.

Brand Statement:

“Courtenay Creates is a Fine Art Studio that produces original works of art for homes and souls. We do this because we want to make faith visible through artwork.”

This may need some tweaking over time, but I think my core values and motivations are there. (it’s a bit odd to think of myself as a “brand”) I also somehow want to convey FUN, FRIENDLY, SIMPLE, CREATIVE, OPTIMISTIC… maybe this will need to be narrowed down a bit.

The big take away from this exercise was seeing my growth. I am light years away from where I was only a few years ago. I am happy for my growth in bravery to try new things, my confidence that I am an Artist!, and my satisfaction about where I am currently. I have been growing in learning tech things, and developing my artistic style. And I have been more consistent over time, which has been a goal of mine. Yay! Happy for my progress! Grateful to be growing slow and small-