The Creative CEO

I’m a fine artist and social entrepreneur from Southwest Atlanta, Georgia. When I was 17, I wanted to be an exhibiting artist and owner of a business that created the music industry’s solutions. The arts were great hobbies but weren’t considered significant career pathways. After being convinced to get a “real” degree, I dropped out of Georgia State University.

 

I began community work, deciding that if I couldn’t find a way to build a creative career using my talent, I could help people. I decided to finish school in Arts Administration to create a career on the art organizations’ business side.

 

My volunteer work in churches led me down a path of discovering that so many people were struggling with real mental illness but lacked solutions to reduce the impact it had on their families and their quality of life.

My obsession with complex problem solving led me down a ten-year career path in mental health. Working with sex trafficking survivors for six years, I heard over 300 stories of how women were exposed to “the life” Many stories included a lack of financial resources. One survivor allowed me to use art as a therapeutic tool to recover from drugs and trauma. She was a phenomenal artist!

 

A few years ago, I left my job as a social worker and mentored for survivors, and I promised that person I would find the courage to launch another company that would allow me to help her sell her art. She agreed but encouraged me to share the power art has to heal the world.

I started my company ArtzyBella at $50. We’ve pivoted numerous times, most recently switching being service-based to product-based, but now to a scalable service-based model.

 

I want my company’s earnings to fund my art career and provide seed money for my next few ventures. My company gives me a chance to create jobs for other creative professionals, young artists, and educators. Our product allows us to teach people how to use the art for wellness.

In February of 2020, I was awarded a first-place $10,000 prize by my alma mater Georgia State University to expand this project. I also work with local city governments to incorporate visual art in her neighborhood through immersive art events for people of all ages.  

 

I’ve been featured by 11 Alive, in the AJC, Georgia State University’s magazine, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Atlanta INNO”, BTG Network blog, Business X radio, and Fresh Paths.