Meet the Maker // Ebony Dew

Tell us about your creative business?
I’m an artist and painter!

Why did you get started?
I always dreamed of doing something funky for my career. I got my little creative heart crushed in my early teens and then fell into a “steady” job for my 20’s. I always created in my own time, and had a parallel interest in natural health and wellbeing. I started selling my artwork and exhibiting in 2019, but then found myself stuck and unable to move past the pressure and confusion of mixing creativity with business. I went back full time at my desk job, but eventually the stress and mental/emotional build-up became too much and I finally quit after 12 years. After a year and a half of time off (which I desperately needed for nervous system recalibration), I began creating again. I was sewing, playing with plant dyes, painting, and doing lots of pottery. I wanted to do everything at once. I was diagnosed this year with ADHD and it’s been such a relief in understanding why I felt so interested and invested in so many conflicting avenues all my life with no action towards one particular goal. I used to dream that one day it would all fall into place, and I would invent something that amalgamated all my interests into one. But eventually, the true relief came when I just decided to pursue painting as my only career path.

I promised myself that painting would be for work, and the rest of my creativity passions are just for fun, just for me. It was a major moment in my career evolution, and I’ve been able to separate myself more from the personal side of the art and feel more free to market my work and sell for appropriate prices. I let myself feel the intimacy of the creative experience when I’m in the zone, and after it’s done, I allow my business mind to take over and it creates a distance between it being so personal and it’s just felt so freeing! I have noticed a massive shift in my mindset and my business since I was able to make this decision and give myself clearer boundaries around what is creativity for work, and what is for joy.

Can you walk us through your career and how you ended up here?
In high school I studied art until year 10 where my angsty, hormonal, teenage self just could not fathom the explanation and documentation needed to ‘prove’ yourself in art class. To me art was a form of pure expression and the reason I created was because I had a longing to express myself, to find out about who I was, and to understand what I was feeling. However, the school system demanded that art must be created from a well thought out and detailed plan. My rebellious heart couldn’t stand it, so I quit art and moved to computer studies and that was that. After I left high school, I decided to give art as study another go and I enrolled in a cert 4 in visual art at tafe. I adored learning techniques and expressing myself, but when it came to assessment time I yet again struggled against the grain. I was stubborn (still am) in my belief that was a free form of expression which couldn’t be graded in the ways they told me were ‘right’. After that I started working a desk job for my Dad and then fell into a software development and business analysis role for 10 years in our other family business. I struggled with my physical and mental health, so I pursued a lot of learning in the natural health and wellness concepts during that time, but eventually fell back into art and started making more and selling them around 2018. I was offered a show at The Third Quarter Gallery in Brisbane and I took it! Around the same time, I was included in a group show at my local gallery The Gallery Peregian Beach. I loved this time in my life so much, and at the end of these shows I felt artistically paralysed. I felt like my hands just didn’t know how to paint anymore. It was such a sad and lonely feeling for me during that time when I lost connection to my creativity.

Later on, as I said before, I finally quit my job the day before my 30th birthday and started my adventure as an artist again, which brings me to now!