April 2025 Studio Expansion

April 2025

As we continued our hunt for a new location, we waited for information on the space that wowed us from the beginning of our search. Each week I would email the listing agent and each week I got a response that he would have information for us by the end of the week.

Several other places caught our interest but each had been quickly contracted out once listed. The growth of Lakeland is crazy! Our price range and desired size seemed to be in high demand and we would “just miss” the opportunity to check out the spaces.

We looked into buying a space - wow prices are sky high! We looked into leasing. We tossed around the idea of doing nothing. My husband and I debated all the points of each. We looked at the repercussions of staying put and not allowing for growth and felt like that was not sustainable.

There’s a point in a business when you have to make changes for longevity and continued health. We needed to scale up for continued and long term success.

One thing that many may not know about me is that as an artist that presents a very right brained approach to my creations - creative, whimsical, wonky - I am also very left brained - analytical, business minded, numbers oriented. I grew up in the retail toy business and from an early age knew I would have my own business. I started selling my art early in my college years and never stopped. With an undergraduate degree in Retail, a Masters in Education, and a life-long passion for art, I have a trifecta that has guided my professional career.

This is not my first commercial art studio. When we opened in 2023, it was not my first time hunting spaces or negotiating leases, but it was different. After having two brain surgeries and a possibility of more, I needed to set up a business that could run without me, one that my husband had to take over the business side of things if needed. Mission accomplished as it showed when I was out with my third brain surgery last July.

We set out on this journey of expanding with analytical reports, chats with financial advisors, and the realization that yet another brain surgery could be around the corner next summer. My surgeries dealing with my arachnoid cysts have been like clockwork, almost text book, except for the fact that only 1-8% of the patients that have a craniotomy fenestration ever have to do it again, let alone two more times. I am an overachiever like that.😳

However, rest assured, we plan my absence into all the deciding factors. The show, or the studio in this case, must go on.🙌