Meet Lea Whitley

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lea Whitley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lea below.

Lea, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I am so lucky to have supportive family members and parents. The way that my loved ones have always encouraged me to explore my ideas and have shown up to see the final results keeps me going. It makes me feel more confident in what I have to offer as a creator.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am a jack of all trades in the art community! I love to make things, I love to collaborate with other creators and I love to build community and connect people. I am a photographer with a degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design. I specialize in fashion and creative portraiture. I used to host meetups in the Tampa bay area to connect models and photographers and have brought those events with me to my new home in Atlanta, Georgia. I also have a small jewelry business, Sparkle Shanti, where I make earrings, chokers and more with resin and repurposed old jewelry. Lastly, I host a podcast called Creative Footnotes where I interview creative types about their process, how they discovered art and how they make their ideas into reality.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think it is important to be open to learning different mediums and styles to see how it can help your own ideas flourish. Take free classes, watch youtube videos, shadow someone experienced, go to museums. It is also important to network and meet other people who like doing the same things as you do beacuse it can help inspire you when you feel stuck. Go to local events and meetups, make friends onine.
Lastly I think it’s important to recognize that your art is a part of you. Never lost the personal element in your creative journey.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
They always showed up for me and they supported every idea I have ever thrown at them, from a young age. This was insanely positive and extremely impactful to how I am and how i make creative decisions to this day. It made me much more willing to try new things and believe that I could succeed at doing them, and help me bounce back even if I wasn’t the best at it. They also encouraged me to follow my dreams and I think that is such a blessing.

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