Meet Meg Wagler

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meg Wagler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Meg, 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 believe an artist’s primary job is to be themselves and express their lived experience to connect with others. In order to do this, you’ve got to be confident in who you are and how you think. For me, this started to develop when I changed my perception that confidence means you have to be right, or be the best. Instead, I pulled confidence from my imagination and my curiosity.

Releasing any need to be the best or to control an outcome allowed me to draw, paint, and think more fluidly and ultimately, more powerfully. I think an artist’s imagination is their superpower, so leaning into the flow of my thoughts and questions has really allowed me to develop a confidence in asking (and trying) anything. Sometimes it means leaning into quirky concepts, and sometimes it means developing a series of really basic botanicals just because I felt called to do it. The more I’ve let myself express what I really want to express rather than what I think people might want to see, the more I settle into my role as an artist.

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’m a visual artist and illustrator blending fine art and commercial art into one practice. I have about a decade of experience in art director/creative director roles at agencies and have carried that experience into my own multidisciplinary practice. I create murals, commercial illustrations, and fine art so I can find a balance between expressing and exploring alongside making a living.

I work in bright hues and flat dimensions, often at large scales. I love to partner with people and brands to expand their creative direction with art projects. I most recently worked with a hotel to design and paint multiple murals and art collections for their hospitality space identity. It was a perfect blend of my art and creative direction experience and so much fun to bring to life!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Optimism – I think optimism is essential as an independent artist. I don’t mean blind hope or toxic positivity, but rather a genuine belief that my art will find the right audience and that I will continue finding success, even if I don’t yet see how. This belief has carried me through the inevitable ebbs and flows of independent work and has helped me stay level headed.

2. Not Afraid of No’s – I think it’s fairly common for artists to be sensitive about their work. It makes sense, and I’m not immune to it by any means. I think to find success as an artist, you have to find your own way to accept rejections, because you will get a lot. Even if you’re a top tier artist, you still won’t be for everyone, and accepting this is key. I try to gamify getting to 100 rejections early every year. It incentivizes me to reach out to a lot of galleries and partners with pitches. While most of them don’t work out, enough of them do, so every time I get a “no”, I mark a tally and move on. No harm done, and I’m ready for the next yes.

3. Staying Inspired – my best work often comes from inspiration outside of the traditional art world. I’ve made it a point to invest time into other hobbies that bring me joy and make me feel curious like gardening, cooking international dishes, traveling to new places, listening to new music, hiking new trails, etc. All of these genuine interests build a mental map of my internal world that I can pull from later on when I’m in my studio. Maybe I see a new plant on a hike, or my hydrangeas bloom a new color because I changed my soil acidity, or maybe a new song makes me visualize a fun line pattern. Living an inspired life means that you can more easily express what you take in.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

Detaching myself from grind culture has been a big area of focus for me over the last few years, and I’ve seen some real growth over the last 12 months. Getting my career start in an agency-style setting meant producing constantly, often working well over a 40 hour work week, on the weekends and into the evenings. I felt a sense of urgency to do more and be a hard worker because that is what current society tells us makes a valuable person.

As a goal oriented person, the agency world was very toxic for me but it took me years to realize it. I felt a constant need to please and produce, and felt guilt and shame when inevitable short falls would pop up. I lost my sense of curiosity and exploration, both of which are needed for good creative thinking. Over time, I realized this is not how I wanted to live my life or invest my time into my career.

I’ve since learned to rest without a need to get back to work, and I’ve learned how to set better boundaries around my projects and timelines. Paradoxically, I am doing less work now and making more income because I’ve created a better environment to thrive. It has truly been a life changing development in and outside of my art practice for sure.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.megwagler.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megwagler_illustration/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/megwaglerillustration/
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