We were lucky to catch up with Gianna Andrews recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gianna, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
In college, I a hit rock bottom that stripped me of my identity and taught me how find the silver linings in life.
I was out mountain biking with friends when I hit a jump wrong and flew over the handle bars. I scorpioned my back and heard an audible crack, landing on my face. I hit the ground so hard I thought I’d popped a lung. I felt shards of my teeth in my mouth. Adrenaline kicked in, and I sat up, pulled my phone out of my pocket, and instinctively dialed 911. Thank goodness I had service. By the time the operator was on the line, my friends had gotten to me and took over the call. I sat there in blistering pain for forty-five minutes, rigid, bleeding everywhere, waiting for the medics to arrive . . . knowing I had broken my back.
After an excruciating hour-long ambulance ride, I was lying in the ER when the doctors told me I had a burst T7 vertebrae but that I was extremely “lucky” because bone shards were less than one millimeter from penetrating my spinal cord and potentially causing neurologic damage.
In that moment, a new motivation for living life flooded over me; the only way to describe it is a rebirth. I had almost died, but I was getting another chance at life. Since it would be a very long time until I got to participate in the outdoor sports I loved, I realized I needed to shift my focus to something I could do. I absolutely loved art, but creativity had always been on the back burner as my athletics took precedence. It was there on a stretcher that I decided to pursue the path of becoming an artist.
After spending ten long days in the hospital, relearning how to walk, I was released in a rigid clamshell back brace. I spent my recovery at the easel, painting my favorite nature scenes instead of exploring them. I was confined to indoors, but painting gave me a mental escape from the confines of my backbrace and living room. I found that creating gave me a similar experience of actually being outdoors. It was here that I learned to sit with myself. A life long art practice was born.
If I hadn’t gone through all of this suffering, I don’t believe I ever would have given my creativity the time of day. Breaking my back taught me how to sit still and make the best of an unfortunate situation. Now, when I experience difficult times in my life, all I have to do is look back and remember how far I’ve come and just how bad things were. This sense of resilience is one I carry with me.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Breaking my back not only spurred a love of painting, but laid the foundation for my art career. I began sharing photos of my art and telling my story on social media. After receiving multitudes of requests from fans who wanted to purchase art, I built a website, and my business grew around my connection with my audience.
I am a fine artist inspired by my love of nature. Whimsical elements mixed with bold lines and bright colors bring nature to life in my pieces. My signature style is expressed not only on canvases, but unique salvaged wood pieces and also large scale murals.
My creativity is fueled by my outdoor adventures; van trips, surfing, skiing, trail running, and hiking with my dogs. When I am not out adventuring, I am working in my studio tucked between the mountains and the sea on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. The 30 painting collection will be released in person at a solo show, THRIVING, on June 7th, 2024, on Vashon Island, and the following day I will run the ultramarathon. If you’re in the Seattle area, head over to opening night, it’s going to be a celebration!
I am currently working on a big project, the “30 for 30” challenge! I am creating a series of 30 paintings and training for a 30 mile ultramarathon, which I will complete to celebrate the milestone of my 30th birthday. The 30 painting collection will be released in person at a solo show on June 7th, 2024, on Vashon Island, and the following day I will run the ultramarathon.
Another project I am really passionate about at the moment is my podcast, Studio Sundays, where I have indepth conversations with successful artists and creative thought leaders about their journey. As an artist, I often work alone in my studio, so the podcast has been a really special way to connect with other creatives in a meaningful way. The podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube.
Over the years I’ve received a multitude of questions from aspiring artists on how I build my career around art. I compiled all of these questions and wrote a book for these artists and creatives, “So You Wanna Be an Artist,” detailing EVERYTHING I’ve learned from being an artist, failures, successes, and all. My book is available on Amazon and online everywhere books are sold!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Passion, authenticity, discipline.
To create anything amazing, it starts with passion. Your heart has to be in it. If it’s not, it’ll never work. I had to first be passionate about painting to actually create amazing work.
Next up is authenticity. Not in the buzz word sense, but true to your core authenticity. Are you being true to you? There is so much art and creativity out there these days, it’s easy to jump on a band wagon of what other people are doing to try to find success. But this will not make you stand out. True uniqueness happens when you are true to yourself. For me, that means focusing on what I am inspired to paint, and making more of that. Not whats “trending.”
To continue creating, you need discipline. Sure, it’s great to work on that big dream on the days you feel inspired and like it’s flowing, but what about the days where you don’t fee inspired? That’s where discipline comes in. You need to SHOW UP for your dream, especially in the moments when you might be feeling unsure, it’s the only way to keep the ball rolling. As an artist, there are days where the last thing I feel like doing is painting. If I waited for inspiration to hit, I would never get anything done. I first have to show up for my craft, so that when inspiration does come knocking, I am ready to flow with it.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
As a self-employed artist and business owner, I have to wear a lot of hats. I not only create the paintings, but am in charge of marketing, selling, admin tasks, the list goes on! When I am feeling super overwhelmed with all of my to-dos, I squeeze in time to move my body, get outside, go for a run, exercise. Movement ALWAYS makes me feel better.
I’ve been doing this art thing full time for 7 years now, so I have approached burnout several times. The further I go down this career path, the more I strive to integrate practices that support longevity, like outsourcing work to my assistant that I don’t really need to be doing. I find project based work actually flows better for me that striving for a balance daily. That is, work really hard as something for a short period of time (i.e. a few weeks), and then have a mellow few weeks following. It’s impossible to always attain a balance. If you can tell anything from my outdoor athletics background, I like to oscillate between extremes.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://giannaandrews.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giannaandrews/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giannaandrewsart/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giannaandrews/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0hXPivYHwLClVqqtonqRvg
- Other: Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1AUnvoYr0yKqnzn2lndGm6
