Meet Kayleigh Willis

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kayleigh Willis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kayleigh, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I got my resilience from playing sports. I was a two-sport varsity athlete in high school (swimming and softball) and had the honor of playing D1 softball for UNC at Greensboro.

My first experience of overcoming failure was when I joined my high school swim team. I was not the fastest swimmer, and practices were long and grueling. Luckily, I had an incredible coach who taught me how to keep going and to rely on my teammates. His name was Gentry and he passed away my junior year of high school and his teachings helped me overcome my first year of collegiate athletics.

My first year of collegiate athletics, I played left bench. It was a tough pill to swallow since before that, most of my achievements in softball, unlike swimming, came along naturally. I never had to put in so many extra hours just to keep up with everyone else.

My college coach saw this and gave me a couple of mental toughness books to read. The concept from those books that stuck with me the most was called The Illusion of Choice (not the advertising concept). The concept was that while we go through the day with lots of choices to make, if we want to achieve our goal, then we don’t have the choice to not put in the work. I wanted to become a starter. So, I didn’t have the choice not to go down to the cages to workout extra after practice. By the end of my senior year, I was not only in the starting lineup, but First Team All-Conference and my team had four championship rings.

The same concept applies to my art business. At my first show, I didn’t sell anything. I want my art to be seen by thousands of people and my name to be known across the art world. So, I don’t have a choice but to draw whenever I can and even when my art isn’t selling, to keep trying.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I create bold, vibrant colored pencil drawings of animals and focused on expanding my artist career. I sell original and commissioned drawings at juried shows throughout southeast and northern Virginia.

All my drawings have names and are either drawn from my own photos or completely made up. I’ve always loved going to zoos, aquariums, and museums growing up which is where I get most of my reference pictures. I get the rest of my reference pictures from around the nature parks in Virginia Beach, where I grew up, and then some other random places.

Animals have personalities, emotions, and facial expressions that I try to capture in my drawings. The eyes are my favorite part to draw because that makes or breaks the facial expression. I use colored pencils, no paint, so I can achieve extreme detail in my work with the brightest and widest variety of colors. Because of this, my drawings are completely original unique perspectives on animals.

I have drawings of a variety of animals. I started with sea life and have begun expanding my inventory as well as selling different products online.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1. The first skill that has been the most impactful on my journey has been to not be a perfectionist. Normally, I want everything planned out and know exactly what I’m doing before I start anything. Unfortunately, I had to set all that aside and just do an art show to even begin to figure out how to be an artist. Now, I’ve learned to accept that I’ll do something different every show, which was the advice given to me at my very first art show by several fellow artists.

2. Be a student of the game, advice my coach in college gave to me, as in be curious and open minded. Applying to art shows is how I got the courage to reach out to other artists to pick their brain on how I could improve my business. There have been several times I learned how much I don’t know and I try to learn something new each show.

3. Balance. My life is held up by a few different pillars and it’s a balancing act keeping up with all of them. I have my friends and family, I was an athlete, I currently have a career as an economist as well*, and then I have my art business. In economics, we have this term called spillover effects where one thing affects another unintentionally. In sports, we have a quote of “how you do one thing, is how you do everything”. I’ve realized that the other facets of my life do not hinder my art business but rather are like the rising tide that lifts all boats.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

The most influential people in my life and my art business are my parents. They are like the steering wheel and gas pedal of a car. Both are necessary to drive and navigate safely through the bumps on the road of life.

My mom is my steering wheel. She saw my love for color and signed me up for an art program in elementary school. In the program, I learned the basics of colored pencils, my primary medium I use today. So many of my art projects as a kid were for her and she always gave her honest opinion of them, even if she did not like them. I didn’t realize until I was selling at shows how much I depend on her honesty of my work as my sounding board. Today, my mom helps keep the accounting books for my business and consider her thoughts and preferred aesthetics.

While my mom is like the steering wheel providing critiques and direction, my dad is like the gas pedal, always cheering me on in full force. It’s always my dad telling me I could go bigger, I could do more, and that I can be more. He has a proven track record of helping build me up to take on challenges I never thought possible. He was my softball coach growing up and that got me to D1 athletics. If I listen to him now, then hopefully my name will be known across the art world in the years to come.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kayleighwillis.com/
• Instagram: @kayleighwillis88