We were lucky to catch up with Mallison White recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mallison, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had this inner desire to do something creative. I grew up as an only child so I remember many mornings waking up early and going downstairs to my play room to find something to preoccupy me. There’s only so much a child can do to preoccupy themselves before they get bored, so I quickly found excitement in creating something out of nothing. Whether it was using countless rolls of Scotch tape with construction paper or layering crayons, colored pencils, and markers to create my “art” pieces (like many children proudly do haha), I found easy distraction in all things art.
As you can imagine, how I express my creativity looks a bit different now that I’m an adult. Art in my life these days is more like rearranging furniture and changing decor to give a fresh feel to a space, decorating for events and parties in celebration of something, or even creating custom wreaths to make for the finishing touch with someone’s new home. In establishing my business, Starving Artist by MallisonSue, I have an outlet for me to continue keeping my creativity alive not only for myself, but by also sharing it with other people in the world!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I officially established Starving Artist by MallisonSue the end of 2021 and was unsure at the time of what exactly my goals were with having a woman-owned small business. In 2022, other than creating my own website to showcase my previous work and looking into having an Etsy shop to sell some of my creations, I put my business on the back burner for the most part. 2023 was the year of trial and error while taking on different clients, tracking invoices, and learning more about the ins and outs of being a business owner. My full time job elsewhere required more of my attention and energy throughout 2024, but I am really looking forward to diving back into my business this year. 2025 is the year of growth, opportunity, and truly living to my full potential as an artist and business owner!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My goodness, I wouldn’t even know where to begin! I guess I would say that being open-minded, flexible, and having self-discipline were the biggest attributes to my success these last few years. Everyone will always have things going on in life and not everything goes as planned so I think those are some beneficial qualities to have, especially when going down the journey of owning a business. Truth be told, I still feel like I am learning and growing every step of the way when it comes to my projects, my clients, as well as my business. I look forward to further developing my knowledge and skills as the years go on!
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I have actually been considering this a lot more in recent months so it’s funny you asked this! I am a sucker for going to stunning spaces to enjoy delicate delights with tasty beverages and am also one who seeks out experiences in some of the festive and thoughtfully decorated venues. I have been thinking lately how amazing it would be to take part in decorating for these types of things throughout the Denver area. So, if you work in say a coffee shop, a restaurant, or an event venue of some sort and are seeking assistance with decorating your space or for an upcoming event, I would love to hear from you! You can reach me through any of my socials or email me at starvingartistbymallisonsue@gmail.com!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.starvingartistbymallisonsue.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/starvingartist_by_mallisonsue/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Starving-Artist-by-MallisonSue/100066985123219/
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/StarvingArtistbyMS
Image Credits
📸: Bert Foster
