Meet Nikki Gardner

We were lucky to catch up with Nikki Gardner recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nikki, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I like to say that my purpose found me.

Most of us are brought up thinking we need to pick one thing to be when we grow up, and that can feel daunting. Some people know all along what they want to do for a career. I think for many artists and creatives, it isn’t that easy. While most of us can say we have been artists since we were children, and this is likely true, many of us were steered in different directions by our families, in favor of more stable fields.

Becoming a professional artist and owning my own art school were not even in the realm of my imagination when I set out on my path. Fortunately a series of chance meetings and events along a meandering path of learning, working and life in general put my purpose in front of me.

I had an art teacher in college who became my mentor and convinced me to declare art as my major. Without her, I know I would not be the person I am today.

After college, I worked many different jobs, including co-owning a graphic design business in my mid-twenties, and nannying on-call. I got married, became a stay home mom, and thought that was all I needed. But my soul was needing more, so I joined a life drawing group to be around other creatives. Eventually I started my own group, closer to home. Drawing weekly and growing an art community was my life line to the world outside of being a homemaker.

Divorced with two small kids was not on my list of things I wanted to be when I grew up, but suddenly that’s where I found myself. Having zero job experience for nearly a decade, I decided it was sink or swim with my art. So I signed up for a booth art show, where a woman came by and asked if I’d like to teach children’s art classes. I had never taught before, but I interviewed the following week, and taught my first class to 30 children the week after that. I was a bundle of nerves, sweating profusely, but knew right away that I LOVED it. I had never had a job that felt so absolutely perfect for me. Teaching art to children was exactly what I needed to be doing.

Eventually, I was able to take what I learned in what I now refer to as “art teaching boot camp” and tailer it to how I wanted to teach- with more in depth lessons, at a slower pace, and with smaller class sizes. It was great to be able to work my class schedule around my kids’ school schedule, and was even able to bring them to work with me. I had zero start up funds, so my first classes were literally pencil and paper. Each month I used a lot of my earnings to invest in more art supplies. After awhile I was able to pay for and build my own website, and after 6 years of teaching in my family room, I was able to convert my garage into a dedicated studio/classroom space with a separate entrance from the main house. It was a slow, slow growing business, but that is what worked best for me while I was raising small kids and because I didn’t have the capital to go all in right away. I truly built this business from nothing!

I never gave up on my own art, although building my art school business did and still does take considerable time away from it. Doing my own art helps me be a better teacher, and teaching makes me a better artist. I found I didn’t need to choose one or the other!

Being a solopreneur is perfect for that introverted part of me that needs to be quiet. I have just enough time with my students to give me that energy and inspiration to keep me going on a day to day basis, which I am grateful for. But even more of my time is spent lesson planning, taking inventory, emailing parents, making social media content, creating online learning content, and so many other behind the scenes things. I love being my own boss, even when I means I work every day of the week, and it feels like I eat, sleep and dream work.

An amazing thing about art, is that it is kind of like magic. It has an energy about it, and that energy is contagious.

I can’t talk about my little art school as the only part of my art career, because it isn’t. It has afforded me the freedom to not stress out about selling my paintings to feed my family. Which in turn gave me the freedom to paint for myself rather than for others by way of what was popular, or for commissions. When I started painting for myself, I felt more connected to my creations, and I began putting out better and better work. More opportunities presented themselves by putting work I was proud of out into the world.

One such opportunity was to be part of an annual local art walk in my hometown- which didn’t have much of an art scene. The once a year art walk was it. Through that event, another woman artist who was participating found me and invited me to a post event coffee to chat about it. What started out as a recap, turned into a conversation about why there wasn’t an art community here. With the lack of an art center, or even a community center, all of our local artists are left alone in their studios.

That coffee date turned into two women with a pact to start an annual art studio tour, to put our town on the map as an art destination, and to start a monthly gathering for other creatives. That part about contagious energy…I left that meeting absolutely buzzing and believing that we really could pull off a studio tour and create an art community. Because of my experience with my life drawing group and with my art school- I told my new friend that I truly believe in the “build it and they will come” philosophy. I also knew that it would take hard work, and consistency.

Within 2 months, we’d held our first (and now monthly) meetup for creatives, and 50 people showed up- which was the green light for us to keep going. There was that energy again! You could almost taste it in the air. 10 months later, we’d run our first annual art studio tour! 8 months after the tour, we became a nonprofit, where I serve as President. Our nonprofit now sponsors a monthly art walk and a bi-monthly life drawing group, as well as the annual studio tour.

Others have been inspired to start their own events as well, which our organization helps promote. We have a thriving, growing and amazing art community. We are still in the baby stages when it comes to nonprofit corporations, and are learning new things daily. I’m so proud of what we have been able to accomplish so far- even qualifying for grants to help creatives in our community with their artistic contributions to our town.

To bring it back to how I found my purpose, or how it found me, it started with someone believing in me as an artist, learning to work with many different types of families as a nanny, and being too desperate to say no to opportunities that I might otherwise have been too scared to say yes to. It was a journey, over many years. My divorce was one of the scariest things to happen at that time, but it made me strong. I learned to say yes to things that were intimidating, and found out over and over again that I can do more than I thought I could. I learned to trust the quiet voice that says I want to do that thing, and get over the voice that says I won’t be good at it or it’s too hard.

Because all of the things I do relate to each other in some way, they all in turn feed into each other. I am inspired by the young people that come to me to learn about art, which in turn makes me excited to create more. Because I am creating more, I feel the desire to be around other creatives. The nonprofit enables me to connect with other creatives, which sparks new ideas and brings more opportunities to share my art, and more visibility to my art school. And all of it lights up my world. I get to watch my students grow artistically and as people over the years, and have had many go on to art school. Every month at the art community social events, I witness new connections, friendships and collaborations being made. The common thread running through it all is art, and that positive energy it brings to us all.

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?

If there is anything true in this world, it is that nothing stays the same. That is a lesson learned over and over in business. While little things change year after year as growth and refining happens, the Covid shut down really stretched me to expand how I run my art school. Like all teachers everywhere- I quickly had to learn a whole new skill set. With my son’s help, I created a series of online art lessons that got me through the pandemic. Since then, I had not created many new video lessons as my focus was on my in-person classes. But recently there has been a resurgence of interest in those online classes, and many requests for new art tutorials for both homeschoolers and for other teachers. So I’ve been putting out new content on a couple of platforms. I have my video content on Teachable, and printable lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers. Eventually all PDF format lessons will also be on my Art Spot Studio website.

I also have an upcoming solo art show this spring in Seattle that I am painting up a storm for. Since I don’t have a lot of free time during the day- I’ve been dedicating a lot of late night time to preparing for this show. I’m excited about this opportunity, and have been sharing my painting progress on my social media accounts. I’ll be sure to post details on my fine art website about it too as the date gets closer. My website is a great place to see my finished work- and soon you’ll be able to purchase prints and cards directly from there as well.

As for the nonprofit- I’m currently working with some amazing volunteers to streamline our ever evolving website to provide a bulletin board of sorts that will be more automated for creatives to list their events and classes, as well as a database for artist grants, opportunities and resources. We are applying for grants for our organization, and hoping to get some straight up donations to be able to keep going as a nonprofit. One of the things we learned this year is that it is expensive just to exist as a nonprofit! We are hoping to secure funds for our basic operating costs (insurance, annual licensing, website, accounting etc.), and if we are lucky, our goal is to have excess funds to give to local cultural events, and to creatives for things like murals and public sculpture. If anyone feels moved to do so, and would like a tax write off, our website accepts donations!

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

The 3 things that were the most impactful for any of the businesses I’ve started are:

1. Just start, and keep moving forward. Everyone starts at the bottom, and you can’t help but go up if you keep showing up. This goes for starting out in business, and for learning a new skill of any kind. Just show up for yourself, and keep showing up.

2. Consistency is the magic sauce. For yourself, but also for clients or your community. If you are trying to attract people to the thing that you are doing, you have to consistently do that thing. If it is art- consistently share it. Even if it is re-sharing old work. This reminds people that you exist. If it is business, it still applies. Be consistent with your open hours if you have them. Be consistent with weekly events if you offer them. Be consistent with your newsletters and your social media posts. Again, you are reminding people that you are there, but you are also showing them that you are reliable, and you earn their trust by being consistent. Be consistent with your pricing! And consitantly raise your prices- or at the very least evaluate them each year.

3. Refine. While it is important to try things to see what works and what doesn’t, it is equally important to know when to drop things you are doing or offering that don’t serve you or or your business well. Whether it is a time suck or it doesn’t make financial sense, or it just doesn’t feel right to you- letting go makes room to grow in other ways. It’s ok to start simple and also to keep things simple. Hustle can bring burnout- you don’t have to do or offer all the things.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

The number one challenge I have is asking for help, and also being able to afford help. I mentioned loving being a solopreneur, and I do. Except that it is hard being the one wearing ALL of the hats, all of the time. Especially when there are things I don’t know how to do, and don’t have the time to learn one more thing.

During the shut down, my art school was closed for a year and a half. Basically if schools were closed, so was I. After it was over, I applied for and received a grant for small businesses that were effected negatively from the shut down. The catch was that I had to use it to improve or grow my business. I couldn’t use it to pay off business debt or to pay back my family savings. So I invested in a virtual assistant of sorts to help via Pinterest with getting the word out about my online classes.

My Pinterest manager told me it would be a long game, and I would not see much movement for likely at least 6 months. My goal was to be able to pay her with a new income stream coming from Pinterest marketing by the time my money ran out. I almost didn’t take my own advice of consistency. I almost cancelled her services. She was doing a great job, but like other algorithms, Pinterest is finicky. It took a whole year, but it is building and I am able to pay her with that income stream now, which feels amazing and inspiring because it gave me renewed hope that the plan can and is working!

The next goal of course is to keep growing that income stream to be able to pay ME, haha! On my end of things, this means coming up with new lessons, and starting a blog which I never ever saw myself doing, but here I am!

The relief I feel having someone else manage something for me in my teaching business is giving me the nudge I needed to also ask for help with the nonprofit. As mentioned, I have some volunteers to help with the website- which is great because I built and manage 3 sites currently, and it is too many. Next up is finding a volunteer to help manage one or two of the 9 different social media accounts I have for all of these different parts of art things I’m involved in!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://artspotstudio.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artspotstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtSpotStudio
• Other: There are links to my fine art account as well as the nonprofit on my teaching website. From my instagram, there is a link in my bio to all accounts.

Image Credits

Kyla Capp Photography for the 1st photo of me in my studio.