A Blog 20 Years Later?

This is a deep dive summary of how my art came to be and my life experience. Future blog posts will be informative on art techniques, business tips, things I love and want to share, and all things painting and design.

Could I really be old enough that it has been 20 years since I began blogging about my little kids and photography? Those were the Craigslist days, and Google was slim on information as I taught myself everything about photography and Photoshop. I put my love of writing to work and told my story: the story of a 22-year-old mom, pregnant with baby number 3 (this time not planned) and in the last semester of my husband's chiropractic education in Dallas, TX, on the 3rd floor of an apartment building in the humid heat; in total student life poverty and with no family but plenty of good friends I said goodbye to.

*where it all started, "Dramatic Imaging" turned into "Amy Brimhall Art" and now "Amy Chalet Design Studios" and yes I know this was back in comb over bang days!

• * My photography started off as weddings, modeling, headshots, and high school seniors. It morphed into family photographer, then infant photographer, then family again.

We moved home to Farmington, NM, in 2007, where our third child was born. I finally started shooting with a professional non-kit lens and overcame my fear of shooting in manual mode. I remodeled the first of eight homes and three Airbnbs as I had my fourth child by age 25. My husband started his first week of practice with one patient in his father's clinic and now sees about 45 a day. We wish someone from the future would have told us it would be okay and that we didn't need to jump ship on his career and go back to medical school because we were about two weeks from doing so at one point. We have been very blessed and thankful to establish our family in Farmington, our hometown. One thing that makes the desert dirt and dryness tolerable is our weekly escapes to our 497 sq ft condo north of Durango, Colorado. The mix of mountain desert is what fuels us both. Well, winter snowboarding is what holds Zeke over for a year!

My cute husband Dr. Zeke Brimhall

We now have a married daughter (3 years actually), a son who lives in town as a massage therapist and rapper, a son on a two-year mission for our church in Baltimore, and one child at home, a 16-year-old daughter who is homeschooled. As long as we don't leave the state for whatever reason, we are in our forever home. I have no more time for moves as it sets my artistic career goals back a year each time. My husband was kind and smart enough to let me take over the 3-car garage and just park the cars in the driveway, as they do not make money, but an art school for 34-50 children, teens, and adults does!

*one of our 9 properties we have remodeled

I went from elementary school art mom to self-appointed art teacher, "Miss Amy," 12 years ago. We started at the dining room table and 6 studios later, it's been pretty perfected and more than I deserve. If I were to do the math, I am sure I have taught 300-600 kids. Between doing thousands of photoshoots, teaching all my amazing students, my husband's patients, and serving in multiple roles in our church (moving to a new set of people within the same town with each move as it changed attendance boundaries) I would say we deeply love and know our smallish town and surrounding communities. Roots have been firmly established and although my large family has one by one moved away, I have so much "family" still here.

Where did the painting and design work come in? I drew everyone and everything as a kid. Think Napoleon Dynamite drawing the boys I liked and when a guy asked me what I liked to do for fun, all I could think of was art. I felt like a bit of a loser about it at the time but I'm still that same girl! With the exception of wellness and fitness, nothing really changed in my interests! I took a few art classes at our local small college and graduated with an associate of arts at 18 (right after I got married). Crazy, I know.

I didn't paint after that but a few mural commissions and toyed with the idea of being an illustrator for children's books but had no guidance. I had the kids, became a photographer out of financial necessity and not joy. It was a chore and a burden with the babies. I would have given anything to just be their mom at home with them and not on the computer editing 16-hour days. However, God has a plan and my self-taught education was not wasted.

*Ladera Del Norte Elementry School Library

• * one of many murals for my kid's rooms

  
  

In 2020, we all had some time for self-reflection and asked ourselves, "What am I doing with my life?" I actually asked for a blessing from my husband and our missionaries for guidance on this question. "Can I be a painter instead of a photographer? Do I have a right to say no to photography work when my family could always use that steady financial help and bank on being an ARTIST? What would I even paint? Who am I to call myself an artist; a painter? Will I fail? Will anyone like what I make? Where will my inspiration come from?" I was told in the blessing that God and my family would support me in this change and that I would have inspiration. I didn't believe it and felt the blessing was too simple and just said what I wanted to hear. One week later, I was awakened in the night to dozens of images coming over me in detail of what I would paint and the feeling of never running out of inspiration. To be fair, I had just taken a course by Amira Rahim called "Better than Art School." It was wacky and abstract and made no sense to me. It was not until the 8 weeks was over that I realized what I learned. I could paint anything my way. After reading "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon, my world was forever changed. I painted Candy Desert 1, sold it for $600 and made its sister, Candy Desert 2, and sold it for $800. I filed them, trademarked and copyrighted with the US government, and I dubbed myself a real ARTIST.

*1st painting to sell in 2020 now in Alb. NM

2nd painting ever sold for $800 Cany Desert 2 now in Scottsdale AZ

*now in Pelle Spa NM

To be truthful, I have only painted about 50-60 paintings since 2020 but all but maybe 3 have sold and all have had multiple prints sold of them. I have so much to create and my time constraints are depressing. After all, one envisions life as an artist as living in the studio with paint supplies all around in total bliss. It's been 90% business and adulting and 10% art play. I do however have faith that the tech will settle and the creating will take off. I have been in education mode for several years becoming a designer.

*my 2nd studio out of 7!

In 2022 I remodeled a rat-infested cabin in the woods into a designer Airbnb. It was a miracle and one of the impossible mountains in my life I have climbed and am so proud of. Although it has since been sold, I know that God put me in that project for at least one reason. My phone heard me say "I wish I knew how to make my own wallpaper." That changed my life. My phone showed me ads about the most adorable, good, beautiful human: Bonnie Christine. I took her expensive but worthwhile course on Adobe Illustrator and the business aspect of becoming a surface pattern designer. It was not until my 3rd round of the course in 2025 that I was put in a study zoom group with Wendy, Tara, and Connie from the West Coast, that I found my accountability buddies and a springboard to my questions and dreams. I am so thankful for these ladies and we are on our year anniversary of Tuesday at 11:00 Zooms religiously!

*not my wallpapter design but what inspired me! This was the actual cabin we remodeled.

This last fall, I was able to make a line of patterns and printed them on swimsuits, blankets, bras, bags, journals, candles, pickleball paddles, purses, totes, shopping bags, ear pod and phone cases, and many, many other items. It was a total dream come true and I revealed them at a professional women's summit in very little time. That was another mountain and miracle I am very proud of and thankful to God for his help to make possible.

Where am I at today? Truthfully, over this website I am making (I have made several) but this is the landing place for my shop for products, my art prints, metadata, and SEO to be seen beyond my small town and most importantly: for licensing deals with companies that will choose my art and put it on their products so I am not relying on selling print on demand only.

fall 2025 line (first pattern desings)

What are my future dreams? Aging in reverse! No actually, being a grandma, making patterns for little ones on every item you can think of, writing and illustrating children's books, my children all independent artists in some way, replacing my husband's income in case ever needed for his health, selling art and patterns in my sleep and financially helping anyone I want. Because being of use to others... that is rich. Thanks for stopping in. I hope you are creating something too! I would love to see it.

*few pics of my family

2021

2020

2021

*Fall 2025 a quick shot before our son Scout left on his mission. Our only full family shot.