Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Withey.
Hi Megan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’ve been pretty creative since I was really little, and have been involved in multiple aspects of the arts my whole life. I attended an art high school and studied abstract painting in college at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. My medium of choice had always been acrylic and oil paints, but I also was very interested in fashion design and illustration and always had a difficult time deciding on the fashion route or studio art.
When my two boys were born I began making them artwork for their rooms. They would want me to draw them all the characters from their movies. On a whim, I started posting some of the work I made for them on social media and it gained popularity. I got messages all the time from people wanting to buy it. I thought, “Maybe I should open an Etsy shop?”
Around the same time in 2015, a friend of ours suggested we bring my work and sell it at a small local comic con. I had no idea what a comic convention was but I thought, “Why not?” I just remember selling out of almost everything I brought and I thought, “This could really change things…” We slowly worked our way to doing bigger shows and it took years of trial and error but now we get to travel to some of the largest conventions around the world.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’m really really hard on myself. I don’t really like to compromise on anything. I want to learn too many things and I get really frustrated when my ideas are bigger than my skills. Like, I want to make abstract designs, portraits, character designs, landscapes, and illustrations- so many different types of art instead of focusing on mastering one. At the same time, I also want a lot in my personal life- I love to design & renovate spaces in my home, spend quality time with my family, cook, and live a healthy lifestyle, I want to travel to a million different countries and learn other languages… So I think my biggest struggle is just my lack of time and ability to compromise.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I specialize in fantasy & pop culture watercolor paintings. I’m mostly known for my fairy tale like art- I’m currently working on my second book about different fairy tale people and places around the world. I think I’m most proud of the “Indian Princess” I made for the book. It went viral in India and I had so many ladies from India thank me for representing them in my work. It made me so happy because my ultimate goal is to make art that brings people joy. When I travel to other countries I always get excited when I see them representing The US so the idea came from that. I think what sets me apart is that I want to create work that is pretty- I want the textures themselves to be pretty, but with my background in abstract painting I like to leave enough to the imagination to dream a bit.
Contact Info:
- Website: meganwithey.com
- Instagram: @meganewithey
- Other: Etsy.com/shop/18thcenturyshop
