Podcast 013 | Stencil Girl with Mary Beth Shaw

On this episode, Jeanne talks with Mary Beth Shaw, artist, instructor, and entrepreneur who went from a career in the insurance industry to launching Stencil Girl Mixed Media Stencil Company.

1:41     “I did come from a career in the insurance business for about 18 years.  It was a big transition moving from insurance to art…different sides of my brain.”

2:52     “I was turning 40, and I said to my husband ‘I think I would like to quit my job for my 40th birthday’.  I just had this strong urge to explore my creativity.  So I just quit my job with no plan.”

7:13     “I was really arty up until the 8th grade and then I had this teacher who said ‘You are never going to make it as an artist.’  She said that right to me, and well of course I believed her.”

9:30    “Then as I looked back through my history, it was kind of interesting.  My grandparents on both sides were entrepreneurs.”

10:29   “I really love to help people uncover their voice with what they are doing.”

11:56   “When I started the company I don’t think I really knew I was starting a company.  I thought I was just selling stencils…”

12:47   “The hardest part of working full time with my husband is finding some sort of a separation, because when you have a business…it's easy to get into that working 24/7 thing.”

20:36  “I’m standing there at a table with six stacks of stencils.I don’t have anything else: they’re not in containers, they’re not in folders, and I said ‘$14 each, six for $75.And they opened the doors, and 30 minutes later I was standing behind an empty table.”

23:09  “I think probably the biggest problem from the get go in this pandemic was me: it just felt so wrong to be promoting my company during this time.But then I realized we need to be making art to heal our own souls during this time.”

28:48   “I like somebody that has a voice, for sure, and a passion, and they’re going to share with others…”

34:18  “A long time ago, it hit me that I have a mission that’s twofold.It is to educate and create community, and then once I’ve done those things, the stencils virtually sell themselves.”

39:45  “My husband and I got to talking about how lucky we are, really, and how blessed, and how even though this horrible, horrible thing is going on I have this opportunity to connect with people worldwide, and to talk to them, and to maybe inspire them…”

42:28   “Meditation helps me so much with my own ability to make decisions.My husband helps me an awful lot; he’s a wonderful listener…and then I trust my gut.”

46:15  “If I wasn’t running Stencil Girl…this is so strange because I don’t even have the skillset for this job, but I’d love to be a dancer, a flamenco dancer.”

Mary Beth Shaw worked in the insurance industry for 18 years before she quit her job in 2000 to re-ignite a childhood love of art. Since then she has spent all her waking hours exploring life as a painter working in mixed media, primarily acrylic, encaustic and collage. She initially put in lots of hours as a road gypsy, exhibiting at outdoor art fairs and selling as many as 300 paintings in one very blurry year. She transitioned into being a workshop instructor in 2008 and finds pleasure helping students find their own voice as a painter. Her personal creative process is a dance between spontaneity and intent; she finds great joy in the physical act of painting and looks at her best work as a gift from a higher power. She welcomes mistakes because they so often provide a delightful detour into new territory. She is author of Flavor for Mixed Media and Stencil Girl, is a columnist for Somerset Studios Magazine and a Golden Artist Educator. She is the founder of StencilGirl® Products, LLC and StencilGirl Studio.

mbshaw.com

StencilGirl® Products

StencilGirl® STUDIO

StencilClub

My Books: Flavor for Mixed Media

Stencil Girl

: Mixed Media Techniques for Making and Using Stencils

Jeanne Oliver

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