Serena Sweeney

5.0 (3)

As a little girl, I would sit and color and draw for hours on end. As I grew up, I found myself questioning whether my art was ever good enough. Life went by, raising my daughter solo became my priority, and I lost connection to that part of myself, but it always whispered to me, and eventually, I caught up with it again because staying on a path without creativity left me deeply unfulfilled. A friend mentioned gelli printing after I had recently done some lino cut printing, and so I looked up what it was, got a gelli plate the next day, and away I went for the next year, spending hours with the plate experimenting, learning by trial and error, and mastering my own style.Over the past few years, I've unlocked this part of me that I never knew before, my natural ability and urge to teach. If it's something I loved and learned a lot about, I naturally wanted to educate and empower others with it.I believe more people exploring creativity inspires growth and change in the world because the messaging most of us grew up with is that being "creative" is just this thing that we should do only sometimes and that only a few people are "creative." But creativity is everywhere, in everything, the way we communicate with others, the way we organize and prioritize our week, the way we make meals out of whatever is in the cupboard and the fridge on a Friday night, the way we adapt when things don't go as planned. If you are a parent, the way we continuously adapt to meet our children in new ways as they grow. We are all very, very creative indeed.I'm here to spread the creative joy of gelli printing and remind you of that. I'm also here to bring in the love of the process and the connection to your inner child that gets to learn and play through pure curiosity and not whether each print "is good or not." To let go and be liberated in the process, hopefully go home with a good amount of paint remnants up our arms or at least on our apron, a grin on your face, and a story to tell that might inspire someone else.