Artist Confessions


 
 

By Nancy Anderson

The truth is, I didn’t find art, art found me.

I took a jewelry making class my senior year of college. Literally, from that day on, I was hooked. So, in 1988, Sweet Bird Studio was founded in the basement of my house, next to the furnace. I quit my short-lived high paying job as a financial analyst for the Federal Reserve Bank and got to work. In the beginning I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I just simply couldn’t ignore the calling. Truth be told, most times, I still don’t. I bought a soldering tank, a hammer, a saw and a 2x2” piece of silver sheet and I was on my way.

Over the years, I experimented, failed, played, cursed, laughed and cried. But mostly, I was in awe of hours that passed like minutes. In those days, little did I know, I was doing the most important work anyone can do…by trial and error; I was crafting a life from meaning. Now, thirty years later, when I light the torch, I am STILL mesmerized with the fire of being truly alive, thanks to doing what I love. My work has been a constant reminder that we begin over and over and over again. In life, in creativity and in connecting with others.

We are all brave souls, stepping forward into the unknown and the unpredictable for the first time to begin again every single day. So, when you are buying a piece of my art, you’re buying more than just an object or a piece of adornment. You are buying thousands of hours of creativity, experimentation and more beginnings and endings than I’d like to count. You are buying a moment of my life. You are buying a piece of my best friend, named Sweet Bird.

This Sweet Bird entity is an extension of myself. Sweet Bird has been the platform to see my greatest accomplishments come to life, introduced me to the most extraordinary people and granted me a life way beyond my wildest dreams. I am so grateful to all of you that have believed in me enough to buy my work over three decades now. It is because of you that I am fulfilling my dream of doing what I love, in making my life from meaning all these years, and adding to yours as well.

But, what I really want to say to you, most of all, is that you CAN do whatever your heart desires.

Own your story.  Begin again.