Meet Jennifer Walters | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jennifer Walters and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
For the most part, when I have an impact on making others happy, it makes me happy too. For most of my life I’ve been a people pleaser but over the past few years I have learned to use things that I enjoy to make others happy. One of those things has been creating art as gifts. It’s not usually just any art, it’s things that take little details of the recipient’s life into consideration. For example, I began creating what I call Storyline Paintings where I put “Memories in a Masterpiece”. I have a questionnaire that I have clients fill out and share with me stories about the person they are gifting the painting to. I ask for dates like birthdays and anniversaries, moments that are important, things that may feel special to the recipient. From those items, I decide on a scene and incorporate all of those items into a painting. The reactions I have received thus far has brought so much joy to the point of tears sometimes! 

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’d mentioned before, art was never really in the foreground of my life. It’s never been something I felt I could make a living on. I prefer a steady income to survive. Art has however, always been a supplemental income and over the past few years, has spiked and grown, just as fast as it has fallen. I’ve learned not to worry so much about the ebbs and flows of business and more or less just let it happen. Luckily, I’m in the position to allow and embrace that.

When I first began Mimosas & Masterpieces, I was all in. I joined local Chamber of Commerce Groups, several online groups, and then myself and a few other women in business developed a small marketing group to help support other women in business. My initial priority for was to bring small parties to your home. Quickly that went from small groups of 8 – 10 people to fundraising events and larger groups. I did my first fundraiser with someone who I would now consider an incredible friend and business owner. We did the first canvas fundraising event with her group. One of the following in person fundraisers was my largest at 100 painters! The next goal was getting into some restaurants to offer paint and sip events. I met with a few different managers, some I was turned away from, some were all in. Those that turned me down at first, ended up coming back to me and I’ve been doing events with them for about 5 years now. Being turned away might have stung at first, but it’s a way to grow. I looked at every challenge and every “No”, as an opportunity for me to improve, change or grow.

Of course when you’re encountering hundreds of people regularly and a review pops onto your page that someone was unhappy with you or your service, it’s jarring. That ONE review out of hundreds of people, still sticks with you. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but sometimes, not meeting someone’s expectations – is not your fault; it’s on them. These are all parts of business. It did take the support of my little marketing group to help me through some of those reviews though!

The positive about having my business as a secondary income, is that I can honestly take the time I need for myself when I do need it. There have been moments that even I’ve become burnt out. When business took off completely toward mid year in 2020, when we were taking orders for painting supply kits while no one was able to leave their homes; there was a moment that I thought I could leave my full time job! But at the same time, it was so incredibly busy and overwhelming, my 2am nights and 6am mornings led up to a panic attack, which I’d never really experienced before. Anxiety sure; I still get anxious before painting in front of people-every time, but that moment was different. I learned that what we’d begun “preaching” – Self Care – became the thing that I wasn’t doing for myself. So within the last 2 years, I ended up taking some much needed time for myself. By now in person events began coming back into play, and I was burnt out from being live every week or every other week, with no funds coming in. When it started to feel like work, and wasn’t making me happy, I stopped it and pivoted to something else.

I will admit that through Covid, I came up with several ways to collaborate and think outside of the box. I partnered up with some local farms, so we could paint an alpaca after getting to meet one on camera first! We did Zoom with Santa events for the kids, an online kid’s camp for the summer and some incredible, but small in person events. I think some of my most memorable events were painting in collaboration with the Lehigh Valley Zoo. We gave away the opportunity to paint in person with us at the zoo where we would be painting either a sloth, a penguin or an owl! Each of those events was better than the last!

Most recently I’ve been doing more commissioned paintings for people and painting for myself. I’m probably one of very few painters that refuse portraits. Haha. It’s just not my thing. I love landscapes and animals, even doing some fantasy work most recently in the form of a wall mural. I think one of the things I’m most proud of are the Storyline Paintings that I’ve been doing. Being able to gather details of someone’s life, or a couple’s story and get them on canvas has brought so much joy to not only myself, but to the client. Handing these paintings over are truly memorable, emotional moments. I hope to continue to do more of these in the future.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I am a planner by nature and my best friends know it! If you were in my current home town which is Halifax PA, we’d start our mornings with coffee or tea on the front porch and watch the sun rise from behind the mountains. We’re not far from Lancaster, so there’s plenty of shopping!  The Turkey Hill Experience is also in that area; you can make your own ice cream combination and do Tea Tastings. We have a little local winery called Armstrong Valley Winery that has a beautiful little tasting room as well as outdoor space to enjoy some of their live events. If you’re an animal lover, only a few miles from us is a place called Lake Tobias. It’s a zoo and little safari where you can feed deer, elk, emu and some other animals right from the bus! If you’re an adventure seeker or enjoy rides, Knoeble’s Grove has always been a family favorite. It’s probably the only amusement park that exists that has no parking or admission fee. Only if you’re enjoying the rides do you pay. It’s a great place to walk around, enjoy a large variety of foods including fried pierogis an entire BBQ place, Dole Whips and more! If you’re really an adventure seeker, we are in the heart of the Appalachians and we have friends that own a Tentrr site where you can rent a Glamping Tent out in the town of Pine Grove. Last, the City of Harrisburg hosts the Farm Show every year which I first experienced this year! There were some very country competitions and shows including Tractor Square Dancing! Aside from that, Harrisburg has lots of little theatres to visit, but mostly, I love just being able to host people in our home -our little oasis in nature! 

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are definitely a lot of people to thank for my being where I am at right now. First, I wouldn’t ever have picked up a paintbrush again had my boyfriend Mark not seen a mural I did in my home and say, “You did that? Damn girl you can paint!” That was about 12 years ago. I’ve never kept art in the foreground of my life as my career, it’s always taken a backseat to a survival job as I’d call it. But between his encouragement and two encounters of going out with friends to a “paint & sip” event, I realized my abilities could be used to possibly create a career out of what I love. The first friend I took out to a studio, Maria, she’d never painted before and was skeptical of the process. “My painting isn’t going to look anything like theirs!”, she said. Without much help from me at all, she ended up loving the process and then really being proud of her first painting. That feeling of seeing someone proud of something they created, is the feeling I’ve been chasing since I started this business. The business itself started after another friend Sharon and I went to a bar and painted a wine glass. There were almost 50 people stuffed in this little room, with little to no instruction and I automatically calculated the price we paid for admission times the amount of people there and figured out the cost of the supplies we were using. It was a no brainer. I could totally do this, and I could do it better. I stayed up all that night, at least the full 24 hours and then some; writing somewhat of a business plan, researching others in the area, comparing costs, etc. And within that time came up with the name Mimosas & Masterpieces as well as Munchkins & Masterpieces. The thought process behind the Munchkins name was to be more kid friendly and flexible for schools and kid’s events. Both names were registered the next day and almost 8 years later we have seen lots of changes and have adapted the best we can.

The last set of people I would like to mention and thank are the viewers and followers of our page. The beginning of 2020, I had set a goal for our page and business to hit 500 followers. When Covid hit in March of 2020 and parties and events came to a screeching halt, Mark, my partner and I decided to combine the thing he loves- film making, acting, directing with what I love and livestream paint from our Facebook page. That 500 follows quickly jumped to 1000 and then 5000. Within the year we ended over 30,000 and I believe we’re about 40,000 now. So many of those who painted became “regulars” and we built friendships online. We received SO many testimonials about how what we were doing came at just the right time for some. Or how we were paving a path and a way for people to have some Self Care. With all that was going on in the world especially with Covid, we had a 2-3 hour window of time we called SelfCare Thursdays, where everything else went away and together we talked, we painted and just enjoyed the time not worrying. My motivation to continue was fueled by the dozens, even hundreds of people that we became friendly with. Mimosas & Masterpieces tagline became, “You Come as a Guest, and Leave as a Friend”. This was true when we did in person events too though. The majority of the people I have encountered while doing this, have been happy, positive individuals and several of them have made an impact in my life, as I hope I have for them.

Website: https://www.mimosasmasterpieces.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimosasmasterpieces/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-katzman-b2860680/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mimosasmasterpieces/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mimosasmasterpieces

Image Credits
April Ludwig Photography