Meet Amy Dose | Artist & Muralist

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

Hi Amy, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Ask someone how they are these days and the most common answer is: busy. We are a society who values busy-ness (business). I am no different. I have a family, a business, a “fixer upper” log cabin in the country, two dogs, two horses, a vegetable garden, and big dreams. Life- it can be a lot.

My first memory of striving for more balance in my life was as a college student. I was a full time student and I always had a job. I used my day planner religiously, trying to fit in time with friends, time outdoors, time for meditation, and time for my creativity. It seemed like there was never enough time.

Fast-forward 5 years, I was lucky enough to have a baby girl. As any parent can tell you… time began to speed up, and the demands of being a mother consumed me. There wasn’t even time to consider what balance might look like in my life or what I wanted. I lost myself.

Sometime in my mid-thirties I broke. It was a painful time, one of deep depression, but also a time of great change. I began to say no. I began to set boundaries. I began putting myself and my own needs into the equation.

This is a practice that continues today, and as my daughter is an adult living on her own now, I find that I do have more time AND I create more time for myself. I paint, I meditate, and I wander in the woods. I also get stressed, I fall, and I throw fits, but I’m getting better at laughing at myself, at laughing at the situation, and at finding the peace in whatever it is that I’m doing.

It occurs to me that perhaps balance isn’t so much about what I’m doing, as how I think about what I’m doing… and there is a lot of freedom in that.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My painting technique is most influenced by my my study of Japanese calligraphy from 1995 to 1997 as a college student. Japanese calligraphy requires mastering the brush-stroke characters as well as noticing oneself and learning to be present. While practicing this, I began to notice the beauty that arrives when one is completely present. It is something more than simple visual beauty, it is something more elusive. It is innate. I have continued to practice sitting meditation during my painting sessions. Resting the mind allows the heart to flow onto the canvas.

I am, like a hunter-gather, always collecting visual material. I find it most easily when I am in nature, but have also found great treasures looking through magazines and hunting the library shelves. I keep these images and descriptions of the things I notice in journals, binders, and on my computer. This gives me access to these inspirations when I’m in the studio.

My career for the last 20 years has required me to paint almost daily. I am the owner of Flying Shoe Arts, Inc. I create decorative finishes, faux finishes, murals, as well as repair wood, plaster, and stone. Although this business has afforded me the time and the financial stability that having a family requires… like most artists, I have always wanted to create, design, and sell my own work. I feel the second half of my life beginning and the time has come for me to take a leap.

In the last year, I have built my dream painting studio, designed and installed a nearly 2000 square foot mural for the Vail Hospital, sold more original paintings, received recognition as one of the “Best of Vail” in the Artist category, and re-worked my website. Even writing this list of “accomplishments,” I cringe… There’s this feeling of it still not being enough… a feeling that I’m still not where I want to be in my career as an artist. And then, I step into my studio, take a deep breath, and remember myself. In that moment, none of the rest of it matters, only me, my breath, and brush on canvas.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I am lucky enough to live close to the headwaters of the Colorado River and our small ranch is surrounded by public lands. So, it’s only natural that my favorite thing to do when we have visitors (especially visitors who aren’t used to exploring the outdoors) is to take them hiking and on a trip down the Colorado River. My husband is an avid hunter and we like to share our stash of deer, elk, moose, or antelope with visitors. He cooks up a delicious antelope steak, seared rare with just a sprinkle of salt served over garden greens… I make the cocktails- maybe a mojito with mint from the garden. In the summers, we hang out on the deck until the sun slips behind the mountains and the millions of stars blanket the sky… Some guests are keen to sleep out on the deck and the next morning, there are always stories of the coyote songs they heard in the night.

If visitors want to venture away from our little corner (but why would they? LOL) I recommend taking a gondola ride to the top of Vail followed by a visit to the Bad Kitty Lounge which offers great cocktails with a funky vibe. A trip to Iron Mountain Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs for a soak is always a treat, and for friends wanting to find their inner cowboy or cowgirl- Beaver Creek Stables offers trail rides.

Colorado offers it all, but don’t tell anyone I told you so.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
To be loved is to be seen. I am fortunate to have a family that values individuality. I have always been allowed the space to create. And by space, I mean, I have quite literally taken up space in our house. Before I built my studio this year, half of my bedroom was turned into a makeshift studio. There was hardly anywhere to walk, but my husband never complained (and before him, my parents)… even when my projects would leak over into the rest of the house… and we had no room at the kitchen table to eat dinner. By space, I also mean time. This gift allowed me the mental and emotional space needed for creativity. I was allowed the space for art school, the space for weekend workshops, the space on weekends and nights to disappear, the space to daydream. I would not be able to be an artist without the support of my entire immediate family. They continue to hold space for me allowing me to be myself and to create.

Website: www.amydose.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy.dose.artist/

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

Image Credits
Carly Finke