Meet Karina Myers | Maker & Artist

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

Hi Karina, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I’d always dreamed of being able to create art for a living. I grew up selling small handmade items at homeschool craft fairs, garage sales, and fundraisers, and I loved it! I think it was a natural progression for that love of creating and selling art and handmade items to develop into a business as an adult. Creating something beautiful and meaningful is incredibly fulfilling for me, and I love seeing how my passion touches the lives of others and brings them joy. I’m also both a homebody and a pretty spontaneous, go with the flow personality, so the idea of a career that allows me to have time and location freedom while getting paid to do what I love is incredibly exciting, and a huge motivation for me to run my own business!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Honestly, I just really love creating beautiful things! My art is a way for me to express myself visually, and so a lot of what I create will have some personal significance, such as a quote that resonates with me, or a scene from a location that is special to me. Other times, the significance is in the process of creating itself, and in making beauty for beauty’s sake alone. My art style developed through a lot of trial and error, watching other people, and just getting curious and learning as I went. A lot of my inspiration has come from nature and my relationship with God. My art incorporates a lot of florals, natural elements, landscape scenes, and pretty hand lettering. Watercolor is my first love, but I work with several different mediums, including acrylic, pen and ink, and hand embroidery. I recently bought an iPad and have started to dabble in the world of digital art, which is so much fun! The actual business side of things has been a pretty big learning curve for me, and I’ve had to do a lot of research to figure that out! My business is still very tiny and I run it out of my bedroom completely on my own, so a lot of my time goes into things like marketing, taxes, and admin work, and sometimes it can be really hard to take the time to actually create. I’m working to find more balance in this area and to focus on creating beautiful things because I love it, not just because I’m trying to sell them!

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’d definitely take them to visit my favorite coffee shop, Coffee House 29, and maybe hit up a thrift store! We might have dinner at a local Indian place, go see a movie, and get ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We might take a picnic and drive up the canyon to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park for a day. I’m secretly an adrenaline junkie, so I’d take them to Elitch Gardens in Denver to ride some rollercoasters. We might even drive a few hours to visit a hot springs!

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 a couple people who were incredibly influential in my journey as an artist and business owner. The first is my aunt, who is a professional artist. She recognized and very intentionally cultivated my love of creating at a young age. She gifted me quality art supplies (and told me that the greatest compliment to a pencil is for it to be used up, not saved and stashed away!) and gave me one on one art and design classes in her apartment when I was a teen. It’s inspiring to look back and realize how much her investment has affected my life and work! I also have a couple friends who have helped me so much, the first being my childhood friend who originally opened an Etsy shop with me and came up with the name for the business: Those Who Dream Co. While I now run the business on my own, she was the one who gave me the nudge I needed to take the first step, and I wouldn’t be where I am without her. The second is another artist and small business owner who is a couple steps ahead of me in her business, and has been incredibly kind in helping me find my way in the business world.

Of course I also have to recognize my friends and wonderful family and say a huge “thank you” to my parents, my 10 siblings and two brothers-in-law, my boyfriend, grandparents, extended family, and friends. The people close to me have always been my biggest fans, and their support fills my soul in a way that nothing else can. Thank you all for cheering me on and walking beside me as I chase my dreams!

Website: Thosewhodreamco.Etsy.com

Instagram: @thosewhodreamco

Facebook: @thosewhodreamco