Alyssa Ruggieri | Watercolor Artist

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

Hi Alyssa, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My business started as a side hobby at first. I started creating art for fun and enjoyment. Then I had gotten a few requests for custom art, so I started doing custom art on the side and very slowly growing my business online and in products. In 2020 during the start of the pandemic, I was laid off from my other jobs, so I decided to commit to my art business full time and start pursuing it more aggressively. It was something I enjoyed and something that people seemed to want to buy so I thought it was worth continuing to pursue. When it first start as a side hobby, I did it for some extra money, but then it morphed into more than that. I never in a million years would have thought I would have my own business, but now I can’t imagine anything else.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m primarily a watercolor artist. I paint a variety of subject matter ranging from landscapes tom sharks. A lot of what I paint is inspired by living near the beach, but I also paint any subject matter that I love or inspires me. I know it’s usually considered bad practice in branding or art, not to niche down your subject matter, but I made a promise to myself when I started painting that I would just always paint what made me happy, and for me that changes a lot. Although I had some formal training of painting and art in other mediums from a few classes I took in college, a majority of my watercolor skills I learned from online classes. When I first started a few years ago, I wanted to learn everything about it, I took so many classes online and watched so many youtube tutorials, I read books, and practiced every tutorial I kind find. I just really enjoyed working in watercolor and was excited to progress my skills and be able to comfortably paint what I wanted to paint. I would watch video after video on the simplest skills, that now I kind of laugh about how hard some of those skills seemed at the beginning for me, some that now come completely second nature. It helped teach me to be patient and appreciate the progress. I’m still a very harsh critic of my own work, and more often than not worry about sharing pieces that I might deem not as good. It’s also more often than not my favorite pieces differ from those that share them with, because usually my favorite pieces aren’t necessarily because of the subject matter, but because I the challenges i overcame in specific pieces, figuring out a skill I didn’t know before, or the ultimate triumph of having a vision for a piece in your head and being able to fully execute it on paper. I still forget sometimes that I get to do this for a living, especially during stressful busy times for my business, but when I’m sitting at my desk painting, sometimes it hits me that I’m “working” , and how lucky I am.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Depending on the time of year, if we wanted to go somewhere close for shopping we’d go to mashpee commons, they have lots of local business shops there. We always like to take my dog along, so we tend to go a lot of pet-friendly places, cape cod coffee, and then walking her down at any of the beaches in barnstable and maybe down by the harbor in Hyannis. There are also great local artist shanties there that i try and take all my visiting friends to, and a lot of places to eat along the water that visitors like. My favorite beaches and trails are towards the lower -cape, national seashore area, so we’d probably head that way and visit the restaurants in those areas as well.

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?
My parents have always been huge supporters and encouragers of my work and my business. I think I put off doing my art as a career for so long, because in todays society (which thankfully the narrative i changing), we were taught that the creative and artistic career paths never made a lot of money or were rarely successful. I had many friends that were encouraged to choose other career paths because of this. But my parents never did. They always encouraged me to keep going with it, and are always there to help. My business wouldn’t be where it is today without them.

Website: www.alr-designs.com

Instagram: @alr.designs or https://www.instagram.com/alr.designs/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/ALR-Designs-375673679954057/

Other: pinterest: https://pin.it/1Dd1GwZ links: msha.ke/alrdesigns email sign up: bit.ly/whalehey