Today we’d like to introduce you to Lynn Doyal.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have lived in Boca Raton, Florida since 1986. I am a native Floridian born in Miami. My family lived in Coral Gables and when I was 14 my family moved to Ft. Lauderdale. I attended Nova High School and graduated in 1975.
I received my degree in Fine Art from the University of South Florida in 1979, and put my paint brushes down in favor of working in a corporate capacity. I worked for Exxon in New York City and transferred back to Florida with Exxon three years later. I left Exxon to work for Xerox and after 3 years left to start my own company – Signature Chocolates – which specialized in providing premiums and incentives for corporations, hotels and cruise lines.
After raising our family of three daughters, the time was right to resume my creative endeavors and I started developing my first collection of work in 2009. I have been exhibiting in festivals, shows, and galleries since 2011.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The creative part of what I do has always been easy. I have more ideas than time and it is wonderful to know that I will never run out of things I want to try to bring to life. There are many failed attempts yet it moves to find solutions and sometimes those solutions take years to find.
Of course, the struggle for myself and most every artist is trying to afford venues to show my work. The world of galleries has changed and most are now “pay to play” and this makes it difficult to afford.
For the last two years, I have been investigating the realm of creating public art by serving as an artist apprentice to a nationally established artist and volunteering for the Director of Public Art in Palm Beach County. I am also a member of the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals (FAPAP). The impact I see my images having if they are created on a grand scale is very exciting. The size of the spaces available in the Public Art sphere are much larger and I am anxious to secure my first commission.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am a mixed media artist.
Hand stitching and beading, oil and acrylic paint, all done on canvas bring my images to life in an innovative way. I take delight in marrying contemporary designs with old school techniques and modern technologies. Digitizing images allows for an abstraction and provides a surrealistic experience for the viewer. This marriage of image, technique, and materials is distinctive and causes people to talk about what they are seeing because there is nothing else like it.
I am proud to share my creative talents with other artists and my administrative abilities as I serve on the Board of the Wellington Art Society as the Chairperson for Educational Student Scholarships.
I have been blessed to lead a very fulfilling life. Whether it be my spiritual life, family life, corporate life or artistic life; all have been very fulfilling in different ways so I have no regrets. Success for me has been fully committing myself to where I am in life at the time and this requires making deliberate choices.
I think it is easy to believe (falsely) that one’s identity is in what you do and not who you are. Who you are is infinitely more important than what you do. Focusing on who I am and who I desire to become is personal and therefore its “success” is measured and assessed very differently than what the world sees me DO or who the world THINKS I am. The thing about DOING is that you can become exhausted by not feeling you have done enough. I have learned that this is what burns people out. Making a difference in small, consistent ways seems to be what I have learned. Sometimes I can see the difference I’ve made in the lives of others. Sometimes seeing this takes a long time and certainly there are differences I never see, but I know how it feels for me to have made the investment and nothing feels better than that. It is from a place of gratitude and joy; a place of overflowing, that I create my art.
Beauty and art can serve as a deliriously wonderful distraction from problems and pain but it does not have the power to SOLVE problems or help to HEAL hurts.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.MixedMediaByLynn.com
- Phone: 561-251-0806
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-M-Doyal-1762825413947779/
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