FOLLOWING JOY
Part 1: Tip tap tip tap, ooh ahh.
Before I knew how to spell, I’d sit in my dad’s office blissfully tip-tapping away on his typewriter. I’d spend hours filling up his stationery with pure gibberish. I still love typewriters and stationery to this day.

And my mom tells me I’d get all wonderstruck in stores when looking at racks of clothes. I’d be ooh-ing and ahh-ing and getting my chubby little hands all over them. I guess I’ve spent my whole life dazzled by bright colors.

Part 2: Snip snip.
Skip ahead to my teens. There I am cutting up and styling my outfits. I remember getting into a whole mess of trouble for rearranging all the buttons on a winter coat. Yeah, but it was so worth it. Personalizing my outfits was how I needed to express myself. The fact that my sewing skills were less than satisfactory never kept me from trying. That’s where all those safety pins came in, don’t ya know.

Oh, and I’d also blow my allowance on costume jewelry whenever I got the chance. What can I say, it was the 80’s and I had to have big jewelry to match the big hair. Uh-huh.

Part 3: Zoom.
Fast-forward to my mid-twenties. There I am exploring a whole rainbow of possibilities to earn a living with my creativity. Working as an interior designer led to making theater props. That in turn, led to painting full-time. Followed by making wood sculptures and wood automata. Then sewing got the best of me and I made soft sculpture and fabric dolls. When my studio space got smaller, I focused more on watercolor drawings and writing.

There have also been monster puppets, paper theaters, murals, installations, scrolls, and boxes. Twenty-plus years is a long time.

But none of this happened in any kind of orderly fashion. I wish. It was more about overlapping projects where experimentation played a big role. Working on one project would always open the door to the next. And to be honest, from the outside it looks like I’ve never been able to make up my mind about what medium to work in. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. My mind has always been very much made up.

It just so happens that my joy comes from working in many different mediums.

All this brings us to Twinki-Winki. One big cohesive project for all my loves - art, design, fashion, and writing.

I’ve been following my joy as an artist for the last twenty-plus years. I’m super excited to create a business that allows me to give my joy away.

©2022 Alex Mitchell