Kelly Miller

Two years ago, I never could have imagined living my life as a creative working artist and thanks to Bonnie, Immersion, and Flourish, I'm on my way!

I left my job as a Marketing Director in the corporate world in Feb 2020. I was unhappy and burnt out. I knew I wanted to do something more creative but had no idea what that looked like. Even though I've always loved to draw and paint, I considered it an impractical career choice. Turns out a global pandemic was just the thing I needed to make a major change in my life.

With time on my hands and a stay a home order, I started drawing again, following artists on social media and exploring online classes. I had never heard of surface pattern design before but kept seeing Bonnie's name pop up in posts of artists I started to follow.

I took Bonnie's 5-day wrapping paper challenge and fell in love. I immediately joined the waiting list for the 2021 Immersion course and joined Flourish.

Through Flourish, I met a number of like-minded creative women who really supported me during this transitional time. By early 2021, I was ready to dive into Immersion. I had tried playing around with illustrator on my own but kept running into stumbling blocks where I couldn't figure out how to do what I wanted to do.

Bonnie's step by step approach broke it all down in an intuitive way that gave me the technical skills to create the ideas in my head.

After completing Immersion, I started creating as many patterns as I could and started exploring different outlets to sell my work. I opened a Spoonflower shop in June and by October, I had launched my own website and Etsy store as well.

I felt like I had finally arrived and was doing the type of work I always dreamed of.

I'm still figuring out my style, building on my skills, and exploring exactly where I want to focus my business, but I'm in a completely different place than I was at the beginning of 2020.