Q and A with a Story Guru: Roben-Marie Smith: Success Through Supporting Others

See a photo of Roben-Marie, her bio, Part 1 of this Q&A, and Part 2.

Q&A with Roben-Marie Smith, Questions 3 and 4:

Q: You seem to have become successful in the art-journaling world, andyour work has appeared in many venues. Given that lots of people do art journaling, why you? What do you think made you so successful and driven to share your knowledge?

A: I attribute my success to a combination of things. I work hard to find the right balance between business and personal life. As a woman of faith, I believe that blessings are given to those who serve. Being accessible to people whether by teaching, blogging, or correspondence allows me to encourage and support other artists along that way.

I feel driven to share what I have learned with others. Inspiration is a two-way street. A desire to learn, to stretch and an unquenchable curiosity keeps my fingers inky and my heart happy.

Q: What has surprised you most in your work with story/art journaling?

A: There was a turning point in my evolution as an artist that was very unexpected. I took a class with mixed media artist, Traci Bautista in Hampton, VA, where I was teaching at an art retreat. Up to that point, my style was very vintage and lacked color and vibrancy.

Traci taught me how to embrace color in a way that stopped me in my tracks. My world was literally exploding with vibrant color and after class I filled my hotel room with works of saturated color. Every surface in my room was covered with drying art pieces.

That experienced changed how I viewed color and myself. I realized that I had been reticent to use color as I felt that was the domain of “real artists.” My fears and presuppositions were erased and my confidence grew. I became a different artist that day, embracing both color and my talent in a new way. It changed everything!