About Amy Denise

As a child, I was always creating, drawing characters from the Sunday comics, collecting crayon shavings in a Strawberry Shortcake tin because I couldn’t bear to throw away something so beautiful, and daydreaming of magical worlds. But like many dreamers, I was gently nudged toward a more “practical” path. Art was never seen as a way to build a life, so I learned early on to trade my crayons for textbooks and dreams for expectations. But deep down, I knew that wasn’t my truth.

My first “real” painting, a Bob Ross-inspired sunset over water, won an award in fifth grade. I didn’t even know it had been entered into a competition. I never saw it on display. What I did know was that something inside me lit up when I painted. I didn’t paint again until high school, and when that became a muddy mess for a long time, I didn’t paint again.

Life took me in many creative directions: fashion design, graphic design, and digital art. I kept creating, but for others, not for myself. I was designing for approval, trying to live up to what others thought I should be doing. Eventually, that disconnection took a toll. I lost myself. I became depressed. Something was missing, and I finally realized it was that joy that only creating for the sake of creating had ever given me.

That’s when everything began to change. I started drawing again. I was searching online for classes to help me improve, help me find my style.

I started to remember who I was through surface pattern design and classes like Bonnie Christine’s Immersion. The book The Artist’s Way cracked something open in me. I began exploring and allowed myself to experiment and paint again, not for perfection, but for peace. It was an early spring Sunday morning when I finished the last chapter of The Artists Way. I was sitting on my couch, all cozy under a blanket, drinking coffee, and as I closed the book, I thought, what now? I thought about what I wanted to practice. What do I want to improve?  I grabbed my laptop and began searching for local in-person art classes. Signing up for an acrylic painting class at the Indy Art Center was the moment everything changed. I was initially nervous, but after the first couple of classes, I realized everyone there was like me. We want to create for the joy of creating. For the first time in years, I felt whole. The missing piece had been there all along. I just had to give myself permission to return to it.

Now, I paint the landscapes of my imagination, dreamlike scenes filled with magic, mystery, and quiet beauty. My art is for the dreamers, for anyone who still believes in wonder, who finds comfort in fantasy, who needs a gentle reminder that there’s still magic in the world.

This is the art of coming home to yourself, and it’s my joy to share it with you.