Carrie Schmitt

If we don’t listen to what the universe is whispering to us, it may start to yell.

Carrie loved to make art as a child but everyone knows you don’t make a living as an artist. So when Carrie went to college she studied English instead of art. But giving up art created a hole so big in Carrie’s heart the only way she knew how to fill it was by running from it. She began to drink and party heavily. She retreated into unhealthy relationships and an eating disorder. And then, one day, all that remained fell apart. Carrie became so sick she couldn’t move. Any physical exertion would cause her body to break out in hives and her entire system to overheat. The only thing left, the only relief she found, was in painting.

And that is how Carrie came back to art. 

Today Carrie makes art full-time. She has a bus that is also her studio. She drives her bus around painting and sharing what she makes. She teaches workshops and has written books and sells prints and has a clothing line coming – which sounds like she’s made it the way we think of someone making it. But Carrie has given up a lot to devote herself to her art. This is her story of all that she gave up and all that she’s gained. It’s how she’s made a career for herself no one thought was possible and how she keeps giving the world the biggest gift she has to give.

“Art saved my life. I have so much adoration and respect and gratitude and deep undying devotion to the creative process and to art because it saved me.”