My Budding Art Dream

Welcome to Kleverli! I'm just an artist who makes fun little art pieces and writes poetry deep in the woods. Here’s a bit about me and my business in the form of questions I often get:

Where are you based?

I won’t be giving my exact location, but I’m in Appalachia, USA! 

Why “Kleverli”?

Kleverli was a name I came up with nearly 18 years ago for my Etsy shop! It started because  I was broke, and had to find clever, thrifty ways to create things that were from games and books I loved, since I didn’t have the money to buy them. I also created art jewelry that I wanted but couldn’t find or afford. My name begins with a K, so Kleverli was born!

If you started selling 20 years ago, why does it seem like you’re starting over now? 

I really liked what I made, and assumed others would too, so I started a shop. I had to put that shop on pause for work, which I now consider to be the biggest mistake I have ever made, in some respects. The paused turned into over 18 years. I tried making art for a while, but became exhausted, and stress squashed my creativity. 10 years ago, I gave up entirely. My dream had always been to be a full time artist and writer, but I just couldn’t cope, and work also came with family ties and obligations, so I stayed. 

This year, I walked away from that job. It had grown toxic, and it was not worth the emotional and physical toll I paid each day. Was I ready, and in a good financial place to do that? Nope. But there is no perfect time to do anything. I now had a choice to make: Go get another soul-crushing job, or start trying to make it as an artist. I chose the art route! 2

So what’s your story? 

1 year ago, my husband and I took a huge leap of faith, and sold almost everything we own to change our lives. We bought a rickety old 1969 camper, and rebuilt it ourselves. We climbed into the truck and took off for a 2000-mile journey to some undeveloped land we bought mostly blind. We had to cut our way in, by hand, and are in the process of building our own little cabin in the woods. It’s just the two of us, and the insane weather has really slowed us down. We are still in our little blueberry (that’s what I call the camper because it’s tiny, round-ish, and very very blue now), and have been off grid for over a year. I am making art in the woods, and helping him build our home in between!  We are broke, we are tired, we are happy. I’ll be documenting a little bit about our journey on the Kleverli blog along the way! 

What do you make? 

I create so many things… here’s a little list! 

• Tiny paintings that I make into jewelry

• Acrylic and Oil paintings

• Pencil sketches

• Home decor

• Poetry

• Working on some novels and short stories too

Future Ideas/Plans

• I want to finish a couple of stories I have been writing, and intend to self publish

• I’ll be finding a good print-on-demand provider for art prints to sell here

• Try out some larger scale paintings, because I usually work quite small

• Find ways to combine my poetry and art

I’m not only writing this blog and keeping this site to sell my work- I want to document my budding Art dream, form friendships, and a community. If you make art, show me! If you have ideas, please reach out. If you just want to chat, I do too! I’m creating this place to grow, to share my lovely little life and journey, and all my pitfalls along the way. Things are really tough right now. Let’s share, support, and get through them together.

Stay Klever,