You're going to love this Valentine's Day present for you, business owners and artists!
““Just viewed this #tinshingletuneup on replay, and totally loved the biz/branding/creative deep dive””
On this Tin Shingle TuneUp episode, we interview the Kansas City based artist, Megh Knappenberger, who realized one day that she was tired of her day job (of running her own design agency), and wanted to pursue her art full time. After injuring her back, this young mother and sought after graphic designer was forced to take down-time. When it was time to return to her business, she found that she didn't want to. She listened to the whispers, and followed her desire to paint full time.
It wasn't by accident, and it took some serious grit - Kansas limestone to be exact.
The portrait that started it all.
Photo Credit: Megh Knappenberger
Giving into her passion for painting, Megh produced a painting that friends and family loved, and caught the eye of someone who would be pivotal to making her big dreams of producing art for the collegiate level a reality. Months after she closed up shop on her business, and opened her painting studio, she made her first big sale of $150,000 for her series called "The Original Six", which is a series of paintings of all 6 Jayhawks (the icon for University of Kansas). The series is an officially licensed collection of Jayhawk paintings, which for an artist was nearly impossible to earn from the University. KU had a 30 year history of saying no to artists who wanted to reproduce the icon in various ways. When Megh showed the paintings to family and friends, the response was overwhelming, and Megh says, "it became bigger than me."
"The Original Six," Megh's debut series as a professional painter that garnered her a lot of KU love, PR, and a sale of the paintings that would enable her to continue painting.
Photo Credit: Megh Knappenberger
It has garnered the attention of ESPN Kansas City, Kansas City Star, and The University Daily Kansan. A brand ambassadorship with NIALL watches was also formed. To get even more excited for this interview, watch Megh's super short video about the making "The Original Six" here:
We take you through the timeline of how this all unfolded during this episode.
Created in collaboration with Niall Luxury Watches in Kansas City, the six originals have been purchased and the limited edition prints are currently available. Each is signed, numbered, and comes with the Rock Chalk.