Intro
I think I never wrote about my art journey from beginning to present day, so if you ever wanted to read about it and loathed the fact that you couldn't do so anywhere on my socials, here you go!
Small town, big dreams
In the small (and I mean small small! the population is around 1300 only) southern Italian town I grew up in, I was an odd kid that came all the way from Germany and didn't quite fit in with the rest, partly also due to the initial language barrier. Doing paper crafts and daydreaming while playing in my garden was all I did back then until my Italian teacher made me want to draw and express my inner world through art, constantly encouraging me to explore and experiment with different mediums. I still credit her to this day for really jump-starting my passion for art and I think my life might have looked very different if it would not have been for her showing me how to paint little scenes on rocks or how to write poems.
In those early years in that small town, life was slow and not very eventful, but making art became my way of making everything more exciting and colorful. 
Little Luy and the small town she grew up in, nestled in between forests and grain fields in the Italian countryside.
"I want to be an artist!"
By the time I started high school, I was pretty much set on wanting to do art professionally, although I did not exactly know which field I wanted to land on yet.
My family still pushed back on the idea of me becoming an artist and first made me attend what we call "Liceo Classico" in Italy, a high school with a big focus on literature, ancient greek & latin language, etc.that you would attend to get one of those big jobs like a doctor or engineer, but after almost not passing my first year and struggling to keep up because I just couldn't help but rather spend my time drawing, I eventually managed to convince my mother to let me attend the "Liceo Artistico" or Art High School where I was able to finally dive deeper into my passion for art by studying fine art, sculpture, architecture and so much more.
Around this time I was deeeeeply obsessed with anime, manga and all things Japan and the idea of becoming a comic artist slowly began forming in my head. I even wrote a whole story back then and was planning on actually putting it down on paper, but yeah that never materialized.
After graduating from high school, I went on to study Comic Art & Illustration for a year in the beautiful city of Bologna, but soon after that I was completely taken by the world of animation and decided to start over in Florence where I eventually graduated from my animation class in 2017.
New Beginnings
The year following my graduation was an odd one. I suddenly felt very unsure about what my next step should be.
Up until that point, I was laser focused on making it big and getting hired by an animation studio, but my last year at Nemo Academy made me realize that I did not wish to work in a big studio setting, working on whatever project I was told to work on. I wanted to do my own thing, create my own stories, but I had no idea where to start. What followed was the longest art block I ever had, 6 months to be precise.
During that time, all I could really do was do simple drawings here and there and for the rest of 2017 and the start of 2018, I developed an interest in tattooing and working with skin as my canvas rather than paper or a screen, so I drifted away from working on my portfolio for animation studios and tattooed for a while until eventually deciding to move to Germany to explore a possible career as a tattoo artist.
Moving to Germany...and America?
2018 is the year when my whole life took a big turn. Soon after moving to Germany, I met the man that is now my husband and fell head over heels for him. He encouraged me to get back to work on my art portfolio and I slowly picked up my pencil again and got back into drawing every day.
Eventually, I had to make a choice of staying in Germany or moving with my then still boyfriend that was about to go back to the States, so I took what is arguably the biggest leap of faith by not only getting married but also moving across the ocean.
It took a while, but once I adjusted to my new life across the pond, I decided to focus on rebuilding my social media presence and exploring the freelancing world. Although I loved animation a lot and still do, I could just not picture myself in a corporate work setting and felt much more comfortable with the idea of working by myself.
The first year after moving to the States I really just posted art on Instagram, but eventually I gathered the courage to open a Patreon page in 2020.
This is also where I first tried to create my very own stickers and fueled by my Patreon members' encouragement, I began to create them on a monthly basis.
Fun fact: for the first year I created stickers, I would cut each and every single one of them by hand. Luckily I was able to buy a cutting machine for that eventually, but I still look back on those days of cutting them by hand fondly, although my hands might disagree heheh.
I now got to a point where I create not only prints and stickers, but also sticky notes, notepads and bookmarks and with every day going by, I feel like I am finally realizing my dream of not only drawing, but also crafting things by hand for a living.
I think it's fair to say that I did not start out with a clear idea of where I wanted to land as an artist, but I am so grateful for all that I've learned and for all the wonderful people in my life that have kept encouraging me on my art journey.
Conclusion
Sometimes I wonder what little Luisa would say if she could see me now, still picking up paper snippets around me just like I did back then, but now sitting in my very own home studio, surrounded by all the cute stationery and art that she wished she could surround herself with back then, supported by my peers rather than laughed at for my interest in art.
I get a bit emotional thinking about it and I know this is supposed to be a professional shop and blog and all that, but I can't help but to be open and honest with my thoughts so I hope you'll indulge my rambling here.
I think that the biggest lesson I've learned on my art journey so far is to stay true to who you are. There will be times where life will be hard and confusing and terrible, but as long as you hold on tight to that spark within you and keep cultivating it little by little, you will eventually reach your goals and will do so feeling genuinely happy.
I might not work for a big studio like I thought I would, but what I do now makes me happy and is sloooowly starting to pay the bills too. So I will keep going and stumbling and having days of doubt, but I will do so while doing what I love and that is all that matters.
Thank you so much for reading all the way until the end. I truly appreciate it and hope you found this little look into my art journey interesting! ❤️