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Contestant's Case to Win

TraillWorks: Studio, Gallery, Lessons was founded in 2005. In the studio I create the well-known paintings of vintage kitchen appliances, aprons, landscapes, and Wedding Cake Portraits. The gallery displays contemporary art of emerging and established artists, studio jewelers, and my own work. The lessons I offer to children through adults are structured as intimate private, semiprivate or small groups.

TraillWorks was founded in 2005 out of my home as a way to professionalize my career as an artist. Two years later when my husband and I decided we wanted to start a family, I took a leap of faith and rent a storefront studio in our town, to continue my career and open up a room in our house for a baby. Upon signing my lease, I learned I was five weeks pregnant. After the shock of the two events coinciding, rather than shying away from the opportunity, I sought out the support I needed during my pregnancy and into the transition of caring for a baby while running a business.

My business is now much more than a studio, I moved it again early this year adding 1000 square feet of professional gallery and studio space, redesigned my branding, and have grown the gallery and lesson aspects during a recession, also while raising a child. My twenty-month old is a happy, very adaptable baby boy, in part because of my work situation, my very supportive husband who is a great father, and my flexibility. I took a four-week leave to be home with him, and then by week five he was coming to work with me on a shortened schedule. For about the first six months, he joined me at the studio, watching me work, meeting people who came in. Once he got to an age where he needed more attention, and I saw my business starting to suffer, my husband and I decided to enroll him in daycare. Over the past year, the changes in my son's needs and my business, have forced me to become more flexible. My time at home is almost strictly with him, while my time at work is very focused and productive. I'm learning to raise a child and run a business at the same time, while learning to live an entire new life. It's certainly challenging, but the personal satisfaction I feel for both my successes as a mom and as a business owner make it all worthwhile.