Art and Entrepreneurship: Stephanie Pitts is Unleashing Creativity at artNest

What can we learn from the world of art when it comes to nurturing creativity in children? Stephanie Pitts, owner of artNest Studios in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, sheds light on this in a deeply insightful conversation. Reflecting on her own artistic upbringing, Stephanie discusses the impact of allowing children to explore their creativity freely and make their own decisions. The conversation delves into her journey of transitioning from an elementary school art teacher to art studio owner. Stephanie emphasizes the transformative power that art holds for children, affecting many aspects of their lives beyond just creativity.

Moving from corporate to local business, Stephanie shares her enlightening experiences. She also talks about the importance of connection in her business and how it shapes her approach. With a firm belief that art should evoke emotion in the artist, Stephanie provides a unique perspective on teaching technical skills to young students. Prepare to be captivated by her passion for art and the lessons it holds for children and all of us. 

https://artneststudios.com/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome, welcome everyone, to Local Living Community Podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today's episode, and if you are a creative spirit and you'd like to possibly pass that on to your children, if you are not a creative spirit and you want your children to be, or you just want your children to have some fun and some great experiences, this is a great episode for you. We have Stephanie Pitts. She is owner of the Artness Studios in Delray Beach and Boca Raton. She's also a local resident. Stephanie, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here, yeah it's fun.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I can tell you that years ago, folks I have some local publications here and Stephanie and her family appeared on the cover One of the coolest covers we ever did. I got so much great feedback for that and I just wanted to thank you for that too.

Speaker 2: 1:12

Well, thank you for letting me do that. That was definitely the way that we wanted to represent ourselves. Was painted, covered in paint. That's the way we are in our family.

Speaker 1: 1:21

I think that's the way you do business too. Tell us about Artness.

Speaker 2: 1:25

It is. Artness is a studio for kids ages one to about 13, and we provide art experiences. It's not typical school art, it's process-based art. That's where you get into the messy and exploratory kind of art. We want kids to have the opportunity to make their own choices, their own decisions and let their creativity shine, because everybody is born creative. We are naturally made that way and we wanted to provide an environment where kids could be the way that they're naturally intended to be.

Speaker 2: 2:05

I used to be an art teacher and I was held down by the confines of teaching within a test teaching to, I have to put math and reading into everything that I did. That was good in a lot of ways, but I didn't want to be bound to that. I didn't want the kids to feel that way either. I really just wanted to break free of all of that and give kids an experience that I always wish that I had. That's where we get into the splash room. They can paint the walls, they can paint the floor, they can paint themselves, even within our projects of more technical-based art. We show them the techniques and then we let them bring their own ideas to life. They don't have to do the way. We say it, we follow their lead.

Speaker 1: 2:52

So were you teaching elementary school, middle school, what level were you teaching?

Speaker 2: 2:56

I was teaching elementary school in Miami-Dade County for six years.

Speaker 1: 3:01

So let me ask you when I was younger, I was teaching in Miami-Dade County for six years we needed to color inside the lines, right, that was the goal to being a good color.

Speaker 2: 3:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:14

The proper amount of shading, light, shading when appropriate, not going too heavy with the Kringon. And then it was like don't make our children color. Within the lines we need to express ourselves, yes, exactly. What's your take on this? Do we need the color in the line sometimes, or no or never?

Speaker 2: 3:37

I think, as life, there is balance to everything. There's a time and a place for everything. And if you want to color in the lines, I think it's really important that you've had an opportunity to paint outside the lines, to explore and find your voice in it. And if you choose to continue to color in the lines, then that's your choice and that's your style and that's fine. But if you've only ever colored inside the lines, that's where I disagree. So it's just important to have experiences on both sides to pick where you want to be as a person in general.

Speaker 1: 4:10

And so when did you know that you wanted to be an artist? Was this something you grew up knowing? Was it a part of your life, growing up in your family?

Speaker 2: 4:17

So my dad is an artist. I actually own the company with my father. I brought him out of retirement to do this with me, so he's a retired filmmaker. So I grew up with art all around me. It was actually next level. So, I mean, my Halloween costumes were out of control. I would dress up for school reports. I did a report on toilet paper rolls, which is outside the box also. But my dad was like, if you're going to do this, you're going to do it right and we're going to build you a toilet paper roll costume, which I then did my presentation in.

Speaker 2: 4:51

So everything we did was next level and everything we did was we were creative, problem solving, or we were fixing something or we were finding a solution for things, rather than just going out and buying something new. It was how can we make this stand over there? What can we use? What materials can we use in the house to make this work in our house? So everything was just the mindset that was within me from the day I was born. So I don't really know how to think any other way.

Speaker 2: 5:22

So it was in my life, my whole life, and my mom is a supporter of the arts. She's more of a left brain kind of person that keeps us on track when we need to be put on track. But so I had the best of both worlds. But I mean, it was very, very heavily influenced by my family and my brother as well. He's a very creative soul and entrepreneur, so that's just how we were raised. And I think that goes into what I want to give back to the community is if you, every child is creative, so you do have creative children, no matter what you think they are creative. But if you yourself doesn't connect with that creativity and you want to give your kid the opportunity to explore their own creativity, I'm really passionate about giving them that opportunity that I had I was so fortunate to have growing up, because it helps me in every facet of life.

Speaker 1: 6:12

So did you always want to be an entrepreneur? Was this something that came to you while you were teaching and you had an epiphany? How did that transpire?

Speaker 2: 6:19

Yeah, that's a great question. My parents own their own business, so again, it's something I really I didn't know any differently and I have always known that I've wanted to own my own business. I struggled with knowing what it was going to be, and you know I believe that everything happens in its own time for the right reasons, and you know I listened to the universe you know when opportunities come around.

Speaker 2: 6:42

So I worked for other people, I taught, I worked in education, in other ways and I knew there was something because I had such a wide variety of interests. I studied art and music and you know psychology. So I didn't know which direction, but I knew it would come to me and I knew I had to experience different things to make that decision. So it was after I had my second child. I was living here in Delray Beach and you know I didn't want I was working a corporate job. It was actually I say corporate, but it was. It was a music and after school music school. That was amazing, but I was on their schedule and I had to travel a lot and I didn't for my first, after having my first kid and going, you know, taking trips, that was like a nice break, but after the second one I didn't want to be doing that all the time. So I wanted to start my own thing.

Speaker 1: 7:35

So you said you were working for a music school, but you had to travel. What were you doing for them?

Speaker 2: 7:40

I was the director of franchise operations for a company called School of Rock. So, yeah, I was getting kids on stage to be rock stars and it was awesome. I had to do a lot of traveling because I was the director of franchise operations for the entire East Coast, so I had to visit the schools at least once every year, and there were about 65 schools, so it was a lot of traveling. It was a wonderful job and I learned so much. You know, I wouldn't be where I am without that job, but it was. You know, I just wanted to be present for my kids, which was another reason why I wanted to have my own business is, you know, although it's a 24 seven operation, I can still be there to volunteer at the school. I can still pick them up after school, I can still, you know, be present for them in their lives. You know where I want to be, so, so it's a nice balance.

Speaker 1: 8:26

So when you made the switch from corporate and sort of having a macro view of how business ran, and now you are the proprietor, you are the person running the business, how is it different?

Speaker 2: 8:42

Well, I have a lot of empathy for the people I was managing that I didn't have before. So you know why can't you get this done? What's what's going on? But now it's like, oh, now I understand why they couldn't get this done. You know it's, it's. It's really what I the biggest takeaway is is the emphasis on connection, and that's also the beauty of being a local business is the are the connections that you make with the community, with the people, with you know, with people that you're employing. You know, I didn't have that connection as director of French as operations. I was never on the ground. You know this. This is so fulfilling in such a deep way because I am a extremely social person. I love people. I, you know, I love talking and talking to people, listening and hearing people's stories. So that's literally what I get to do every single day and bringing artists together to have a job that they actually love to do and be creative, and you know so there's, there's opportunities for connection everywhere, and that that's the biggest difference.

Speaker 1: 9:46

So how long? How long have you had the business?

Speaker 2: 9:49

Six years. We just celebrated our six year birthday of Art Nest.

Speaker 1: 9:53

And you've got some students that have been with you a while. I'm guessing.

Speaker 2: 9:56

Yes, I. We have some students that have been with us since day one and it's been amazing to watch them grow. It is the coolest thing seeing their like very first picture and our very first studio to now and they're in tweens. It's incredible, including my own kids, because when I started they were two and three years old and now they could be in the tween group. So it's it's incredible.

Speaker 1: 10:15

So my daughter, my daughter is an artist, and do you believe that some kids are better at it? Can you label it like that, can you put it into those confines that some people are just better at creating art than others, or what's your take on that?

Speaker 2: 10:36

Well. So I think he kind of I get asked this a lot. So I think you kind of go back and define what art is. I don't think anybody could be better or worse in art if you define it the way that I define it. And to me, art is something that evokes emotion in the artist. Yes, it's important to evoke emotion in the viewer, but when what I believe art to be is something on a deeper level that is intrinsic within and fulfill something within you, it's secondary what the product is. It's, it doesn't matter what it looks like, it's the experience that you had while creating it. So if, like, for example, your daughter, feels fulfilled while creating her art, then her art is the most fabulous thing on the planet.

Speaker 2: 11:21

You know, that doesn't matter. With that said, there are definitely kids that I see that gravitate more toward creative thinking and ideas and, you know, just have these bright and vivid imaginations on a deeper level than the average kid. Every kid is imaginative, every kid is creative. And then there comes a point where you know I think they have they get really structured in school, they have to focus on other things. Maybe they're having the creative outlet at home and it sort of fizzles away, it's not a priority anymore.

Speaker 2: 11:56

But it's in there and I think, look, I have two sons. One son, there is no doubt he is a creative, he's going to do something in the arts. He's only eight, but I know it because he. I can see the way that he thinks and I see lots of kids that come to us like that. My other son is more rose and columns, you know, sort of more of a left brain, but his style of art is very technical. So he's not naturally, you know, born this, this, the creative soul, necessarily that that my other son is. But he has the art that lives within him and found his own style within it and still loves it and it evokes emotion within him. So if that that's sure it does.

Speaker 2: 12:38

Concrete answer, but but that's the way I feel about it.

Speaker 1: 12:41

No, it's it's. It's such an interesting conversation, I think, because I always have maintained, for right or for wrong, that by learning the basics, by having some classical training that can freeze someone up to actually tap into more of their creativity than they would have otherwise.

Speaker 2: 13:02

Absolutely. I 100% agree with with you, and it's all about how that technical training is presented at at at what age. So you're not going to technically train a two year old. You know they're. You're going to let them explore. In my opinion, let them explore when they get a little bit older and they're, they're showing that they want to learn, that you know those technical skills.

Speaker 2: 13:26

You show them the technical skills and we do the technical skills, but we do it in, in, in games, in. You know, we stay away from examples, and that that's a big thing is that you'll never walk into one of our classes and see an example on the board and say make it look like that. That's the antithesis, because that puts the pressure on them. And that's when they start to say my artwork isn't good, I don't like my art, I'm not an artist. Because you're setting the expectation here and that's not where they are yet. They haven't gotten there. It's not their idea, they're copying something that they saw. So so, yes, I 100% agree that technical skills are really important and it does unleash a whole other pathway of them to get out what's in their mind into physical form. But it just it has to be done in a way that's not going to shy them away from wanting to continue.

Speaker 1: 14:19

So wouldn't you say that someone that might not quite have the technical skills of some other artists, they may even be more capable of evoking emotion from someone that looks at their art, for whatever reason? That's unexplainable.

Speaker 2: 14:36

Right, right, and it all depends on the viewer too. I mean, it's your personal preference, just like you know, some people like certain foods, some people like certain art, and it's really again it comes back to that connection. If I connect with a piece of art, it's something within me that's connecting with that other, that with the artist. So that's just. You know. That's where having a style preference of art comes in. It's what it evokes inside of you.

Speaker 1: 15:01

So interesting and I know you could talk about this probably for as long as we had to record.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Yep.

Speaker 1: 15:09

Besides art nest, I know you have a family outside of art or your business. I don't know if you can ever really get outside of art and have a feeling you don't, but what do you like to do? For fun, tell me a little bit more about that.

Speaker 2: 15:24

Yeah, so I, you know, I love hanging out with my family. It's the best time. I have a great family. They're so supportive and they're just fun, you know. So I get to, I take them in different places. My son plays a lot of basketball, so we were on the travel team. We follow him around and that's fun for me. I have lots of friends on the you know mom friends on the on the team as well.

Speaker 2: 15:47

But I think it's really important that we also have time away from that kind of thing as well. So I work, I would say in the last two years I've worked really hard to carve out fun time and it sounds crazy that it's not intuitive, but with such a busy lifestyle we really have to carve it out. You know we my husband and I love to go to Miami. We love eating really good food. We love, you know, we love also taking the kids on bike rides, just being outside and being in Florida. We can do that all the time, which is wonderful, you know. And just doing things during the day I love, you know, I love working out, I love being physical, I love taking walks, I love listening to music, going to concerts, you know that kind of thing, but you know it's very sporadic and I just have to, you know, kind of plug it into the puzzle pieces of my life right now. But it's it's, you know, just about finding the balance. So it's all good time.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Speaking of puzzle pieces, any challenges you might have had in the past that you feel have contributed to your current success or or help you in some other way.

Speaker 2: 16:53

Yeah, I mean there's so many finding the balance, the work life balance, of being a mom and wanting to be present for my children and Uber present, because I picked them up every day after school. You know that was my commitment when I opened my business and and being able to have a successful business and continuing my connection with with my customers. You know that's a that's a really big challenge and and I can't say that there's ever actually been balance. But I've accepted and come to the piece with the fact that sometimes it's going to tilt one way and sometimes it's going to tilt another, and sometimes I'm going to be so present I'm going to nail it as a mom, and then other times I'm going to be nailing it as a business owner and then oh my God, I forgot my kid has this test.

Speaker 2: 17:40

I didn't even get to study, you know so, but I think coming to peace with that has made me more successful because I don't lay the guilt on myself. You know, and I've really. You know it's taken a long time to come to peace with that, because it's it's a really hard thing. That that we all face is there's no such thing as balance. It's just you tilt back and forth and you just keep going that way. But you know, and I'm still, there's still moments where I beat myself up about it, but it's you know, I just come back to that, that place of there is no true balance and and I'm, you know, I'm doing everything I can and giving back and to my family and to my community in the best way that I can.

Speaker 1: 18:22

It really does come through, Stephanie. For a mom or for a dad that's considering bringing their kid into Art Nest. What's something that you would like them to know, something that you haven't shared with me so far?

Speaker 2: 18:37

I think the most important thing for people to know about Art Nest is that we what I literally train my staff on is that we are committed to making every single day, every single experience, the best day ever. It's not like, oh, that was fun. It's like, no, that was awesome. We want people to walk out feeling that way every time. That is, again another balance where it's stress-free for the parents, because being a parent is stressful and then you're worried it's my kid doing the right thing, are they sharing? You don't have to worry about any of that. We got it covered. Just take a step back, relax. We've got that.

Speaker 2: 19:12

Making sure it's a safe, both emotionally and physically, environment for the kids. They're not thinking about anything. They don't have to worry about anything. We give them whatever they need to create. There's no sit down and work. It's like if you need to stand up and go take a break, go take a break. Go stand up and go take a walk. It's fine. We work with the child. It's really important. Even with our birthday parties, it's a stressful thing because you want your kids to have the best day ever.

Speaker 2: 19:42

We literally do everything for you. I approach every experience that our families have as an experience that I would want to have myself. I've got high expectations.

Speaker 1: 19:55

Obviously.

Speaker 2: 19:56

I want to provide that for my families genuinely, because everybody deserves it.

Speaker 1: 20:01

Two locations right Del Rey Boca. Tell us where you're located.

Speaker 2: 20:06

Our first location is in Del Rey Beach. It's on Federal Highway just south of Linton. Then we have our West Boca location, which is off of Yamato between Lions and 441.

Speaker 1: 20:20

We know you have best day ever birthday parties. What else Is it after school? Do you have all day, depending on the age? How does that work? What's available?

Speaker 2: 20:29

Yeah, we have best day ever birthday parties. We have workshops. That's where we bring in those technical skills and experiences.

Speaker 2: 20:36

We have workshops throughout the week after school and our baby workshops are during the day. Then we also have camps, which is huge, because any day that kids don't have school, we have a camp so that you have coverage for your kids. That's an all day thing. Those are really popular. We do them any non-school day and any break Thanksgiving break, winter break, all of that. Then we have our drop-in classes, where it's no commitment. The workshops are a six-week commitment because they scaffold and you're learning a skill. The one-day drop-ins are just an experience for the day. See if you like it and then maybe you'll want to sign up for a workshop.

Speaker 1: 21:18

How does somebody reach out to you? What's the best way to make contact?

Speaker 2: 21:22

It depends on your preference. You can email us at info at artneststudioscom, you can call us at 561-562-8897, or you can check out our website at artneststudioscom. All the information is on the website and you can register right there. Again, we try to make it as easy as humanly possible, because we know everybody's so busy. We try to make your life easier.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Stephanie, you are so refreshing. Your energy is amazing.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 21:52

I really have enjoyed having you on the podcast this morning. Thank you very much for joining us.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Thanks for having me. It was a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1: 22:00

To all of our listeners again. I'm David Conway, your host, and we look forward to having you back soon on Local Living.