Kelly Varner Colors Our World as Artist, Designer and Blogger

Orlando native Kelly Varner crafts amazing visual stories, painting us a picture of her passion for art. She includes creativity and collaboration in all aspects of her life. Kelly’s wide range of work varies from freelance designer to artist and blogger at the All Things Creative blog.

Art has always played a big part in Kelly’s life. She’s practiced art since she was 8 years old, finding something creative in everything she does.

When Kelly graduated high school, she wanted to try something different in college to keep art nearby as a hobby. She went from a small, private school, to the notoriously large (and national champions) University of Central Florida. She graduated from UCF with a degree in Psychology, but art kept popping up in Kelly’s life.

 

 

“I went through a period of maybe two years of just not knowing what I wanted to do,” Kelly said. “I was kinda stuck…I was like, well, I can’t do anything with my degree, and I like doing creative things, but I just don’t know what to do with it.”

Kelly later decided to start her own business, working in graphic design to incorporate art. “It was way less stressful when I started doing it on my own instead of trying to work for somebody else,” Kelly said.

Moving Into Interior Design

As time went on, Kelly taught herself how to design home interiors. She and her husband bought a home that was originally in not-so-great shape, quickly painting and redesigning the home.

Interior design goes all the way back to Kelly’s childhood, when she rearranged her room. “It drove my parents crazy,” Kelly jokes. “As a kid, I only had my room to work with, so I just did whatever I could there!”

 

 

Kelly continued expanding her creative spirit, taking pictures of her own apartment décor and sharing photos. Eventually, she felt confident enough to include interior design as part of her services.

Kelly considered applying to interior design jobs, but she didn’t feel qualified because her degree wasn’t in art or interior design.

“Eventually, I was like, I’m just gonna do it myself,” Kelly said. “I was much more comfortable. If I fail, I fail. If I fail for somebody else, I feel really bad.”

Expanding Skills with Blogging

Kelly’s knack for creativity inspired people to ask about the gifts she made and the apartment decor. She started the All Things Creative blog in February 2017 to share this information.

Many aspects of blogging involves learning at our own pace. Kelly taught herself how to create her website and how to blog. She knew she had a lot of resources to share with readers so they could create their own projects.

“I could refer people to a place where they could see how to do them,” Kelly said. “You really have to know a lot of those different things for blogging.”

 

 

Kelly loves coming up with the ideas for blog posts, brainstorming and envisioning ideas. All Things Creative features a range of blog posts, from Kelly’s personal life to helpful design tips.

Blogging requires a LOT of planning. Kelly stays organized, but she says she still likes to go with the flow. “I don’t like to hold a lot of stress or hostility,” Kelly said.

Combining Technology with Art

Kelly continued expressing herself through art with digital art and sketch designs. Going along with the teach-yourself method, she learned how to navigate Adobe software like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator with online courses and video tutorials.

 

 

At the beginning of her journey, she thought, “I don’t know anything about these, but I feel like I’m gonna need to know it for my blog.”

In regards to art and technology, Kelly says, “In my experience, it’s been a complete game changer. When you know how to do one form of art, it really translates to a lot of different forms of art. It just depends on what you can find.”

 

 

Kelly experimented with drawing on an iPad. She says it’s a different experience than drawing on paper, with more detail and different brush options.

“There’s a lot more detail. Once you’ve made the art, you can make it different sizes, and it doesn’t get pixelated or lose any of the quality of the art,” she said. “Whereas you do a sketch and then take a picture and blow it up, it’s gonna get fuzzy.”

Giving New Life to Old Vinyl Records

Growing up, Kelly’s dad gave her unplayable vinyl records to get creative with. “He’s always giving me random pieces of things that I can make art with,” Kelly said. She would even create dolls out of tape and paper towels.

Kelly made a curtain with those vinyl records, and started painting on them like she would on a canvas. To customize the records, she would paint it to correspond with whatever the album was.

 

 

Then, she later started painting other elements on the records, such as Pokemon and Super Mario. She shops at Orlando’s Rock & Roll Heaven for unplayable vinyl for about 25 cents a piece!

To ensure she doesn’t waste any material, Kelly saves the album cover and uses a printer to bind them together for notebooks and sketchbooks.

Owning Her Own Business

Creating her own business came to Kelly’s surprise. “I didn’t even really understand that it was something that a creative person could do.”

She had a different idea of entrepreneurs and business owners. People would ask her to create things, and she would learn as she went.

She asked herself, “What skills do I have that I can share with other people?”

 

 

Kelly continues learning on her own to improve her knowledge, expand her skills, and help clients.

“When I want to do something, I will learn everything about it, and it doesn’t feel stressful for me. I want to know everything about it so that I can do it too.”

Creating a Healthy Home Office Environment

Working at home helps Kelly stay organized with her tasks and her mindset. She keeps her home office decor  inspiring and comfortable, a place she likes to go into for work.

“I would do things that would make me relaxed and inspired and feel balanced, so I could really absorb a lot of information.”

However, as much as she enjoys her office, she makes sure she doesn’t step foot in there at night to keep work separate from her personal life.

 

 

Kelly also has a craft room at home where she keeps her awards and paintings. It’s a creative space for her to get her work done.

“I have to sit and really get into it. It’s almost like a meditation for me,” Kelly said. “I just kinda get in my own head and just paint, and then next thing you know, 4 hours have gone by.”

Along with painting, practicing yoga helps Kelly’s anxiety. She says the breathing exercises alone have really helped.

“The fact that it was also a workout was just icing on the cake,” Kelly said. “It’s a similar kind of meditation to what I do when I’m painting, where I kinda lose myself in whatever I’m doing.”

 

 

Learning a Little-Known Fact About Kelly Varner

Kelly was born with blurry vision. She doesn’t let this define her, and she wrote a great post explaining her point of view. “It’s all I’ve ever known, so I’ve just adapted to it.”

There wasn’t a lot of information on legal blindness at the time Kelly was growing up. Doctors proposed that she wouldn’t be able to do much as a child, but Kelly says she lived her life like a normal kid.

She had difficulty reading small print and reading the whiteboard in school, but not much else was different for her.

 

 

Kelly’s parents really encouraged her artwork. Her dad gave her drawing projects and encouraged her to participate in art shows.

“No one ever told me you can’t do that, or don’t try,” she said.

She participated in sidewalk chalk art festivals in Winter Park and Disney Springs. Kelly would get a 7-foot by 7-foot square on the sidewalk with 3 days to create chalk art using soft pastels.

“It was so much fun, but it was also a lot of work!”

 

 

She participated in 20 chalk art festivals before, during, and after college.

“I think it really surprises people when I tell them now that I’m legally blind because they usually see the art first.”

 

 

Tying Together All Things Creative

Moving forward, Kelly says she’d like to get more more involved with the community, to work with more brands and small businesses, and to grow her audience.

When I asked Kelly how she came up with the “All Things Creative” blog name, she laughed and told me naming creative businesses is tough.

“It’s always been the hardest thing to come up with a name,” Kelly said.

 

 

She considers how a name will look in a social media handle, paying close attention to how words look together, without spaces, since there’s no capitalization in URLs.

“You have to make sure there aren’t any weird connections,” she said. “My Twitter was ‘LifestyleOfArt’ for awhile. But if you take out all the capitals, it can kind of look like ‘Lifestyle O Fart,’ so that didn’t last very long!”

Kelly played around with “All Things Creative” for a few days. She kept looking at the name, didn’t get tired of it, created the logo, and stuck with it.

“It definitely describes me. I just like all these different things that are creative and allow me to be creative, so it just worked.”

Follow Kelly’s blog at All Things Creative, and check out her artwork on her website!