Juliene of Juliene Studios

I loved my conversation with Juliene of Juliene Studios. Juliene lives in Bozeman, Montana and is an engineer by day and painter by whenever-she-gets-the-time-to-do-it! Her true love is mural work that is inspired by nature and the wildlife around her. We dive into how it feels to juggle between the left and right brains and how ultimately it's the journey, not the destination that brings happiness.

One of my favorite insights that she shared was how as you get older, you always make excuses about why you don’t have time to do things. She found herself trying to check things off a list and succeed in other things in order to get to accomplish that next thing that would finally allow to have time to paint. She describes this as a dark time, but finally figured out that she just had to take a breath stop doing all of the things that weren’t making her happy and to just start painting. She says this is when everything shifted for her.

“Even if I’m not at the destination, thats when you learn that happiness isn’t actually the destination, it’s the journey. Even if you don’t have all of your to do list items checked off, if you’re doing your craft, you’re happy.”

Juliene is strongly inspired by Miles Toland and she said seeing his work is what sparked the fire that led her to mural work. She also spent time living in Germany which really inspired her with its vibrant street art scene.

Juliene describes that when you think you want to start a business, you think you have to do everything for money when it isn’t necessarily true. The financial pressure felt stifling to her creativity, but when she let go of that, she felt so much more free to do the work.

After winning a couple of local awards, she began getting more commissioned mural work and her business began.

“There’s so much to look at out there and it causes you to look away from yourself and what you want and what you’re doing. It’s important to recognize what you want.”

We chat about how just starting is the first and hardest step to take. We talk Instagram, juggling life and business, and how to keep yourself from getting into a creative rut.

“A year from now, you will wish you had started today.”

Watch our full conversation below!