There has been no set pattern in Arlene Wilson’s career path – a hospital lab technician in what she calls her first life, a stained-glass maker in what she calls her second life.
So it’s somewhat surprising that her third life would be spent creating the one thing she has always resisted – patterns.
An artist of many mediums, Wilson has spent the last 11 years selling her creations which include sculpture, paintings, and most recently clothing through her home-based business: art to wear.
“I told my parents when I was young that I wanted to be a dressmaker, but they wanted something else for me,” she said. “I knew I wanted to be a dress designer when I was in my teens, but it wasn’t until I was in my 40s that I was able to do it.”
Now nearly everyday she walks the three blocks down North Main Street in Providence to her studio – which she considers “an extension of home, where all the messy stuff can be done.”
It’s a typical artist space. With framed textiles hanging on the walls next to busts made with fabrics, racks of clothing spread across the hardwood floors, and colorful fabrics still attached to the industrial sewing machine, it’s not hard to see Wilson’s inspiration.
“I like to make women feel beautiful and desirable,” she said, jumping from the green velvet sofa to touch her most recent project.
But turning what you love into a viable business isn’t always easy. In fact, when Wilson first started running her own business after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, she found it wasn’t at all like she expected. The problem, was that show after show, people would come to admire her work, and then go home. While they had thoroughly enjoyed looking at her art, they had not bought anything, and Wilson was left with mounting storage fees.
“It’s a process of getting the art out there. I wanted people to take my work home and enjoy it. That wasn’t happening,” she said.
So Wilson adjusted her business plan. She began to do more commercial work – designing clothes and “wearable art” that her customers wouldn’t have to hang on their walls at home.
Wilson also decided to increase her visibility. She began donating some of her pieces to local charities for auctions and fund-raisers, and she took her shop on the road setting up at art fairs and similar types of shows.
“Just because I work from my home doesn’t mean I have to stay there,” she said. “I learned to do what I had to.”
And it seems to be working. With studio hours three days a week, and a business phone that doesn’t stop ringing, Wilson has little time to do anything but her commercial types of art. It is, she says, one of the tradeoffs.
“Owning your own business is not less pressure than working for someone else, it’s just different,” she said. “When the business phone rings, you have to pick it up. You work seven days a week most of the time, and the line between home and work isn’t as clear.”
Success also takes some proper planning. From saving for her own financial future, to ordering merchandise, and paying for the studio space, Wilson has tried hard to balance her budgets. It’s a challenge that gets harder every time she walks into a fabric store, she said. That’s evident from the virtual rainbow of yarns that stock the shelves of her studio, and the fabrics she pulls from boxes behind curtains and under the couches.
“My financial advisor would like me to close the studio and get a real job,” she said, laughing, “that is not going to happen. I have put aside money in an IRA, written a business plan, and done what I need to. I will continue to do that until I can’t do it anymore.”
And she is sure it will pay off.
“I don’t care what you do, if you stay in the same place long enough people will notice.”
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