Daily Inspiration: Meet Abby Whisenant

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby Whisenant.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
There’s a photo of me in my hometown newspaper taken when I was in elementary school. I had all my markers standing upright lining the edges of my school desk, and I appear to be contemplating my next color choice. Fast forward a few decades, and I’m still in love with color, organizing, and creativity.

I had the unique opportunity to be both a student and a teacher at Watkins College of Art. I studied conceptual and documentary photography and taught photography classes for teens and adults in the community education program. While I was at Watkins, I joined friends and fellow independent artists in several self-organized art exhibitions, and these experiences taught me a great deal about curating and organizing artwork in spaces. I loved the challenge of installing artwork in unique spaces and getting things level was my version of AMSR back then.

After art school, I actually joined the nonprofit sector and have worked for 13 years in the creative youth development and youth organizing fields, but through the process of becoming a new mother, living in a highly divisive and life-threatening pandemic, and surviving colon cancer all within two years, I was finally pushed to return to my own practice and passion.

Through my new business, Creative Home Nashville, I’m able to reimagine spaces and pieces with unique colors and designs and interesting layouts of framed photographs and artwork, bringing creativity and meaning into people’s homes. There is also something more restorative and healing than one might expect about giving a wall or a dresser a new purpose. Most importantly, though, I’m able to prioritize my joy and take healthy risks, which I imagine my daughter will be proud of one day.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was a very difficult decision to leave my nonprofit work and to shift from doing something for (and with) others to doing the work for myself, and the events that led to taking the leap were the most challenging of my life.

In early March 2020, I was still figuring out being a working mom when we survived the tornado that destroyed homes and businesses just around the corner from our own homes. I had a screening procedure scheduled that week and, while I was out volunteering with coworkers in North Nashville, I learned that I had stage 3 colon cancer. I spent the next year going through radiation therapy, surgeries, and chemo, and I felt confident (most days) that I was going to be okay. My daughter was barely a toddler and I wanted to be there for her as much as possible knowing nothing was guaranteed. On the days that I couldn’t, those were the hardest.

It has been nearly a year since my oncologist confirmed that I am now cancer-free. Around the same time, things were improving with the pandemic too. I tried returning to normal – whatever that is – but it became clearer over time that this type of working mom life wasn’t for me anymore. I started painting focal walls in our home and restoring furniture and it brought me so much joy. I was reconnecting with a part of myself I hadn’t even realized I had lost.

For a few months, I tried working in my nonprofit role and launching the business but quickly realized it had to be one or the other. It was terrifying to go out on my own, but I would rather fail than be too fearful to even try and always wonder: what if I had been bolder?

Creative Home Nashville is still very new and developing each day, but I have already been met with support deep and wide from friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and even complete strangers. I trusted myself, and I feel hopeful that’s going to pay off in so many ways.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am most proud of the purpose-driven and restorative approach that is inherently part of my process. To me, a project will have a longer life if I push it beyond merely being decorative. I am profoundly relational in my work, so I want each piece or project to have a story, no matter how big or small.

There is a wall in my dining area that faces my kitchen, so I intentionally installed my favorite photos of both of my grandmas there since I learned so much from them about cooking. A client of mine is a hairstylist and she specializes in coloring, so I proposed a unique focal wall piece in her salon space incorporating dripping colors from on the ceiling itself down the wall.

Additionally, it is my goal to still be involved with creative youth development, and when possible, I will establish a paid summer internship role for teens to learn about creative business possibilities.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
I’m just getting started myself, but some great advice I’ve been using from a friend is: always say yes to everything unless it devalues your work. If it’s something that feels out of your wheelhouse, bring in a trusted partner to do the work in your company name.

Contact Info:

• Email: creativehomenashville@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativehomenashville/

Image Credits
Abby Whisenant