What if I told you that the thing standing between you and your art dream isn’t talent, time, or age—but joy?

Nora Miller spent most of her life as a caregiver. She raised two kids as a single mom starting at 19. She worked her career in the medical field. She helped with grandchildren. She cared for her aging parents until they passed.

Her art dream that called her so long ago was buried.

Now fast forward to 2025 – Nora’s made a series of 20 Hawaiian nature and women paintings, including 3 large canvases of Hawaiian Goddesses, and is painting art for her upcoming Farmer’s Market booth!

What happened? Let’s dive in and see how she went from feeling her art was stuck and depressing, to finding her joy and her art…

Watch the video here:

In her 40s, Nora got a brief taste of creativity working as a textile artist, and the dream started whispering again. But it wasn’t until she moved to Hawaii and retired that she finally said: “Now is my time.”

She signed up for a prestigious online fine art program, determined to finally become the artist she’d always dreamed of being. And it nearly killed her art forever.

The program was rigid. Technical. Joyless. After six months of persevering, Nora completely stopped painting. She was depressed and stuck, not knowing how to move forward.

“I asked the universe for help,” she told me, “because I was that desperate.”
That’s when she found me.

At 69 years old, Nora wondered if she had the stamina to start over. But here’s what she discovered: When you’re making art you truly love, the energy just comes.

“Your philosophy about joy and art resonated with me so much, Kellie … I got so excited I signed up right away! I thought the (previous) fine art program was the end-all, but it didn’t teach joy which is the main reason for doing art.”

Nora also had a serious lack of self-confidence. She had experience in commercial art, but doing fine art was a completely different skill set. She wasn’t sure she could do it.  She was extremely tight. She thought she had to be perfect and make pretty paintings that everybody would admire. But that was not what she was looking for.

She didn’t know what she was looking for.

Through the Transform Your Art program, everything changed. She learned to embrace her “bad” paintings and celebrate her good ones. She learned to take care of herself in order to make her best art.

Today, Nora:
• Has created an entire series of painting celebrating nature in Hawaii, a large series of Hawaiian goddess paintings, and is working on a new series called “My Hawaiian Garden”
• Is preparing more art for her own farmers market booth with cards and prints
• Wakes up excited to go into her studio
• Describes her art practice as her “spiritual practice”
• Has the kind of confidence where criticism no longer shakes her

“What I got from (the mentoring program) was not only self-confidence, but I came from a place where I was stuck and I had no joy, to a place where I love going into my art studio. I have serenity and joy and forward movement—and that’s everything.”

In our video interview, Nora shares:
→ Why technical skill without joy leads to abandoned art (and how to find your way back)
→ The surprising truth about “having your own style” (it’s not just for “talented” artists)
→ Why your age doesn’t matter when you’re doing what you love
→ How art gets embedded into your muscle memory and becomes part of who you are

Nora closes our interview by reading a poem that perfectly captures the artist’s journey. It’s called “Come to the Edge” by Christopher Logue, and it’s about what happens when you finally trust yourself enough to leap.

WATCH NORA’S FULL INTERVIEW ABOVE

With love and creativity,
Kellie
PS.  Ready to transform your own art like Nora did? I’m taking on a new group of students in January for my Transform Your Art mentoring program. If you’re ready to prioritize your art now book an Art Breakthrough call to see if we’re a good fit. Please only book a call if you’re ready to start NOW (not in 3 months) and prepared to fully invest in yourself and your art at a high level. This program is for artists who are done waiting.

PSS. Scroll down and leave a comment if this interview inspired you!