Wire Wrapping Tutorials and Helpful Hints

I discovered an amazing painter on the Artisans in Arizona Guild, Misti Murphy. I always wanted to be a painter but I am lucky to draw a stick figure so I was curious as to how she got started in her art. I told Misti that I wanted to feature her on my blog so I interviewed her. Here is a little bit about her art career.

When Misti was 10 years old, she drew a picture of Fred Flintstone on some scrap paper. Her mom thought that she had traced it from her coloring book! When her mom realized that Misti had drawn it from memory, she immediately enrolled Misti in private art lessons, and her skills have grown from there.

Misti participated in numerous arts and crafts fairs through high school, painting on a wide variety of mediums including sandstone, wood, and leather. Her father encouraged her to explore different mediums and different “canvasses” and he would bring home odd things for her to paint on, including huge rocks and cow skulls! Her father also promoted her as a commercial window painter, and Misti painted business windows for many years with many holiday themes.

In college Misti studied architecture, trying to bring together her creative skills with her technical and mathematic skills and she he has a Bachelor’s of Architecture degree from the University of Arizona. In 2003, she started her own architecture business designing custom homes. Although she loves architecture, her artwork has always been her true love and she has actually just recently picked her painter’s brush, sketch pads, and multitude of canvasses back up and tapped back into her creativity.

Misti has an ArtFire studio called The Murphy Studio – Wildlife Art and Graphics. She has the cutest magnets and paintings on leather which a price range to fit everyone’s budget!

Misti also has a site for her architectural business, The Murphy Studio.

As mentioned above, Misti is a member of the Artisans in Arizona Guild as she has resided in Arizona her entire life. She designed their Avatar!

Misti loves custom orders! If you do not see a particular animal, email Misti and inquire. She may have wood cutouts that she has not yet painted of just the animal you are looking for and she can certainly paint what you want on a leather! Due to the type of artwork she produces, many are specific to the owner. Contact Misti through her ArtFire studio or at her website at The Murphy Studio. She offers discounted rates for three or more purchases – please contact for her a quote!

So I am just going to stick to wire wrapping jewelry and writing tutorials. I will leave the painting to someone who really knows what she is doing! Love your work, Misti! I need a zebra, a giraffe, a lion….

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 18th, 2009 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Featured Artisan Monday . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.