a closing of a chapter.

and an exciting new beginning.

photo credit : Christina Childress

Yesterday I announced the closing of my wallpaper shop, Color Kind Studio, a company I founded and have nurtured since 2020 when I designed my first wallpaper for our own home remodel.

This studio, and this business, taught me SO much about the joy of making things for people to use in their homes. Since we officially opened shop in November of 2021, we've been so lucky to work with the most talented designers and amazing customers installing our wallpapers in all kinds of beautiful spaces throughout their homes, offices and businesses.

To get to see my work, my art, my approach to color and calm and joy, grace the walls of YOUR spaces has been nothing short of amazing.

To do this all alongside a few of the most talented friends and women I know — pure magic.

As a creative, one of my favorite parts of the process is scouting for that next spark—the idea that demands to become something new. Lately, that pull has been undeniable, and it's coming from the painting side of our studio.

Always one to listen to my intuition, I know that it's now time to answer that call and pivot my schedule and my resources to painting. To learning and deepening in this practice. To carving out time for classes and dedicated studio hours. To building collections and bodies of work.

In short, it's time for me to put more original art (and prints) out in the world.

I am no stranger to endings and new beginnings. Few if any of us reach mid-life without our fair share of pivots and do-overs in life, career, relationships. I think this messy path of starting and stopping is the greatest work of humaning.

And yet, knowing when to close one door and open another never gets easier - it just gets more familiar. Over the years, I’ve learned to recognize the signs: the restlessness that won’t quiet, the pull toward something that feels equal parts terrifying and inevitable, the way your body knows before your mind is ready to admit it.

For me, the clearest signal has always been where my energy wants to go. I found myself rushing through business housekeeping work to get to my easel. My sketchbooks were filling with paintings and color studies, not repeat patterns. And most tellingly, when I imagined my days a year from now, they were spent in front of canvases, not computers.

There’s also a quieter knowing. The one that whispers that staying where you are, even when it’s good, even when it’s working, might mean missing out on where you’re meant to grow next. Not because what you’re doing is wrong, but because what’s calling you is right.

So as this chapter comes to a close, I am sitting with all the big feels.

Gratitude at the journey, the learning, the PEOPLE. Most of all my partner-in-crime, Emily who helped me keep this dream alive all these years.

Amazement that I actually did the thing. I launched a creative business. In a pandemic. And it survived and grew for 4 years.

Doubt, because even in my quiet knowing of needing to make this change - it’s still change, and that’s always hard.

Excitment, most of all THIS. I am thrilled to be following my creative heart, to be painting more actual art and less repeat patterns. I can’t wait to bring to to life a body of work that’s been showing up in my dreams and sketchbooks. Work that is inspired, contemplative and joyful.

Thank you for being part of this chapter. I can't wait to share what comes next.

xx.

Jill

“Ends are not bad things, they just mean that something else is about to begin. And there are many things that don’t really end, anyway, they just begin again in a new way. Ends are not bad and many ends aren’t really an ending; some things are never-ending.”

–C. JoyBell C.