If MaryAnn Loo – the illustrator, artist and dreamer sounds familiar to you… here’s a chance for you to read her personal success story and journey of self-discovery and how she found courage to follow her dream of becoming a professional visual artist and illustrator. 

When MaryAnn was 8 years old, she wanted to be an artist. Her mum told her artists do not make money, and she should be something else instead. And she spent the next 20 years figuring out what that “something else” was.

Just a semester away from graduating from another “something else”, she enrolled into an “Introduction to Drawing” class… and rediscovered her dream of becoming an artist.

As she had not drawn anything in 20 years, she moved to New York and tried to an artist. “Tried” because every time she wanted to draw, she had no idea what she wanted to express, then she would get discouraged and uninspired by what she did create, and get distracted by “something else”.

She started to doubt that art was really her path, and that it was too late for her, until in 2012, she came across coaching… With no prior experience, she raised $2,000 for her first art show, put together in just 5 weeks. Standing amidst the 80 guests who showed up, she was moved for the first time in her life how she truly created something just for herself. That week, she sold 17 paintings for $6,000, and received a $7,500 contract to illustrate 3 children’s books.

Read more of MaryAnn’s personal success story of how she transformed from a lost, confused, untrained artist-wannabe to a professional visual artist and illustrator here