What began as a lockdown escape with leftover paints has turned into a full-fledged art career.
Betsy Mae (@betsymaeart) is a New Jersey-born artist whose pink, hyper-feminine paintings are filled with early 2000’s nostalgia and her own personal storytelling. For her, what began as a lockdown escape with leftover craft paints has turned into a full-fledged art career…
Her Start in Art…
So I grew up in New Jersey. I started making art as a freshman in high school. That was when lockdown happened for us. I was like… really, really depressed during COVID and everything, and I needed something to do. So I don’t know where I found craft paints around my house, but I just started painting on paper and stuff. I don’t know when I actually ended up buying real supplies, but for a while I was just using whatever was in the house. Um, and I did a palette one or showed you one. It was just kind of like just for me. It was nice. It was a good mental health thing.
So, basically I just kept painting by myself for a few years, slowly getting better, still kind of not really showing anyone. And then the summer after my freshman year of college, I didn’t have an internship. Um, I was just waitressing, and I was really, really sick of waitressing. I was not making any money.
So I was like, surely I can turn this into a business, like my art. So I kind of just did a bunch of research one night as to what goes into starting an art business, and then figured out it wasn’t really that much. So I made a website within a few weeks, started posting on Instagram, and posting reels every day was really how I grew it, grew an audience, which kind of turned it into a business.
On Her Finding Inspiration to Paint…
I use Pinterest a lot for my inspiration, just in general, because there’s so much. I look on there for the shoes that I like to paint or different fashion things, and I paint whatever things I’m obsessed with. Um, and then Paris Hilton is my all-time inspiration, always. I’m just obsessed with her. I think she’s an icon and a really smart businesswoman, and I’m just forever obsessed with her.
On Meeting Paris Hilton…
Paris Hilton is my all-time inspiration, always. I’m just obsessed with her. I always knew she wasn’t a dumb party girl. I was like, she knows what she’s doing. Always.
I met her once in 2021 in LA. I just ran into her at lunch. Her and her fiancé started talking to my dad for a little bit, and she was talking to me. The way she switches back and forth between her media voice and herself, there was something about it that I was just like, that is insane, the way she is two people at once. Her character is so marketable and successful as Paris Hilton the brand, yet she can also be such a normal, intelligent person behind the scenes. There was something about that interaction that made me think, ‘Wow, I need to be like you.’
On Her Playlist
Lana Del Rey is the vast majority of my music, but I also really like Amy Winehouse right now. Um, who else? I’m obsessed with Lady Gaga. I like girl singers only, basically.
On Her Cartoon Character Fit…
I feel like, in terms of style, I only shop in certain colors. I only buy stuff if it’s pink, brown, white, or neutral, because that way my closet all kind of goes together more easily. I try to be a little trendy, but I keep it very much my own. I do feel like I have a signature pink, girly kind of vibe that I try not to stray from.
I totally have default outfits. I’m thinking my pink cardigan that I wear all the time, maybe a midi skirt and ballet flats, or a mini skirt, ballet flats, and a tiara.
I would always get really excited for my birthday to get a birthday tiara and be the birthday princess. And then as I got older, I kept buying them for my birthday.
I feel like that would be pretty good. My pink Balenciaga City bag is pretty much an everyday thing. I think that would be my default outfit. Um, yeah, I wear my pink cardigan like twice a week minimum.
My pink Balenciaga bag is always with me. I like to sleep with it in bed next to me.
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