Embracing Uncertainty:- The Bold Journey of Crafting "Authentic Arts"

Did you accept and meet last week’s challenge?  Did you find that expressing gratitude to someone who is a gift in your life, brought that appreciation full circle and improved your day, as well?  I hope that you will continue with this practice to spread more kindness and increase the happiness in your life. 

Did you take action on your biggest goal?  Even sitting down and writing out a plan is forward progress.  It’s the tiny steps taken consistently that will move you along in meeting your goals and make it feel less scary.  When you push through the fear and get uncomfortable, you will see the amazing things that you can accomplish.

So what is so important about taking risks?  Besides the growth in personal development, it is kind of our origin story.  I wouldn’t be sitting here today if not for a series of risks that I took starting 10 years ago.  I left a very secure job to find my passion.  My passion wasn’t waving at me from afar shouting, “I’m over here, come and join me!”  I had to figure it out and that did not always go smoothly.  I learned a lot of lessons along the way, the most important of which is to fail fast.  I learned how to navigate the levels of support that counterparts in each organization could provide, and how to detect those who had other agendas.  I learned about myself, setting boundaries, what I was good at, and what I truly wanted to do.  

Fast forward to 2 years ago; eight years into my journey.  My oldest daughter, Olivia, was looking for a change.  She and I are very similar, and our goals seemed to align.  We had the opportunity to purchase a business with a 100+ year old building that had untapped potential.  There was a lot of work that needed to be done, but we would get to create our vision.  We decided to take the risk of going into business together.  She would take care of the operations and I would help where needed, particularly in administrative tasks and providing guidance, hoping to spare her some of the lessons that I had to learn the hard way.  

Introducing a new type of business into a small town is a huge risk, but we love the arts!  From performance art and attending plays and concerts, to visual arts of various paint mediums to sculptures and other textiles, we wanted to learn it all.  Knowing that we couldn’t fill a storefront with only our creations, we had to recruit other artists, artisans, makers, and creators.  A 5:00 pm phone call on a Friday that probably would have gone unanswered led us down that path.  That single call turned into relationships with multiple artists.  We are so proud of the Splitrock Furniture family that is a part of the Authentic Arts' gallery.  

Many of our customers have been travelers on The Scavenger’s Journey, and guests from local campgrounds and guide services.  Geddes Fur Trader Days is a wonderful event that the committee works very hard to organize each year (August 8-10, 2025).  Whether previous residents are returning for a visit, or rodeo enthusiasts who are just here for the Friday night Bull-A-Rama, we enjoy meeting all of our new guests, welcoming the familiar faces, and discovering stories about some of the vintage items that we have for sale, and people who worked in the building under the many different stores and services that occupied this space.  There is so much history in this community to celebrate.

Hosting a Vendor Gala during the annual Geddes Fur Trader Days introduced us to additional artists, who are also now part of the gallery.  Each of these new relationships has snowballed into new discoveries uncovering talents of some people we already knew, but hadn’t had the opportunity to work with in this capacity.  We will be hosting this event again August 9, 2025 (9:00 am - 3:00 pm), and would love to include more visual artists, as well as written and spoken art.  We may even have opportunities for demonstrations and art classes.  If you are an artist/creator interested in participating, please contact us.

If you aren’t able to join us, but would like to see more of what Authentic Arts has to offer, keep following our Facebook and Instagram pages for announcements.  We are working on updating our website to include online shopping and other services, including coordinating commissioned artwork and design services.  

A glimpse of pieces available at Authentic Arts Gallery and Vintage Store.