Where it Started
Amber Marie became a “mad” artist at about 7 years old. She became obsessed with replicating whatever she wanted out of her head. No one knew what to do with her. She didn’t know what to do with it. She sold her first piece when she was 16 years old for a sketchbook, pencils, and an eraser. She decided that this was a path- to sell art. When she was about 17 years old, she tried to put her art into a “local” artist co-op (there is nothing local about an art gallery half hour away in rural Alaska). She was turned down. It would be the first of many. She learned about rejection very early and how organizations interact with artists.
In 1999, she became the assistant to the art department at her little community college. She found out there you could just put on art exhibitions just by asking people. She was astounded. She put on her first invitational exhibition in 2000. Those years at that little college showed her how supportive organizations can be and how important those relationships are. She graduated with her Associates in 2001. She went to the “big state college”.
IIn 2003, she found out how unsupportive an organization can be, became a Bachelor of Fine Arts college drop-out, and decided to create a business. Amber Marie Studios became the name, and it was a bit of a joke. She had moved nearly every year of her life and made a studio in every house she lived in, so by the time she started the company, she’d already had at least 10 studios. What followed was a side hustle of epic proportions. There was business mentoring through SCORE. The business was all about Amber Marie and her ability to produce work over and over again, through commissions from book covers to portraits, and face painting at fairs and festivals. For years, every idea she could conceive of, and every idea others conceived of, was thrown at the business.
In 2009, refinement became the name of the game. Glittergore Face & Body Art was born, and Amber Marie ran the two businesses with very concrete ideas and success for years.
In 2016, she graduated with her Bachelor of Arts. She walked across a stage to get a diploma after being fired from an arts council that had been her dream job for about 4 years. She thought she’d have that job forever.
Imagine her surprise.
Along the way, Amber Marie learned what it takes to make a living as an artist, from every side. Just about every creative idea out there, she tried it.
In 2024, she joined a life-changing business incubator, her second. The first was about creating a product-making section of Glittergore. In the second, Amber Marie started to realize her business was about just her, and that was a small thing. She began to develop the idea of a gallery that challenges the way artists are treated, particularly by galleries that prey on them.
What she found out in that incubator? It was absolutely possible to find the balance between artists and venues. The balance came from how it was managed and she realized- she had gained every skill to be able to manage it.
The New Purpose
All of these experiences became the idea for Amber Marie Art Domain, LLC.
“I” is on its way to become a “We” as we start producing exhibitions, events, and products that give artists a place to show their work, find new audiences, and be paid fairly.
Its still in early stages. While Amber Marie has built so many programs and things for others, this is the first real foray into investing into herself and her ideas.
There are big plans. If there is one thing that Amber Marie learned through all these years, it is how to take the chaotic energy of being artistically inclined and refining it to a mad-genius energy of results.
The goal is simple: to become the best place for people connect with real artists. We will do this by providing help to artists to reach out; and find real people and real art for organizations to work with.