Why We Built This Place

Truthfully?

We built the place we wanted to hang out.
The kind of place where you can spend two hours laughing with people you've never met, learn something new, create something you're genuinely proud of, and leave thinking, "That was exactly what I needed."

No unexpectedly high bar tab.
No hangover.
No awkward small talk where everyone stares at their phones.

Just good people, good music, good art, and enough laughter that you completely forget you checked your email seventeen times before you walked in.
We love Fine Art.
We also love people who think they "aren't artistic."
Turns out those two things can exist in the same room.

Around here, you'll learn real techniques from artists who care deeply about teaching. Color theory. Composition. Brush control. Perspective. Mixed media. The stuff that actually makes you a better artist.
We just happen to believe learning is a lot more fun when nobody's pretending to be fancy.
Some nights you'll leave with a painting you're excited to hang in your house.
Other nights you'll leave because your face hurts from laughing.
Honestly?
We're hoping for both.
The world has enough places that ask you to perform.
To produce.
To hustle.
To answer emails.
To scroll.
We wanted one place that asks absolutely none of that from you.
Just show up.
We'll hand you the paint and brush.

The rest tends to work itself out.

In my spare time, I train for ultramarathons. Because opening a small business wasn't enough chaos, I figured I should also voluntarily run distances most people won't even drive.

Hi, I'm Laura.

If you had told me eight years ago that one of my greatest passions would become teaching, I would have laughed.
When we made the decision to homeschool our daughter, I was terrified. I wasn't sure I was qualified. I wasn't sure I was enough. Like so many parents, I wondered if I was making the right decision. The moment I decided is STILL a core memory for me.
Then something unexpected happened.
I fell completely in love with helping someone discover they were capable of more than they believed.
The Ah-Ha moment for me was turning my daughter’s attitude completely around about reading. She hated it in the beginning when she went to her first ½ year of public school kindergarten. But once I brought her home to teach, I shifted her perspective and showed her how FUN reading can actually be. Now I can’t keep her out of the library!
The skill was always there.
We just needed to shift the perspective!
Over the last seven-plus years, I've had the privilege of teaching everything from math and science to history and literature—but art has always been my favorite place to teach.
Because art also has this incredible way of changing people.
I've watched confidence replace self-doubt. I've watched frustration turn into pride. I've watched students who were convinced they "weren't creative" surprise themselves with what they could accomplish.
Those moments never get old.
Teaching art isn't about showing someone how to copy a painting. It's about helping them understand color, light, composition, technique, and the why behind what they're creating—while giving them the confidence to trust their own creativity. Those are lessons that stick with you.
That's the experience I hope every person who walks through our doors has, whether they're five or seventy-five.
I can't wait to paint with you.

— Laura

I also cannot thank my high school art teacher, Mrs. Sherry Eddins, enough for teaching me that art doesn’t have to be pretentious or stuck up. She was always SO FUNNY in class, so creative, slightly unhinged and so incredibly talented with the patience of a saint to put up with a room full of awkward, know it all teenagers. I know…It took me a lifetime to get here, but I hope I make you proud.

From Canvas to Stage….

A look at our creative roots.

Here’s a glimpse into some large-scale set designs my husband and I created for a children’s community theater in Marathon, Florida.

He built the sets by hand, and I designed and painted them—bringing imagination to life on stage.

This is the same creativity, attention to detail, and imagination we bring into every experience at The Salty Artist’s Studio.

Here’s an additional partial set I painted and designed for Disenchanted! The Musical, at the Marathon Community Theater.

The play was fantastic and so was date night!!