How Francisca Nunes Brings Nature into Her Art practice
Updated Jan 2023: Maker’s Tech U is no longer open.
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Artist chat with Francisca Nunes, a mixed media artist born and living in Portugal. Francisca is absolutely passionate about art journaling, loves creating messy and intuitive art, mixing color and eco printing all with a touch of nature that she harvests from her garden.
In this interview we chat about Francisca’s love of gardening and how she cultivates seasonal flowers and herbs to use in her art journaling, her journey from Biology teacher to artist, overcoming creative blocks, and how being a member of Maker's Tech U has helped her gain confidence, grow her online business and so much more!
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How would you describe your art?
My art is intuitive nature-inspired. It’s raw and explorative. I love to explore nature’s elements, colors, and substrates to reveal my creativity.
What is it about creating that lights you up?
When I discovered mixed media, I found a way to combine all my passions. What enlightens me about art is that I can explore and add so many different elements to my art. I found a way to connect nature, with old elements faded and aged, and a way to pull my creativity day after day.
How do you live a creative life?
I tend to be creative and explore my creative side, in very different aspects of my daily life. Even when I'm not able to create at my art table, I always find ways to get creative.
I love to grow flowers in my garden, so I have to be creative when selecting the vegetables, and the flowers to sow in each season. I love to be creative in the kitchen too, creating colorful and tasty food with all my vegetables from the garden.
And as a mom, I have to be very creative and with a little one who is still in the amazing world of fairies and unicorns, I have to be creative!! Ah ah ah!!
I also love to get inspired by things around me and from my daily life so I’m always looking for things around me that can be photographed or be used in my art. I also keep little hand journals to add colors, stitches, some sketches, that can be used later as a source of inspiration.
How would you describe your creative process?
My creative process is very intuitive. There are some elements that are always present, such as flowers, color, collage, and then I create with the flow. I like the freedom of the creative process. Let me go, explore and see what shows up. This is the way I feel happier creating.
What is your biggest obstacle when it comes to creating?
My biggest obstacle is to focus on one thing at a time. When I’m at my art table I’m really happy exploring substrates and supplies.
I start with one thing and in minutes I’m picking another fabric, adding color, then opening another journal and scribble, and ideas flow so quickly. I need to be very present and focused to create one specific thing at a time.
Do you ever experience creative blocks and what do you do to overcome them?
Yes, for sure I do experience creative blocks, in two different ways mainly: one is when I get too much time scrolling on social media. I feel very overwhelmed and disconnected from my own voice.
Another situation is when I get too much time without creating because really, life happens! So I have some “rituals” I need to do so I can center deep inside me, and start creating.
I make things clean on my desk, I grab old journals and some of my eco printed papers and flip through them. I always put the phone away, and add some music and incense. Then I allow myself to just scribble, play with the colors randomly, start a collage, and I start feeling getting inside myself and pulling out my creativity again, my voice.
And if I keep creating daily, even in little periods of time I feel a deeper connection with my own creative way, and I feel that I create easily.
How has your creative journey changed from when you first started creating?
OMG, it has changed so much!! I started creating mandalas and dream catchers. When I was art journaling and like almost everyone, I was following the artists I love and exploring their concepts, lines, and work.
As I was exploring more and more, I noticed some things that I was adding to my works over and over that were unique. The confidence leads me to explore more my unique voice.
Today my work is very different from when I started and I know it will keep evolving and changing.
Has technology been a struggle for you in creating an online presence or selling your art online? In what way?
My biggest struggle to create my online presence was to know how to start, what platforms to use, how to make my own website, how to create my email list, and my creative community. I didn’t know anything and where to start was a big issue. I knew what I wanted but didn’t know what to do to get there.
What has benefited you the most from being a member of Maker’s Tech U?
Maker’s Tech U and Roben Marie were life-changing to me. I wanted so much to pivot the way I shared my art and wanted to start creating my art courses. Maker’s Tech U was starting at that time, and it was the most important step I took at that time.
With Maker’s Tech U I finally had a path to follow, I finally had someone, that is an artist too, that was showing me how to do things the right way and what the next best step was.
The support we have inside Maker’s Tech U is amazing. Roben- Marie always assists all our doubts, helps us with technical issues, and encourages us.
How has your online presence changed since you joined Maker’s Tech U and applied what you have learned?
It changed everything!
When I joined Maker’s Tech U I had only this idea of creating my business from my creativity and my art. With all that I’ve learned inside Maker’s Tech U, I was able to create my own website, put my art into digital format, create freebies and start my email list.
I was able to create a course and be invited to be a guest teacher in other artists' art schools. It has been an amazing journey, that I know it was only possible with what I learned inside Maker’s Tech U and the incredible support from Roben-Marie.
What advice would you give to other creatives struggling to move forward for fear of technology?
Technology can be a giant block to go further in your presence online. Knowing the right steps and how to do things can be very overwhelming and time-consuming, and most of the time we give up.
My honest advice is that, if you want to start creating a more consistent and professional presence online, selling courses or your own art, be part of the right team who supports you and has the right path to follow, can scale you and put you in the place you want faster.
The time you consume figuring it out alone is not worth it. Joining Makers Tech U was the best thing I did for my business, so my advice for artists who fear and are overwhelmed with technology is that this is the place to go further.
What changes would you like to make in your creative journey over the next six months?
My biggest goal is to quit my day job as a Biology teacher and teach only for creative artists. I've been a teacher for 20 years, but now I feel that my meaningful deep soul job is this one; exploring my creativity and sharing with others. So, I will launch my next class and continue growing, feeding and connecting with my Creative Community.
What fun activity comes second in your life to creating?
I love gardening. So, most of the time you can find me with dirty hands scratching weeds and growing vegetables and flowers in a borrowed plot near home. Art and gardening are my soul's jobs.
What is your superpower...something you feel makes you really shine and you get excited about?
I'm not quite sure of this one. It's not easy to see my superpowers. But as a teacher, I feel that I have this superpower of sharing what I know in an easy way. In art, I feel that I easily share my process and people love it, they get inspired and this is for me what excites me most, and what makes my soul shine.
Check out all the MTU Member Spotlight Interviews HERE!
Francisca Nunes
Francisca Nunes is a mixed media artist explorer from Portugal.
In her day job, she is a Biology and Geology teacher for middle and high school teens. She lives with her partner and her two kids in a rural village near Coimbra.
Her art is explorative, raw, wild, and pulling freedom from the soul. All her artwork is inspired by nature and the way she loves most to express is in her handmade art journals, combining color and natural elements in different substrates to explore intuitive wild expressions and feed her creative soul.
You can also find Francisca dirtying her hands in her garden where she grows her own vegetables, berries, and flowers, and from where she brings inspiration to her art table and journals. Her passion is to teach and share her explorations. She loves to share her creative process to help unleash the wild inner creativity that she believes each one has inside.