Therapist turned painter is on a roll with new mini mobile gallery based on the Eastern Shore
The pandemic was responsible for many seismic shifts globally, a great number of them devastating. But for Nancy Fagan-Murphy, AKA the Yellow Dot Artist and owner of a creative new mobile art gallery based in Cape Charles, it turned out to be her yellow brick road, setting her off on a new path of self-discovery and fulfillment.
Originally from California, Fagan-Murphy was living in Austin, Texas, when the shutdown occurred. She and her husband were members of a country club that offered a smorgasbord of online classes for members to offer them connection and engagement.
This marriage therapist, who specializes in mediation and has authored three books on relationships, signed up for a two-hour painting class. It was free, but the supplies cost $75. When the box arrived, much of the paint had spilled, and she considered that a sign that she had no business taking such a class.
But she was bored, her husband encouraged her to persevere, and her painting turned out better than the instructor’s. The rest is pretty much history.
Fagan-Murphy completed a painting a day during the pandemic recalling that, “I was in total shock that I was artistic.” Early on, when the first buyer expressed interest, her reply was, “That’s ridiculous.”
on wheels. (Photo courtesy of Nancy Fagan-Murphy)
But when tarantulas and scorpions sent her and her husband packing to Dallas—she’s deadly serious about that reason for the move—she asked the manager of the high rise where they were temporarily living if she could host an art show in the lobby.
The answer was “yes,” she sold out, and her painting business “just snowballed.” Finally, after the sale of hundreds of paintings, many of them commissions and word-of-mouth referrals, Fagan-Murphy is willing to admit she is “good at marketing.” And she recently self-published a book on how to sell art without social media.
Another relocation landed the couple in Coastal Virginia. “It’s beautiful” she says, her husband is from here, and there are no tarantulas, scorpions or grizzly bears to speak of.
Her paintings continue to sell well in what she observes is the “thriving art community” of Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore, where the couple makes their home. And she is even teaching classes—in both painting and marketing—at the Virginia Beach Art Center.
There’s almost nothing—except tarantulas and scorpions—this artist won’t paint, with her “alcohol paintings” being favorites for home bars. But she paints flora, fauna, people and more. Offering some of her work as giclee prints, her best seller is a painting of Pappy van Winkle bourbon whiskey. A close second is “a cute little orange” secretary bird. “I’ll sell eight, 10, 15 prints of it in a day,” she reports.
With her paintings in an Eastern Shore gallery for about a year, Fagan-Murphy decided she wanted to hang out her own shingle. But the $60,000/year price tag for a storefront in the center of quaint Cape Charles gave her sticker shock. Enter her friend, neighbor and cat sitter, Stan Osmolenski, and his suggestion of a mobile art gallery.
Initially skeptical, she was gradually convinced after he came up with some designs they tweaked together, found her a trailer with yellow rims for the Yellow Dot Artist—her business name is an outgrowth of the yellow dot she always incorporated into her signature—and built it.
One stop at the local sign shop and a $50 Peddler’s License later, and she was in business. Pulled by her golf cart, the mobile art gallery made its debut at the second annual Cape Charles Art Walk on May 17 and 18.
“People were going crazy,” Fagan-Murphy reports, “taking pictures and asking for my social media handle.” But it’s not about the sales or the social media attention. For her, it’s about the challenges. But also the connection.
“I love everything about painting. I love coming up with the concept [and] finding the mixtures of paint to create the color and feel I want to convey.” As for commissions, she says, “…it’s so much fun to work closely with people to help them on a journey to take the image in their mind and put it on a canvas.”
In some ways, it’s another manifestation of what has long been her calling: building relationships.
Learn more at yellowdotartist.com.
Betsy DiJulio
Betsy DiJulio is a full-time art teacher, artist and curator with side hustles as a freelance writer, including for Coastal Virginia Magazine, and a vegan recipe developer, food stylist and photographer. Learn more on her website thebloomingplatter.com.
