Life & Work with Lindsay Purvis

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Purvis.

Hi Lindsay, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My love of art and nature started at a very young age when my parents bought me a camera. I would walk around our yard taking pictures of the plant life and even set up little scenes in my home using my stuffed animals.

In middle school, I had my first experience with painting which continued into high school where I dabbled with the Impressionistic painting style. After high school, I attended ECU’s art school for about a year and a half before I became discouraged with the process and left. I feel my passion for art was sucked away by that experience and other personal things that were brewing at the time.

It took over 20 years and a long-overdue mental health diagnosis to rediscover my passion for art. It started in February of 2021 when my boyfriend bought me some traditional mosaic supplies. After making a couple of those pieces and a brainstorming session, I decided to try something different and began using puzzle pieces and occasionally buttons as my medium.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had created an entirely new niche in the world of mosaics. After 6 months of perfecting my new craft and with a little push from friends and the online community, I decided to start selling my pieces and created my Puzzling Mosaics website.

Inspired by my father’s love of nature and memories of my childhood, I started using birds as my subject matter (birds were his favorite). I then moved on to other subjects including snails, bees, flowers, various mammals, and animated characters from shows and movies I love such as Adventure Time and Ghibli Studios productions. My business is slowly but surely growing and I am pleased with its progress so far.

Getting back into art has been a blessing in my life. It is very therapeutic and could help anyone struggling with mental health issues. I hope I can be an inspiration to others who are struggling with their own mental health and the stigma attached to it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Honestly, my biggest struggles have been my own self-doubt and lack of support from certain family members.

Although, I do want to mention the very strong support I get from my mom and my boyfriend. The other big struggle I’ve had is finding ways to grow my business and drawing more people to my website.

Marketing can be tricky sometimes because of the subjective nature of art. But despite some difficulties and hiccups, I am still growing at a decent pace and hope to be more known in the future.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I think what sets me apart from others would definitely be my use of puzzle pieces to create mosaics.

It is tedious work as puzzle pieces weren’t really meant to be cut into smaller pieces. They tend to start peeling the smaller you cut them. It may sound strange but I enjoy the challenge this brings.

I am probably most proud of discovering and perfecting something that as far as I know, no one has done before. I’m also proud of the fact that I am able to even sell pieces at all as this is something I don’t think I would have been able to do in the past.

Now I am happy at the thought of the smiles my pieces bring to others.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is doing what you love for a career.

Contact Info:

• Email: lapurvis12@gmail.com
• Website:puzzlingmosaic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/puzzling_mosaics/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/PuzzlingMosaics