Sharon Lane Holm

I attribute my success to what I call the three P's: practice, patience, and passion. These are the foundations of everything I've accomplished. Besides following my passion, my advice to other people who might think they want to do this is to go for it and give yourself credit if that's what you want to do. The only way you get any experience is by following your passion and keeping at it. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it, because you can. And don't ever tell yourself that either. There's a lot of competition out there, so you have to study your craft. I always tell people there are the three P's: practice, patience, and passion. You have to learn from your mistakes and learn from your weaknesses. Life is all a learning experience. Sometimes I have to remind myself of that too, because patience is difficult. Sometimes it takes a long time - like right now I have a book out on submission and it's been a couple months. It's a wait and see. But it's hard work. You can't just throw one piece out there. You have to continually hone your craft and keep working on it because you're not going to please everybody. You have to have fun with it and have a love for it. My art is a reflection of me - it's who I am. When I'm illustrating, these are my feelings and my thoughts that I'm willing to share with the public because it comes from the soul.

The best career advice I ever received was don't give up. Rejection hurts - it really does - but it's just one person's opinion. If you think highly of yourself, then you're going to keep going. I was told two times in my life that I was never gonna make it as an artist and to find another career. But I proved them wrong. I still remember those people's names - one was in high school and I still remember her name. But you have to persevere. It may take time, but you can do it. I like to tell my students too that anything is possible and dreams do come true, because mine did. And then you're back to the three P's - practice, patience, and passion.

My advice is don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it, because you can. And don't ever tell yourself that either. You have to prove yourself - you have to show what you can do through your website and your portfolio. That's what a publisher or somebody will see - here's my art, here's my style. You acquire your own style over time. It's not as equitable for women as it should be - it's more so now, but it was not in the beginning 40 years ago. I still don't think it's even, per se. But women - I mean, hey, you know, we're women, we can do it. We got this. In this day and age, women, we're equal. Let's go, ladies. I'm a woman, and I can multitask, and I can do anything that you can do. The most important thing is you have to give yourself credit and follow your passion. Keep doing it. Study your craft and remember the three P's: practice, patience, and passion. Learn from your mistakes, learn from your weaknesses. You have to work hard and continually hone your craft because you're not going to please everybody. Have fun with it and don't hold back your creativity.

One of the biggest challenges in my field is understanding that success takes time and requires the three P's: practice, patience, and passion. Patience is particularly difficult because sometimes it takes a long time. For example, I have a book now out on submission and it's been a couple months - it's just a wait and see situation. There's a lot of competition out there, so you have to continually study your craft and keep working at it. You can't just throw one piece out there. You have to keep honing your craft because you're not going to please everybody. Rejection is part of the process - rejection hurts, but it's just one person's opinion. If you think highly of yourself, you're going to keep going. The opportunity is that if you follow your passion and give yourself credit, if that's what you want to do, you can make it happen. Dreams do come true - mine did. You just have to persevere and not give up.

The values most important to me are honesty, transparency, and working hard. Those are core to everything I do. You have to continually hone your craft and keep working on it because you're not going to please everybody. You have to have fun with it too - that's really important. My art is a reflection of me. I hate to say it's who I am, but when I'm illustrating, these are my feelings and my thoughts that I'm willing to share with the public because it comes from the soul. Being true to myself is essential. Animal rescue is very near and dear to my heart - it's a passion of mine. I've always done animal welfare work whenever I can, providing illustrations for auctions and things like that. I've adopted two dogs that had cancer, knowing they were going to die, but you make the best of what time they have left for them. It's very fulfilling. When I lived in Connecticut, I created and taught a class on how to write and illustrate a children's book for 3rd through 5th graders. They created their own little picture books, and after the 6-week course we had a publisher's party where the kids would invite their parents and read their masterpieces. It was very touching. I've always believed in giving back and sharing what I know. I can't not share - I'm proud of what I've done and I want to share that information with kids.