Amy Brown resides in the Pacific Northwest with her family. As a child, her interest in Faeries sprouted when she was introduced to the works of Arthur Rackham, Brian Froud and Alan Lee. Movies like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and Legend played large parts in developing Amys love of fantastical tales and mystical creatures. Over the years, various artists, books and films from the past and present added inspiration to her growing imagination and continue to do so.
Amy began her Faery art career in 1992 when she started work at a gallery called Festival of Art. There she learned about color, design, framing techniques, layout and various art techniques. She was surrounded by various types of art on a daily basis and read every art, printing, framing and business article available in the monthly magazines that came to the gallery. Festival of Art is where Amy displayed and sold her first Faery painting after her boss, Shawn, asked her to paint a picture for an empty frame she had lying around the gallery. As months progressed, Amy devoted more time to Faery paintings and began selling in the gallery, local shops, and street fairs.
For several years, Amy sold through various stores and venues. Then in 1997 her first website debuted. It was only for viewing her work, sort of an experiment at the time to see what would happen. Almost immediately, she began to get email requesting to purchase her work. The site was re-designed and began selling Amys work world wide soon thereafter. Word spread rapidly about the new site. There was an intense interest if Faery that seemed to be surfacing. Amy was happy that so many people enjoyed her work, but also frustrated she had to spend more and more time processing orders for the new site instead of painting, but it posed a challenge to learn to balance her career.
In early 2001 Hot Topic stores happened upon Amy’s site and contacted her about licensing various articles for their stores. After the first stickers and postcards hit the stores, Amy’s web traffic began to multiply at a ridiculous rate. A new group of people was now seeing her work for the first time; a younger generation. Hot Topic went all out and began expanding their line of Amy Brown Faery items. Many wonderful opportunities grew from the exposure at Hot Topic and Amy credits Hot Topic as being largely responsible for helping to bring Faeries into the mainstream.
In 2002, Chimera Publishing, a friend of Amy’s with connections to some well known publishers, offered to help her look for a publisher to do her first art book. Alas, they had no luck. Publishers felt they could not market her art. Amy knew she could make this work, because the number one request from her customers was for a book. Chimera offered to publish the book themselves and they embarked on the job immediately. Amy was so happy about the opportunity, she paid for part of the 1st printing. The long awaited book was released in January 2003. The success of the first book was so great; they came out with a second volume mid-2005. Amy is currently fiddling with ideas for future books, but has not settled on anything solid yet.
“I would like to thank everyone who has been so supportive over the years; fans, friends, family, fellow artists, and companies. I would also like to thank all of the artists (past and present) who have been so inspiring to me and all Faery artists around the world. It’s a wonderful time we live in when we can share our dreams and inspirations so freely with others and work to bring more beauty to the world. Keep believing and keep creating!”
