Today we’d like to introduce you to Anjl Rodee.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve been an artist and graphic designer for most of my life, but BrushCapades started in 2014 almost by accident. I began hosting painting events and quickly discovered something that fascinated me: so many adults arrived absolutely convinced that they weren’t creative.
They’d tell me, “I can’t even draw a stick figure,” or that someone else in their family had gotten all the artistic talent. Then, a couple of hours later, those same people would be holding up something they had created themselves, usually looking pretty darn proud of it!
That became much more interesting to me than simply teaching people how to paint.
Over the years, BrushCapades evolved from painting events into creative experiences for corporate teams, colleges, community organizations, veterans groups, private events and people joining virtually from all over the country. I’ve added watercolor, mindful doodling, collaborative team murals and other creative experiences along the way. I’ve worked with groups as small as a handful of people and as large as several hundred, and every group continues to teach me something.
Somewhere along the way, I realized I wasn’t really trying to create more artists. I was trying to get people to art.
I use “art” as a verb a lot these days! Arting is making something without requiring yourself to be good at it first. It’s experimenting, playing, making mistakes, laughing at yourself and discovering what happens next. Adults are remarkably good at forgetting how to do that.
My philosophy has become: Do art because it’s good for you, not because you’re good at it.
That idea has really shaped where BrushCapades is today. Yes, people leave my events having made something, but what interests me most is what happens while they’re making it. They loosen up. They talk to each other. They take risks. They stop worrying quite so much about doing it “right.” And very often, the person who walked in announcing that they had absolutely no artistic ability is the person at the end saying, “Wait…I actually did this!”
That never gets old.
After more than a decade of BrushCapades, I’m still an artist myself, still learning, still experimenting and still finding new ways to get people creating. The business has grown and changed quite a bit since that first painting event, but the thing at the center of it has stayed surprisingly simple:
You don’t have to be good at art for art to be good for you.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Oh heavens, no! Haha!
The biggest turning point for BrushCapades came during the pandemic. Before 2020, much of my business was traditional in-person “paint parties.” Suddenly, putting a roomful of people together was no longer an option, and I had to figure out how to put art supplies into people’s hands from a distance.
My first brilliant solution was squeezing acrylic paint from big jugs into tiny ziplock bags.
It was exactly as elegant as it sounds. Haha!
Eventually I figured out how to create complete, mailable art kits and began teaching virtually. Then an online event planning company found me and asked if I could do corporate events.
Sure!
What I didn’t realize was how much that one question would change my business.
At a traditional paint party, people sign up because they WANT to paint. At a corporate event, your boss tells you where to be at 4:00 on Thursday…and sometimes you would rather be anywhere else!
Suddenly I was hearing things like, “My third-grade teacher told me I’d never be an artist,” “My sister got all the talent,” and even, “I voted for anything but this.”
And THAT changed the way I taught.
My message stopped being primarily, “We’re going to make something pretty today,” and became, “You ARE an artist, and here’s why doing art matters.”
I started talking about creativity differently. I began addressing the fear of being bad at something, the need adults have to get things “right,” and the value of creating simply for the experience of creating. Eventually that grew into one of the ideas at the heart of BrushCapades today: Do art because it’s good for you, not because you’re good at it.
There were plenty of practical challenges too. As we began teaching corporate teams around the country and eventually around the world, getting consistent art supplies into everyone’s hands became its own logistical puzzle. I eventually invested in having complete BrushCapades-branded acrylic and watercolor kits manufactured so we could provide the same experience regardless of where participants were located.
So, no, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road! But one of the biggest obstacles BrushCapades faced ended up changing not only how I delivered the experience, but why I was delivering it in the first place.
And I think we’re a much better company because of it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about BrushCapades?
BrushCapades creates interactive art experiences designed to get people creating, connecting and having fun…especially the people who are absolutely certain they aren’t artistic!
We work primarily with corporate teams, colleges, community organizations, veterans groups and private groups, both in person and virtually. Our experiences include acrylic painting, watercolor, mindful doodling, caricatures, collaborative team murals and other custom creative programs. Groups can be small and intimate or number in the hundreds, and for virtual events, we can provide individual art kits so everyone has what they need to participate from wherever they are.
What sets BrushCapades apart is that I’m much less interested in teaching people how to make a perfect painting than I am in changing the way they think about creativity.
Adults tend to approach art very differently than children do. Give a child some paint and they’ll usually start painting. Give an adult some paint and they may immediately begin explaining why they’re going to be terrible at it!
So we tackle that head-on.
There is instruction, of course, but there’s also a lot of laughter, encouragement and conversation about what creativity actually is. I want people to experiment. Make a weird color choice. Paint over something they don’t like. Make a mistake and discover that absolutely nothing terrible happened.
One of my favorite moments is when a room full of people stops asking, “Am I doing this right?” and starts asking, “What happens if I try this?”
That’s the sweet spot.
I’m also very proud that BrushCapades has grown beyond recreational painting events into work with organizations that recognize creativity as a way to bring people together. Collaborative murals are a great example. Instead of simply doing an activity alongside their coworkers, a team creates one piece of artwork together. Everyone contributes something, and the finished piece belongs to all of them.
Ultimately, I don’t measure a successful BrushCapades event by whether everyone leaves with a masterpiece. I measure it by whether they participated, connected, laughed, tried something they weren’t sure they could do, and maybe walked away thinking a little differently about themselves.
You don’t have to be good at art for art to be good for you.
Any big plans?
The future of BrushCapades is something I’m really excited about because I feel like, after more than a decade, I’m getting even clearer about WHY I do what I do.
I’m developing an idea I call “Arting.” I use art as a verb because I want to separate the act of creating from the expectation of being an “artist.” You don’t have to produce something worthy of hanging over the sofa. You just have to make something.
I’m interested in expanding BrushCapades beyond individual events and developing programs that explore the benefits of having a regular creative practice. I’m especially excited about opportunities to work with veterans and other organizations where creativity can provide connection, experimentation, accomplishment and simply some time spent doing something with your hands and your attention.
I’ve already had the opportunity to work with veterans organizations, and those experiences have made me want to explore what a multi-session creative program could look like rather than always meeting a group for a single event.
I’m also continuing to grow our corporate and college programs, collaborative murals and other experiences that use creativity to bring people together. I love walking into a room where people think they’re there to paint a picture and watching them discover that something else is happening too.
Longer term, I’d like to do more speaking and teaching around the idea of Arting itself, and I’m developing a book around the same philosophy. I think we’ve done adults a disservice by turning art into something you either have talent for or you don’t. We don’t tell people they shouldn’t sing unless they’re professional singers. We don’t tell them they shouldn’t dance unless they’re good enough to perform. Why should making art be any different?
The book, the speaking, and the programs I’m developing all come back to the same idea: creativity isn’t something reserved for people who are “good at art.” It’s something we can practice throughout our lives.
So I don’t see BrushCapades moving away from painting, watercolor, doodling, murals and all the things we already do. I see those things becoming part of a bigger conversation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brushcapades.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brushcapadesinc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Brushcapades/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anjlrodee/
