HOULTON, Maine — From her humble beginnings as a younger woman drawing caricatures on an iPad, Dawn MacDonald of Houlton dreamed of just one day creating a additional lasting impression with her artwork.
MacDonald, who skillfully uses the identify Dawn Crowe, has put in the past few a long time striving to determine out how she could ideal use her inventive qualities to present a constant cash flow.
Now her dream is a actuality.
Crowe’s Tattoos celebrated its grand opening on Tuesday with a ribbon-chopping ceremony that bundled quite a few members of the Increased Houlton Chamber of Commerce.
For Crowe, that second capped a just about 15-yr journey to locating her location in the small business world. Buyers have arrive from during Aroostook and Washington counties, and MacDonald has even had a few individuals from the larger Bangor region appear to Houlton for her get the job done.
“I definitely think that she is heading to be a single of individuals artists who goes on to do definitely incredible matters,” reported Greg Koester, who serves as the place of work manager for Crowe’s Tattoos. “She has amazing prospective. I simply cannot wait around to see what she is going to do subsequent.”
Though living in East Providence, Rhode Island, MacDonald commenced a digital art web-site — dragoart.com — to both equally market digital prints and also teach individuals how to attract electronically on devices like iPads by on-line tutorials.
“It has usually been a desire of mine to have and operate my personal company,” she claimed. “I began off carrying out digital art, which was intended to be tutorials on how to attract dragons and other fantasy creatures. My whole lifestyle, art has often been a large thing for me.”
In 2009, her mother and father decided to relocate from Rhode Island to northern Maine when she was 18 many years previous to escape “the rambunctious metropolis life” for her young siblings. Houlton was the farthest level north they experienced ever been, but the changeover was not instant.
“My mother and father did not truly feel that [Rhode Island] was a excellent place to increase little ones,” she mentioned. “For me, though, it was rough. I did not truly mingle with everyone. I just focused on my drawing.”
In Houlton, she became identified domestically as an artist who did electronic caricatures for folks, comparable to canvas drawings a person may well uncover at a carnival, only with extra reasonable aspects and also with a modern day spin.
Her creations were quickly popping up on people’s timelines on social media, showcasing a solid reward for capturing a person’s likeness, although also putting a creative spin on the graphic.
And while that operate was enjoyable, she realized she essential to uncover something else to spend the costs. Consequently commenced her pursuit of tattoos.
Starting to be a tattoo artist in The County was no simple task. But she expended time as an apprentice with tattoo artist Gabriel Grimm of Houlton studying the finer specifics and honing her have one of a kind fashion with the goal of just one working day opening her have business.
Her desires arrived genuine in September 2021 when she rented a house in downtown Houlton, at 13 Courtroom St., and made the decision to open up Crowe’s Tattoos.
MacDonald mentioned she is at a stage where by she is assured in her skills as a tattoo artist, mainly because contrary to the electronic medium, there is no erase button.
For some people today, obtaining a tattoo is an particularly psychological occasion. The image could be a little something in memory of a human being who has died or it could be to deal with up scars from an accident or surgical procedures.
“Doing tattoos can be quite therapeutic for both of those the buyer and myself,” she claimed. “You basically have to exhibit people you treatment about how the picture will come out.”
A self-taught artist, MacDonald explained she is continuously pushing herself to try out new things when it will come to her art. Accomplishing tattoos makes it possible for her to generate illustrations or photos in a wide range of diverse mediums, from realistic to gothic to fantasy to character.
Her favourite styles of tattoos are realism drawings, but she is also equally adept at legendary creatures, cartoon characters, animals and goth images.
“My objective is to transfer the image we produce together digitally into a representation on the person’s skin that will past a lifetime,” she explained. “Drawing is pretty therapeutic for me. It can help me get missing in my possess environment and I like producing persons happy when they see the final merchandise. I appreciate my position.”
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