From Canvas to Cakes, Paige Welch loves PATTERN!
“I think life happens in patterns, and we learn to navigate them with time. Looking back, it has always been patterns that have brought me back to my center.”
It seems fitting that the first Creative Mornings VB summer gathering, held on June 21 in The Garage, would take place on the first Friday of the season – and even more so that it would be colored brightly by Paige Welch’s inspiring story of rebellion, reckoning and resilience.
For as long as she can remember, Paige’s life has been set to a PATTERN of high-lows and low-highs that have ushered her journey of creativity and self-discovery. Born and raised in Virginia Beach, the self-proclaimed rebel never quite felt she fit in. What first began as a way to focus in class, her doodles-filled sketchbook became a tool that would empower her to get through far more than school. In art, she found a trusted escape. At 16, a t-shirt she intricately hand-painted with some hastily purchased supplies from Michael’s became her first entrepreneurial pursuit, selling thousands of shirts to friends, family and beyond. Free-hand drawings would become her specialty and pen, ink and acrylic paint her go-to mediums.
Paige’s momentum, however, came to a startling halt during a series of low points over several years of struggle. “With alcohol and drugs, I was unraveling,” she vulnerably shared to an audience of more than 30 attendees. By the time she was 20, she had spent time in juvenile detention, been under house arrest and gone to rehab after a near-death overdose experience.
It was this experience that set her on a course to rediscover herself, becoming sober and weaning herself off of all antidepressants and other medication – but it would be another powerful experience altogether that would chart her most powerful chapter.
At 21, Paige welcomed her son, Wesley. Motherhood, she says, changed everything. “I had needed something bigger than myself, a greater purpose, and now I’d found it.” Immersing herself in all things health and wellness and taking care of her mind, body and spirit, Paige would find her next creative outlet in the culinary arts.
A no-bake cheesecake she baked for Wesley’s first birthday planted the seed for what would ultimately become Empowered Plant Cakes (and, coming soon, Empowered Desserts), a plant-based cake company that recently celebrated five successful years in business.
This entrepreneurial milestone has brought Paige a newfound perspective and the opportunity to continue to dig even deeper into herself. Taking a proactive pause to reflect on her business, her personal life (which now also includes her husband of two years, Gene, and the balance between the two, Paige is also reconnecting with art and with the joy of creating.
Paige’s tenacity and authenticity left us all feeling inspired and empowered and further reminded us that the only way to show up anywhere is as ourselves.
“Life is short, and I want to live mine in a way that feels good and true to me, so I’m pausing business operations momentarily to bring creativity back into my life and rediscover what makes me happiest.”
Needless to say, we are all wishing Paige well as she paints this new chapter, which will no doubt be colorful and bold and full of pattern.
Blog by CMVB volunteer blogger Val Palmertree
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Join us every third Friday in 2024 as we explore, along with 236 other cities in 69 countries around the world, 12 new themes in a face-to-face community format. Past themes have included Rhythm, Endurance, Simplicity, Pride and Treasure. July’s theme is TRUST, and our speaker will be local musician BJ Griffin.
CM also has virtual field trips and a database of previous talks to enjoy and explore at home.
