From passion to profession. Riley Sheehey ’07 has always loved art, expressing herself through painting. Now, she’s a professional artist, celebrating ten years since she started her art business.
This year, she partnered with Ralph Lauren for a baby and toddler collection.
“It’s still a little surreal because that’s a brand I knew of”
– Riley expressed.
She explained how she made patterns for a children’s brand years ago, but her name wasn’t connected to the collection. She added, “They released this as a collaboration with my name on the website and the clothing tags. I was happy to do it no matter what, even if they didn't want my name anywhere, but I thought it was so cool that they promoted it as a cobranded collection.”
It took a lot of hard work and dedication for Riley to get where she is today. In 2014, while she was a teacher at a small Catholic school in Bethesda, she created artwork for her friends and coworkers who were getting married. She made invitations and painted portraits of the venue or the couple. When she decided to lean in fully to art as a career after six years of teaching, she took on every project that came her way just to pay the bills.
“I'm feeling really grateful that I'm able to be more thoughtful when choosing which projects I do take on. It’s been nice to work on my own artwork, like painting a bunch of playing cards or painting books! That's something I'm still like 'pinch me' about."
Her advice to Maryvale students is to live in the moment. She said she will always love Maryvale and often thinks about the teachers who impacted her, like Ms. Malone, who always pushed her to be her best. Riley encourages you to work hard and be nice to people, and you’ll figure out the rest as you go.
"No matter the situation, I always try to approach it from a place of kindness and fairness. I think that gets people a lot farther in business, especially small business. There's a lot to be said for being nice."
