About Me

Hello friends. My name is Izzy Richey and I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. I am 25 years old and the second oldest of six siblings; one older sister, three younger brothers and a younger sister. I first started doing art freshman year of highschool and realized that I had a knack for it. I stuck with it until Junior year when my father passed away and opted not to take it senior year. I later got recruited to play softball at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Tx and when looking through their different scholarships, saw that they had one available for art. I decided to apply for it and low and behold, I was one of only 5 students accepted, but that meant I would need to be an art major. All throughout college, I had it in my mind that I was pursuing this major as a passion and to learn more about it for me rather than in steps towards building a career. I truly thought it wasn't in the cards for me to make it full time. I got to try so many different mediums in painting, sculpture and ceramics (wood, wax, bronze, metal, clay, oil, charcoal, cardboard, acrylic). It was sophomore year that I took my first painting class and was introduced to oil paint. I always said before that I can do any medium except paint, but there I was, falling in love. I went on to focus my major in oil paint and for my senior project, I did the cup series that's pictured up top. I got to display it in my first gallery on campus and it was purchased by the president of the university where it is now displayed in the admissions office for all new students to see :) After college, I decided to finally try my hand at serving tables and eventually bartending. It was something that I always wanted to do and I definitely learned a lot along the way. The first year after graduation, I didn't realize it but I completely stopped making art at together. I used the excuse of not having proper ventilation for oil paint to not make anything but I really felt like I was existing with a piece of myself missing. I eventually searched for another medium that I could use in a small space and that's when I found paint markers! I started off with the generic craftsmart set and quickly found myself getting better. About 3 months in, I leveled up and bought my first posca markers. The progress only accelerated from there. I eventually got some commissions here and there for pet portraits but never thought anything more of it. It was then two years into serving tables that I got my first oil paint commission in October of 2024! It was a massive project and with the pay I received for it, I was able to take off work for two weeks to fully focus on it. I somehow kept getting another commission then another and was able to quit my job entirely and fully focus on pursuing this new career. After January of 2025, everything started to slow down and I was only getting one to two small commissions every other week. I had started posting on social media in November, but was finding very little audience so I took the next few months to explore different forms of content and tried to establish myself online and figure out how I wanted to share my art. It was May of 2025 that I ordered my first set of brush tip markers (game changer) and did my very first painted rock. I wasn't sure how to go about pricing it so I decided to put it up of auction on my website. My first six rocks were of these gnomes designs that I made but even though I found a bit of success, I still wasn't profiting enough to continue doing this full time and was going to have to start looking for part time jobs that next Monday. On that Sunday before, I did my first pokemon rock of who will now forever be my starter, good ole Squirtle. From that video I posted, I received 30 commissions in a single day and 80 total by the end of the week. EVERYTHING changed from then. That first month I gained 10k followers on tiktok and over 120 commissions. I got a partnership deal with Lumaprints, the company I had been using to do my prints for months, and had 8 different brands send me free marker to try (my favorites are JusArt and Let's Resin). My dreams were coming true. I finally had the audience to share my art with and really got to navigate how I wanted to form my content. My confidence skyrocketed, not only with my art, but also as a person. In August I decided to start posting more on Instagram as well. I went from 600 to 15k followers in 6 weeks. It's not so much about the numbers to me as it is proof that I have started to really figure out how to properly market my work and genuinely share my heart online. The amount of support and love that I have received in these first months has absolutely set the foundation for everything I do moving forward. It is currently October 6th, 2025, and I'm still in awe of how much y'all have done to help make my dreams come true. I know that this is only the beginning. I was thinking about typing this as a generic message that could be read at any point in the future, but I love that the very moment that I am typing this, as I reflect back on how far I've come, is now forever stamped. I just know that sometime way in the future, I'm going to come back and read this and think "oh she has no idea what's waiting ahead for her". I honor my past, am grateful for my present and welcome my future. Thank you for being here with me on this journey.