“The most dangerous thing is to let yourself fail,” says Emme Nelson Baxter, the Nashville artist who sold her first painting at age 17. “Every time I pick up a brush, I'm committed to adding, erasing, reworking -- or just putting the whole piece in the closet for a couple of months. Some paintings hang around for a couple of years, unfinished, because I haven't solved its challenge. Then the next move comes into vision. And it's back at it.

“I'm an artist and a writer/editor so my mindset is perpetually soaking up images and turns of phrases that I find captivating. They eventually build until I discern a distinct theme. Then, I'm compelled to carve out periods of maker time. There's a lot more ‘thinking about’ than actual painting. The paintings themselves are the result of many multiples of layers applied then removed, then laid on again. The real magic is hearing that ‘Click!’ -- like a puzzle piece snapping into place -- that signals a painting is finished.”