I kind of saw myself here in a vision.

I saw myself where I owned a business and my daughter was I was sitting at a desk and my daughter was standing up and I was kind of moving out of the way and she was taking my place.

So that was a vision that I that I actually had.

you don't have to be a scholar to do, you know, to do art.

You don't have to have a master's degree in art to do art.

You just do what you feel.

You do what you create.

And that also what I've seen has made people feel happy and also built self-esteem.

Hi.

My name is Betty Proctor.

And my daughter and I own a shop called Obsessions Gifts.

When I first started this business with my daughter, we were doing jewelry and so we had people say, Start where you are, where when you're with the business and we really want it to help teenagers.

But we started where we were, and then it evolved into, Oh, okay, well, we can do acrylic pours.

So when someone had told us about acrylic pours and so we were we started doing acrylic fours.

And then also my daughter, she is on the autism spectrum.

And so there were there was a group where this doctoral student, she was doing a dissertation and she was doing a dissertation on the effects of autism.

And art for females.

And so this was during a summer.

So we went to my daughter, went to the art class, and she loved it.

And her communication skills increased.

And so I was like, okay, we need to continue this because the dissertation, you know, she had completed her dissertation, she was about to graduate and then the class was no lo no more.

So I asked her, I said, Well, can I continue do this art thing?

And she said, Sure.

So we started doing art classes with persons on the spectrum and with everybody really a lot of the things that I do here is because of my daughter or either the experience that I had with my daughter and I saw the effects of it.

So I saw that it was really a good way of her being able to communicate.

My daughter, she doesn't, you know, when when you talk to her, she doesn't say very much.

And before she wasn't really looking at people and she wasn't.

And sometimes she doesn't communicate a lot, but when she's doing art, then even when she's sitting beside somebody, then there's still that that even if it's it's it's nonverbal communication or they may even look over and look at the other person's art and comment on that.

So she feels she felt comfortable doing that.

And then we just wanted to build a way of communicating.

And art really does help in that that that's what I found.

We have art classes and we have had people to build friendships in the art classes.

We've had people to say to us, This is our place.

This is, you know, where this is what we love.

They're their guardian or their parent may bring them in for the art class.

And they're like, okay, you need to leave to their parent or guardian, because it's like, This is my time, this is my space where I can freely be creative and be who I want to be without judgment.

And so that's what we that that's what we want to create in here.

We want to create a vibe where people can feel comfortable and also can express themselves without judgment.

we sell products from local businesses as well as we have events in our space.

We also have spin, art and splatter art and acrylic power workshops.

We share the building with impact, which is called motivating people through arts and Crafts.

It's a nonprofit, and with the nonprofit we help persons on the autism spectrum and also with disability.

We provide art workshops.

We also provide entrepreneurship opportunities as well as employment skills.

So with this spin art, then they take their record and they put it right on here on the table, and then they'll wipe off whichever side they're using, and then they dry it off.

And then that's when they start using the paints, whichever paints they want to put on it.

Some people just you just make designs like hearts or circles.

Some people make line, some people they just this one young lady, she did alternate colors like red and black and red and black and it turned out really, really nice.

Yeah.

So once you're finished, then you go take the record.

Whoops.

Once you get all of your your paint on, you're going to take your record.

And when you're ready, you will take it and you will spin spin as fast.

The more the more you spin or the faster you spin, the more paint will fly.

Yeah.

So that's what you do.

And yeah, So we had some FSU students, interns that they were doing art on records, vinyl records.

And so we would do like, uh, like, like painting and also just different things on there that, that people, you know, whatever they felt like doing.

And then this one little boy came up and he was a teenager.

He came up and he put some paint on there and then he threw it like a Frisbee.

And it was like, oh, And so what what I did was okay.

I was like, okay, let me come up with something where people can actually see instead of throwing it, they could spin it like spinning records.

They're actually spinning a record.

So that's how we pretty much came up with it.

And that little boy or that teenager, he threw the record and then it was like, Wait a minute, come back next week and then we can do you know, something else.

And so then I figured it out and he started and he, you know, spun the record and kids you not he made three records like that.

He went over to the restaurant that was there before, and he sold all three of his records.

So it's like, okay, now that you know that, you know, people like it.

So that's how we came up with that My favorite thing about spin art is watching the faces of people doing it because spin are is the messiest that we are that we have.

And so their reaction to it is like or either, oh my goodness or either wow or, you know, something like that.

And so it's really cool seeing the paint actually fly off of the record and some people, even with the paint flying off of the record, they even jump, you know, they jump back or whatever.

But is actually seeing the record being spun and seeing the reaction that people get and also being able for seeing people know that, you know, I could create a beautiful piece of artwork without, you know, going to school.

I am not knocking school.

I'm just saying that, you know, some people feel some people don't do art because they think that they have to have a certain technique.

But here we want it to be able to have art where everybody and anybody can do and still be able to create a beautiful piece of artwork that they could put either on their office, in their home or whatever.

I'm originally I'm really a social worker.

I went to school for social work, but my sister, she is an art major and so my family is very tight knit.

And so what she had, she's just a couple of years older than me.

And so we would go every almost everywhere together.

And when she would go to conferences, art conferences, I would follow her.

And she was always, of course, into art.

And so she really got me into art.

it is a huge transition because I went from a 9 to 5 job to here.

I never thought that I would be a single parent, but I am single parents, beautiful.

Most one of the most wonderful things I've ever encountered I would love to franchise this.

I really would like to see this throughout the state of Florida first and then throughout, um, then throughout the United States.

I would like to show people how to do it.

I mean, I'm not like an expert or anything, but I've been through some things with this business and I can tell them some of the things to do and some of the things not to do from experience.

But I would like to see this business grow, especially with the spin and splatter, and also incorporate it in the spin and splatter and the workshops and the venue.

I want to hire persons that are on the autism spectrum or either with disabilities so that they can grow and grow into the business and maybe even open up their own franchise this was a long way from where I, I, you know, I'm a social worker.

I always wanted to work with teens because teens have my heart of work with all age groups.

But teens are the ones that have my heart.

And I always wanted to have something where teens could come and they could just feel comfortable.

And just vibe.