Today we’d like to introduce you to Colene Milligan.
Hi Colene, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Artist Story
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember, but the moment I realized I could build a life around art came when I was 18, when my work was selected for the Salvador Dalí Museum’s annual Student Surrealist Art Exhibition in St. Petersburg, Florida. Sharing walls with the work of an artist who had so profoundly influenced me was a turning point. It made the idea of being a professional artist feel possible.
In 2003, I formally began building my independent practice as Sweet Colene Art, and for more than two decades I’ve treated art not simply as something I make, but as a business, a career, and a way to connect people. I’ve created more than 2,600 original paintings, built a photography portfolio, exhibited nationally, been collected internationally, and worked across painting, public art, murals, illustration, licensing, publishing, and creative collaborations. My work has found its way into private collections, museums, public spaces, music and media, and even onto transit buses and utility boxes.
A major chapter of my career unfolded in Florida, where I became deeply involved not only in exhibiting my own work, but in the infrastructure surrounding the arts. I worked with the IMAGINE Museum in St. Petersburg, contributing to its launch and operations, while also participating in public art projects—including a large-scale collaborative mural on the museum’s three-story exterior. That experience taught me something important: I didn’t just love making art. I loved building the environment that allows art and artists to thrive.
Eventually, that instinct brought me back to Southern Oregon. I became increasingly involved in arts advocacy, public art, curation, mentorship, and community development. I co-founded the Rogue Arts Collective, served as an artist liaison for the City of Grants Pass and its public art efforts, and became a founding leader of The Hivve Art Hubb, a nonprofit gallery and arts organization. There, I worked on everything from fundraising and grant writing to gallery curation, exhibitions, events, artist mentorship, and partnerships with the community.
That experience changed the direction of my career again. I realized that one of the things I’m most passionate about is helping other artists figure out how to turn their talent into a sustainable professional career. In 2025, I became an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Applegate Valley, working with creative individuals through a nine-week program, and I began developing Painted Pathways PNW as a larger platform for art education, consulting, curation, artist mentorship, collaboration, and representation.
Today, I see my career as having come full circle. I’m still the painter and storyteller behind Sweet Colene Art, but I’m also becoming the person I once needed when I was starting out: an advocate, business-minded mentor, curator, art representative, and connector.
Through Painted Pathways, my goal is bigger than simply selling my own paintings. I want to create pathways between artists, collectors, galleries, communities, and opportunities—locally and nationally. I’m building a career that allows me to keep making ambitious work while helping talented artists learn how to be visible, strategic, and successful in the professional art world.
In many ways, I started as a young artist who simply wanted to make something meaningful. Twenty-plus years later, I’m still making the art—but now I’m also building the road for where it can go.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not at all—and I think that’s actually an important part of my story. Building a professional art career from rural Southern Oregon has required me to be much more than an artist.
One of the biggest challenges has been access to opportunity. Living in a rural area means there simply aren’t the same number of galleries, museums, collectors, networking opportunities, or professional arts infrastructure that you find in larger art markets. I’ve often had to create the opportunities I wanted rather than wait for someone to offer them to me. That has meant organizing my own exhibitions, creating pop-up galleries, building relationships with businesses, participating in public art, and traveling to find markets for my work.
I’ve also had to learn the business side of being an artist through experience—how to market myself, price and sell artwork, write grants, build partnerships, approach galleries, manage events, and continually reinvent my business as opportunities and circumstances change. At various points, I’ve essentially had to be the artist, marketer, curator, salesperson, event coordinator, grant writer, and advocate all at once.
Ironically, some of my greatest growth came from those challenges. My lack of access to traditional opportunities pushed me to become an opportunity creator. Through The Hivve Art Hubb, I helped build a gallery and arts organization where artists could actually have more opportunities to exhibit. I curated dozens of exhibitions and community events, developed partnerships, and mentored other artists.
And I’ve learned that being rural doesn’t have to mean being isolated. My work has reached beyond Southern Oregon through national exhibitions, international collectors, public art, licensing, publications, and collaborations—including work in Florida and projects connected to the IMAGINE Museum in St. Petersburg.
So no, it hasn’t been a smooth road. It has been a resourceful one. Every obstacle has forced me to become more entrepreneurial, more resilient, and more willing to build the infrastructure I couldn’t find. That’s ultimately a big part of why I created Painted Pathways: I want to help other artists—especially those outside major art centers—understand that they don’t have to wait for someone to give them permission or an opportunity. They can learn how to create their own pathways into the professional art world.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is rooted in color, imagination, nature, and storytelling. I’m primarily a neo-surrealist painter and adventure photographer, and I’m known for vibrant, highly recognizable paintings that take something familiar—an animal, landscape, flower, or place—and give it an unexpected, dreamlike narrative. My work often sits somewhere between fine art and visual storytelling: beautiful enough to live with, but with enough mystery and personality to make you stop and look twice.
I’ve spent more than two decades building Sweet Colene Art, creating more than 2,600 original paintings and developing a body of work that has been nationally exhibited and internationally collected. My work has expanded well beyond traditional gallery walls into murals, public art, licensing, album artwork, publications, community projects, and interactive exhibitions. I’ve had the opportunity to see my imagery reproduced on everything from a three-story museum mural to transit buses and utility boxes, which is especially meaningful to me because I believe art should be experienced—not just stored behind gallery doors.
One of the projects I’m particularly proud of is my U.F.(uh)O. series, where I combine my love of animals, surrealism, humor, and storytelling by imagining earthly creatures encountering—or being abducted by—otherworldly visitors. What began as a series of paintings has evolved into an educational and children’s book concept, interactive community exhibitions, and a larger storytelling universe. I love that the work can appeal to serious art collectors while also giving a child a reason to become curious about art, animals, and the natural world.
But I think what sets me apart is that I don’t see myself as only a painter. I understand the art world from several sides of the table. I’ve been the artist submitting work, the person organizing the exhibition, the curator selecting the work, the grant writer securing the funding, the arts liaison building community partnerships, and the mentor helping another artist figure out how to move forward. At The Hivve Art Hubb, I curated more than 30 juried exhibitions and community art events and worked directly with emerging and established artists.
That experience ultimately led me to create Painted Pathways, where I combine my experience as an artist, gallerist, teacher, consultant, and creative catalyst to help connect artists with opportunities, collectors, galleries, and communities.
What I’m most proud of is not any single painting or award. It’s the fact that I’ve built a career from a rural community where opportunities aren’t always readily available—and instead of allowing that to limit me, I learned how to create opportunities for myself and for other artists. I want my work to be memorable, but I also want my career to leave something behind: more artists exhibiting, more people collecting, more communities investing in creativity, and more people realizing that a professional life in the arts is actually possible.
What was your favorite childhood memory?
Just being with my family, the pets, and places I have seen. It has been a wonderful ride up to this point, and I suppose especially those summer nights at the beach when my Mother was still alive and we were all together. Who knew you could spend a lifetime missing someone… and living each day to the fullest just in case they are watching.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.SweetColeneArt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SweetColeneArt
