For Centerville native Alyssa Ruggieri, her journey to becoming ALR Designs started back in 2018 when she went to pull out her acrylic set, only to find her paints had all dried out. Instead of buying more, Ruggieri reached for her watercolors–a medium she had seldom taken use of until that point. “I immediately fell in love with it,” she explains, “so I started to take some online classes and it sort of blossomed from there.”

Fast-forward to today, Ruggieri works exclusively with watercolor. If you take a look at her Instagram profile, @alr.designs, you’ll find vast variety when it comes to her subject matter. “I decided a while ago that I would paint anything that made me happy or inspired me,” she shares. “For some reason, that is just everything.” From landscapes to sharks, if it sparks creativity, she’s in. “I usually draw inspiration from my friends’ photographs,” says Ruggieri. “That really started after a friend had allowed me to use their photo to paint. I tend to work from reference photos to get an idea of what I want, and then remix it in my head.”