Elva Alcala of Celina, Texas, worked in social services for some 20 years. She enjoyed her career but longed for a business of her own. As a young person, she loved to paint and draw but put aside her art as an adult. When her employer restructured in 2021, Alcala was let go. “I thought it was time for me to do something different and that I really loved,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in the arts.” By Patty Horansky
Franchisee Of The Month – Elva Alcala
Elva Alcala of Celina, Texas, worked in social services for some 20 years. She enjoyed her career but longed for a business of her own. As a young person, she loved to paint and draw but put aside her art as an adult. When her employer restructured in 2021, Alcala was let go. “I thought it was time for me to do something different and that I really loved,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in the arts.”
Alcala met with a franchise consultant to help her find a good business fit. In March 2022, she attended The Great American Franchise Expo in Irving, Texas, where she met Maya Ratcliff, CEO and founder of Hawaii Fluid Art. Ratcliff launched her business in Hawaii in 2020 and franchised in 2021, with a desire to nurture others through painting.
Alcala recalled her meeting with Ratcliff. “I was so very impressed by the way she explained it. Everything was very clear,” she said. With the guidance and support of her son, Eddie, and son-in-law, Luke, a financial adviser, Alcala knew Hawaii Fluid Art was perfect for her. “I decided that this was something I wanted to do,’’ she said.
Soon, Alcala was working and training at Hawaii Fluid Art’s corporate studio in Dallas, where Ratcliff taught her the techniques of fluid art. Acrylic paint colors are layered into cups, which are then poured onto canvases that are tilted and moved about to form one-of-a-kind pieces. “I loved it,” Alcala said. “It was what I was looking for, and even more.”
She secured funding, a site location and inventory and opened a studio in nearby Frisco in November. The studio’s plentiful windows let passersby see a gallery of local artists’
work in the front and budding fluid artists creating their own masterpieces in the back. “A lot of people come in and say, ‘We’ve never seen something like this’,” Alcala said.
Her studio is open daily for classes, walk-ins and bookings for birthdays, ladies’ nights out, corporate events, families with children and more. Since opening her studio, Alcala has hired a part-time employee and plans to open two more studios this year.
“I get to paint. I get to enjoy other people’s paintings every day,” she said. “There’s something really beautiful about doing that.”
Patty Horansky